Firefighters Local Union No. 1784 v. Stotts et al. (467 U.S. 561)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 12, 1984 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 467 U.S. 561 · 104 S. Ct. 2576
- Decided
- June 12, 1984
- Term
- October Term 1983
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice White
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice White delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioners challenge the Court of Appeals’ approval of an order enjoining the City of Memphis from following its seniority system in determining who must be laid off as a result of a budgetary shortfall. Respondents contend that the injunction was necessary to effectuate the terms of a Title VII consent decree in which the City agreed to undertake certain obligations in order to remedy past hiring and promotional practices. Because we conclude that the order cannot be justified, either as an effort to enforce the consent decree or as a valid modification, we reverse. h-H In 1977 respondent Carl Stotts, a black holding the position of firefighting captain in the Memphis, Tenn., Fire Department, filed a class-action complaint in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. The complaint charged that the Memphis Fire Department and certain city officials were engaged in a pattern or practice of making hiring and promotion decisions on the basis of race in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U. S. C. §2000e et seq., as well as 42 U. S. C. §§1981 and 1983. The District Court certified the case as a class action and consolidated it with an individual action subsequently filed by respondent Fred Jones, a black firefighting private in the Department, who claimed that he had been…
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