Hemphill v. Melton, 76-2033
| Decision Date | 14 March 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 76-2033,76-2033 |
| Citation | 551 F.2d 589 |
| Parties | 20 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1160, 13 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 11,555 Robert C. HEMPHILL, Jr., Appellant, v. G. Kemp MELTON, Sheriff of Kanawha County, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Joyce R. Branda The Legal Services Clinic and Steven D. Frenkil, Third Year Law Student (Michael S. Elder and Michael A. Millemann, Baltimore, Md., The Legal Services Clinic, on brief), for appellant.
Frederic J. George, Asst. Atty. Gen., Charleston, W.Va. (Chauncey H. Browning, Jr., Atty. Gen., Charleston W.Va., on brief), for appellee.
Before WINTER and BUTZNER, Circuit Judges, and GLEN M. WILLIAMS, District Judge for the Western District of Virginia, sitting by designation.
Robert C. Hemphill, Jr., initiated this civil action in the federal district court by requesting a temporary restraining order to prevent the sheriff of Kanawha County, West Virginia, from hiring any more deputies until the percentage of nonminority-race deputies on his staff was proportionate to the racial mixture of the general population. The district court did not require a response from the defendant sheriff, but referred Hemphill's petition to a magistrate to recommend whether Hemphill's request to proceed in forma pauperis should be granted. Upon the receipt of an unfavorable recommendation from the magistrate, the court dismissed the case for failure to state a claim for which relief could be granted and refused Hemphill permission to appeal in forma pauperis.
Liberal interpretation of Hemphill's very sketchy pro se complaint suggests that he is alleging that he has been denied employment as a deputy because the county's testing-certification procedure for deputy position applicants discriminates against minority-race applicants. * His only allegation in support of this claim of discrimination is that the racial make-up of the present staff of deputies does not reflect that of the general population. Although racially disproportionate impact may not alone be sufficient to invalidate testing procedures on equal protection and due process grounds, allegation of such impact may well state a cause of action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. See Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229, 238-48, 96 S.Ct. 2040, 48 L.Ed.2d 597 (1976). Thus, it cannot be said that Hemphill's petition indicated that he could prove no circumstances which would entitle him to relief on his claim. See Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 92 S.Ct. 594, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972). On remand, the district court should...
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...the plaintiff, but what the words in the complaint mean. And while we must construe pro se complaints liberally, see Hemphill v. Melton, 551 F.2d 589, 590-91 (4th Cir. 1977), to hold that Laber's complaint seeks a judicial determination of the Army's alleged religious discrimination, would ......
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...439 U.S. 986, 99 S.Ct. 579, 58 L.Ed.2d 658, holds that discriminatory intent is required to establish a § 1981 violation. Hemphill v. Melton, 4 Cir., 551 F.2d 589, holds that an allegation of racially disproportionate impact states a cause of action under Title VII. The question is whether ......
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