Hayden v. County of Nassau

• Decision Date: 09 June 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-6113,98-6113
• Citation: 180 F.3d 42
• Parties: , William HAYDEN, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. COUNTY OF NASSAU, et al., Defendants-Appellees, United States of America and Nassau County Guardians Association, Defendants-Intervenors-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 42

180 F.3d 42, William HAYDEN, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. COUNTY OF NASSAU, et al., Defendants-Appellees United States of America and Nassau County Guardians Association, Defendants-Intervenors-Appellees.

No. 98-6113.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued March 12, 1999.

Decided June 9, 1999.

Appeal from a district court decision which dismissed a class action suit brought by 68 applicants to the Nassau County Police Department after concluding that appellants failed to state a claim entitling them to relief by asserting that a police officers' entrance exam designed to minimize the discriminatory impact on minority candidates necessarily discriminated against them. We hold that designing and administering a race-neutral entrance examination with the purpose of eliminating or reducing the differential effects suffered by minority candidates does not violate equal protection, § 703 of Title VII, or §§ 106 and 107 of the Civil Rights Act of 1991. Affirmed.

Martin S. Kaufman, Atlantic Legal Foundation, Inc., New York, N.Y., for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Charles D. Cunningham, Snitow & Cunningham, LLP, New York, N.Y. (William H. Pauley, III, on the brief), for Defendants-Appellees.

Linda F. Thome, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. (Dennis J. Dimsey, on the brief), for Intervenor-Defendant-Appellee United States of America.

Robin L. Alperstein, Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York, N.Y. (Richard T. Seymour, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Washington, D.C., Paul C. Saunders, Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York, N.Y., on the brief), for Intervenor-Defendant-Appellee Nassau County Guardians Association.

Before: OAKES, WALKER and KEITH ^*, Circuit Judges.

KEITH, Circuit Judge:

William Hayden and 67 other white, Latino and female applicants to the Nassau County Police Department challenge a district court order which dismissed their class action suit pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) and 12(c). The district court found that the police department's entrance examination, although designed with race in mind (i.e., to minimize the discriminatory impact on minority candidates), was administered and scored in a race-neutral fashion. As such, the court concluded that appellants failed to state a claim entitling them to relief under the Equal Protection Clause and various sections of Title VII and the Civil Rights Act of 1991. Appellants dispute this ruling, and urge that the entrance examination necessarily discriminates against them. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the district court's dismissal of the class action suit.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

In 1977, the U.S. Department of Justice ("DoJ") sued the County of Nassau, the Nassau County Civil Service Commission, and the Nassau County Police Department (collectively referred to as "Nassau County" or the "County") for discriminating against black, Latino and female applicants in the hiring of its police department. The case was settled in 1982 by entry of a consent decree, in which Nassau County expressly denied that it discriminated against blacks, Latinos or females. The County did, however, acknowledge that certain of its selection criteria and personnel practices, and the substantial underrepresentation of these groups in the Nassau County Police Department might support an inference that discrimination had occurred.

To that end, the 1982 consent decree prohibited the County from engaging in any further discrimination. Nassau County was also ordered to utilize entrance exams which either had no discriminatory impact on minority applicants or had been "validated" ¹ in accordance with Title VII and the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (the "Uniform Guidelines"). ²

In 1983 and again in 1987, Nassau County administered entrance exams which had severe adverse impacts on black, Latino and female applicants. The DoJ challenged the results of both tests. Those challenges culminated in two additional consent decrees (collectively referred to as the "1990 consent orders"). In the 1990 consent orders, the DoJ and Nassau County agreed to work together to develop an examination which would eliminate, or at least significantly reduce, the discriminatory impact on minority and female candidates. As a result, the "Technical Design and Advisory Committee" ("TDAC") was formed, with experts appointed by both the DoJ and Nassau County.

After years of work, the TDAC developed the 1994 Nassau County police officers' examination, which was administered to over 25,000 applicants in July and October of 1994. Appellants are 68 white and Latino applicants, male and female, who sat for the 1994 exam.

