Local 28 of the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (1985)
- Docket
- 84-1656
- Decided
- 1985-01-01
Summary
Question: Did provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 empower courts to order race-conscious membership quotas? Conclusion: The Court held that Title VII did not prohibit courts from ordering, in appropriate circumstances, affirmative race-conscious relief as a remedy for past discrimination. Specifically, the Court held that such relief was appropriate where employers or labor unions had engaged in "persistent or egregious discrimination, or where necessary to dissipate the lingering effects of pervasive discrimination." The Court noted that injunctions simply reiterating Title VII's prohibition against discrimination were useless in cases of chronically discriminatory employers or unions.