The Michigan Daily - Thursday, November 7, 1985- Page 5
Supreme Court case could alter
future affirmative action in U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) - In a case
that could affect the future of affir-
mative action in the American work-
place, the Supreme Court was urged
yesterday to wipe out a plan that
preserved jobs for black teachers by
laying off whites with more seniority.
At issue is the validity of a union
contract provision challenged by
eight white teachers from Jackson,
Mich., who say they are victims of
unlawful reverse discrimination.
T HE COLLECTIVE bargaining
process is not competent to determine
someone's constitutional rights,"
lawyer K. Preston Dade Jr. of Golden,
Colo., argued for the white teachers.
But school board lawyer Jerome
Susskind said the contract provision
was part of a comprehensive effort to
racially integrate Jackson's school
system.
"This is not a time to move back 20
years," he said. "It's a time to move
forward."
THE JACKSON case, expected to
be decided by July, is one of three un-
der high court study in which the
Reagan administration, in the role of
a sidelines cheerleader, is seeking to
end preferential treatment in em-
ployment for minorities and women
unless they can prove they personally
were victimized by past
discrimination.
Dade contended that the Jackson
lay-off provision was not created to
remedy any identifiable
discrimination in the Jackson schools.
"The use of race in this case has no
remedial character," he said, adding:
"there has to be some remedial
character" for race-based decisions
by public employers to comply with
the Constitution's equal-protection
guarantees.
SUSSKIND, HOWEVER, noted that
before 1954, when the Supreme Court
ordered an end to racial segregation
in the nation's schools, a black had
never, taught in Jackson's public
schools.
One black was among the 250
teachers hired by the school district
through the 1950s, he said.
Justice Lewis Powell aggressively
challenged Susskind over the lack of
any court decision finding that
Jackson school officials were guilty of
past discrimination against blacks.
"The school district didn't wait to
be sued" before agreeing to the lay-off
provision in its 1972 contract with the
local teachers union, Susskind said.
Since 1972, the Jackson school boar-
d's contract with the teachers union
has included an exception to the usual
last-hired, first-fired seniority policy.
The exception says that at no time
will the percentage of minority
teachers laid off be greater than the
percentage of minority teachers em-
ployed at the time. The affirmative
action plan was upheld by a federal
trial judge and the 6th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals.
Associated Press
Is this Venice?
National Park Service buildings in the historic district of Harper's Ferry, West Virginia were flooded to the
first floors by the raging Shenandoah River early yesterday morning.
Budget amendment
. concerns educators
(Continued from Page 1)
might have to meet in an attempt to
bring the two sides together.
HIGHER education funds would be
affected because they are one of the
few items in the federal budget which
is not exempt from mandatory budget
cuts.
"Roughly half of the federal budget
has been exempted from coverage
under this amendment," Zaglaniczy
charged.
,n Butts said he is upset that the
amendment was passed in the Senate
last month without going through the
long process of investigation by com-
mittee.
"THEY didn't know what they were
,passing, but they passed it anyway,"
said Butts. "It's a very scary when
our leadership passes something they
don't know much about."
"The idea was added on as an
amendment and it caught fire," said
Butts. "It's a very attractive notion,
the deficit is a big concern right now."
Butts added that with the automatic
budget cuts written into the amen-
dment, legislators have denied
responsibility and deflected blame for
the resulting cuts.
This lack of accountability angers
Butts.
"I think this amendment has very
serious implications if legislators
aren't going to do what we elect them
to do. It seems to me they should do
their job and do it right."
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Which is a simple one-step test?
Which has a dramatic color change
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Which is 98% accurate, as accurate
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Which is portable for convenience
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R17 E U 1iuareitu chue o..
Supporters of pet ban bill.
testify before legislators
(Continued from Page 1)
have learned from a video-tape."
McCardle said videotapes would be as
'effective as watching demonstrations
in class.
WITH MORE expensive lab
'a animals, researchers would be less
likely to waste animals in experimen-
:ts, McCardle said. He noted that at
Harvard, which is subject to a similar
state law, researchers are using half
the animals they used before the law,
without great harm to their research.
But Christine Williams, director of
laboratory animal care at Michigan
State University, said universities
must adhere to federal laws gover-
ning care for the animals, and use of
an animal must be approved by a
university committee. She added that
universities and animal dealers are
inspected regularly without previous
notice.
McCardle had charged earlier that
it surveys conducted by the Humane
Society, some dealers had not been in-
spected in four to five years.
He said most inspectors are also part-
time with little training in animal
welfare.
Sandy Roland, representing the
Great Lakes regional office of the U.S.
Humane Society, showed photos of
animal dealers dragging dogs off the
ground by the nape of their necks.
DeMasco, however, defended
MSU's labs, saying he visited one this
week and found the animal stalls
"cleaner than some restaurants I've
eaten in."
Supporters of the bill held a brief
rally on the steps of the State Capitol
before the hearing.
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