After the exam was given to the applicants, the TDAC conducted an analysis of whether the exam was "valid" ³ and whether the exam had any adverse impact on minority applicants. ⁴ As part of its validity analysis, the TDAC considered several different configurations, or test batteries, of the twenty-five sections which had been administered to the applicants. TDAC's goal was to find a test battery which was sufficiently valid, yet minimized the adverse impact on minority applicants. Of the twenty-five sections administered to the applicants, the TDAC Report recommended that Nassau County use nine sections as the 1994 test. Notably, there was another configuration of the exam which best minimized the adverse impact on minority applicants. That battery, however, was not endorsed because it had a lower validity (i.e., job relatedness) than all of the other configurations.

The DoJ and Nassau County independently reviewed the TDAC Report, and jointly requested that the district court approve Nassau County's use of the TDAC-recommended configuration. The district court granted their request, authorizing the use of the 1994 exam.

B. Procedural Background

Appellants initiated a class action suit against Nassau County in April 1997, challenging the use of the 1994 exam. Appellants brought their action pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Title VII of the Civil Rights Law of 1964, the New York State Constitution, and several New York state statutes.

The United States and the Nassau County Guardians Association (the "Guardians"), an association of black police officers, were permitted to intervene in the suit as defendants. In December of 1997, the Nassau County defendants and the United States filed a joint motion for dismissal pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. In that same month, the Guardians moved for a judgment on the pleadings pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c).

On March 20, 1998, the district court entered a Memorandum of Decision and Order dismissing all of appellants' claims for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.

Appellants filed a timely notice of appeal on April 24, 1998.

II. ANALYSIS

An appellate court reviews de novo a district court's dismissal of a complaint for failure to state a claim pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). See Still v. DeBuono, 101 F.3d 888, 891 (2d Cir.1996). In reviewing the district court's dismissal, the appellate court must accept as true all allegations contained in the complaint and must resolve all inferences in favor of the non-moving party. See id. The complaint should be dismissed only if there is no doubt that the plaintiff is unable to prove a set of facts which would entitle him to relief. See Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 102, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957); Still, 101 F.3d at 891.

Appellants contend that by deliberately designing an entrance exam which would minimize the adverse impact on black candidates, Nassau County necessarily discriminated against appellants. On that basis, appellants argue that they have sufficiently stated claims for relief under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Title VII, and §§ 106 and 107 of the Civil Rights Act of 1991. We, however, conclude that there is no doubt that appellants have failed to allege facts which, if proven true, would entitle them to relief. We discuss each claim in turn.

A. Equal Protection

To state a claim for an equal protection violation, appellants must allege that a government actor intentionally discriminated against them on the basis of race, national origin or gender. Such intentional discrimination can be demonstrated in several ways. First, a law or policy is discriminatory on its face if it expressly classifies persons on the basis of race or gender. See Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, 515 U.S. 200, 213, 227-29, 115 S.Ct. 2097, 2105, 2112-14, 132 L.Ed.2d 158 (1995). In addition, a law which is facially neutral violates equal protection if it is applied in a discriminatory fashion. See Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 373-74, 6 S.Ct. 1064, 1072-73, 30 L.Ed.2d 220 (1886). Lastly, a facially neutral statute violates equal protection if it was motivated by discriminatory animus and its application results in a discriminatory effect. See Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Dev. Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 264-65, 97 S.Ct. 555, 563, 50 L.Ed.2d 450 (1977).

1. Absence of Facial Classification

The sole allegation set forth in appellants' complaint as to their Equal Protection claim is that "[b]y designing, administering and scoring the Exam in a race-conscious way, with the intent of solely or primarily benefitting one racial group to the detriment of other racial or ethnic groups, Defendants have violated ... the equal protection of the law guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment...." In the briefs submitted to this Court, appellants further argue that this allegation should be construed as a facial classification which expressly distinguishes between applicants on the basis of race. Appellants reason that since Nassau County designed the 1994 exam with racial factors in mind (i.e., with the intent to diminish the adverse effects suffered by minority applicants), Nassau...