General Telephone Company of the Southwest v. Falcon (457 U.S. 147)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 14, 1982 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 457 U.S. 147 · 102 S. Ct. 2364
- Decided
- June 14, 1982
- Term
- October Term 1981
- Vote
- 8–1
- Majority author
- Justice Stevens
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court. The question presented is whether respondent Falcon, who complained that petitioner did not promote him because he is a Mexican-American, was properly permitted to maintain a class action on behalf of Mexican-American applicants for employment whom petitioner did not hire. t — < In 1969 petitioner initiated a special recruitment and training program for minorities. Through that program, respondent Falcon was hired in July 1969 as a groundman, and within a year he was twice promoted, first to lineman and then to lineman-in-charge. He subsequently refused a promotion to installer-repairman. In October 1972 he applied for the job of field inspector; his application was denied even though the promotion was granted several white employees with less seniority. Falcon thereupon filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission stating his belief that he had been passed over for promotion because of his national origin and that petitioner’s promotion policy operated against Mexican-Americans as a class. Falcon v. General Telephone Co. of Southwest, 626 F. 2d 369, 372, n. 2 (CA5 1980). In due course he received a right-to-sue letter from the Commission and, in April 1975, he commenced this action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 253, as amended, 42 U. S. C. §2000e et seq. (1976 ed. and Supp.…
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