Key Discrimination Cases

Regents of the University of California vs. Bakke (June 28, 1978): The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the UC Davis Medical School discriminated against Allan Bakke, a white, when it denied him admission to the school, and orders that he be admitted. The medical school's admissions policy, designed to increase the number of minorities in the white-dominated medical profession, set aside 16 of the 100 openings for racial minorities. Bakke argued that he was better qualified than some of the students admitted under the special program. While the decision abolishes rigid minority quotas, it also approves the use of race among other factors in determining college admissions.

United Steelworkers of America, Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. and the U.S. vs. Weber (June 27, 1979): The court rules that Brian F. Weber, who sued Kaiser in 1974 after he was refused participation in a craft training program, was not the victim of reverse discrimination. Patterned after the Bakke case, Weber's lawsuit challenged the program's policy of accepting minority and white employees on an equal, one-for-one basis, charging that the selection of black workers with less seniority made him a victim of discrimination.

Sheet Metal Workers Local 28 vs. EEOC; Firefighters Local 93 vs. City of Cleveland (July 2, 1986): The court finds a union representing sheet metal workers in New York and New Jersey guilty of racial discrimination and orders it to increase its nonwhite membership. In the case involving the firefighters union, the justices approve a plan that reserves about half the promotions in Cleveland's fire department for qualified minority candidates. The union had challenged the plan, saying that the preferences unlawfully discriminate against whites.

Wygant vs. Jackson (Mich.) Board of Education (May 20, 1986): The Supreme Court decision finds a local school district plan providing special job protections for minority teachers unconstitutional. The court upholds the reverse-discrimination claims of a group of white teachers who were laid off under an agreement between the district and the teachers union that protected blacks from layoffs even if they had less seniority than whites. In the court's majority opinion, the justices agree that the layoff plan violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution, saying that affirmative action programs must be carefully drawn and may not be justified merely by a general "societal discrimination" against minorities.