{"ID":52507,"name":"American Tobacco Company v. Patterson","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/cases\/1981\/80-1199","view_count":0,"docket_number":"80-1199","additional_docket_numbers":null,"manner_of_jurisdiction":"Writ of \u003Ci\u003Ecertiorari\u003C\/i\u003E","first_party":"American Tobacco Company, et al.","second_party":"John Patterson, et al.","timeline":[{"event":"Argued","dates":[380268000],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/34035"},{"event":"Decided","dates":[386834400],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/34036"},{"event":"Granted","dates":[361429200],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/53621"}],"lower_court":{"ID":9,"name":"United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/taxonomy\/term\/9"},"facts_of_the_case":"\u003Cp\u003EAmerican Tobacco Company operated two plants in Richmond, VA. Until 1963, both plants were segregated, and the better job opportunities were reserved for white employees. Between 1963 and 1968, the plants were officially desegregated, but the promotion policies were left mostly to the discretion of the supervisors. The best jobs continued to go to the white employees. In November 1968, the company proposed nine new lines of employment progression that linked bottom jobs with the top job a worker could eventually receive. Four of the lines linked majority-white bottom jobs with majority-white top jobs; two of the lines linked majority-black bottom jobs with majority-black top jobs. The top jobs for the majority-white progression lines were the best jobs in the factories.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOn January 3, 1969, John Patterson and two other employees filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In 1973, alleging violations of the Civil Rights Act, the employees sued the company in district court . The district court held that the lines of progression violated the Act and prohibited the company from using them. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth District affirmed and remanded the case for further proceedings to determine the remedy. The Supreme Court denied certiorari.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOn remand, the petitioners filed a motion to dismiss the complaints by arguing that the seniority system was exempt from the Civil Rights Act. The district court denied the motion. The Court of Appeals affirmed the decision because that the lines of progression are not a seniority system. The Court of Appeals also held that the immunity for seniority systems only extends to those in place before the effective date of the Civil Rights Act.\u003C\/p\u003E\n","question":"\u003Cp\u003EDoes the section of the Civil Rights Act that affirms the legality of seniority systems apply to those adopted after the effective date of the Act?\u003C\/p\u003E\n","conclusion":"\u003Cp\u003EYes. Justice Byron R. White delivered the opinion of the 5-4 majority. The Court held that the absence of any sort of grandfather clause or explicit distinction between pre- and post-Act systems meant that the section applied to all seniority systems, regardless of when they were put in place. There was no clear legislative history to support the distinction between pre-existing systems and those that were implemented later. The Court also held that such a reading would drastically shift national labor policy away from the balance that Congress intended the section to strike.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn his dissenting opinion, Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. argued that the decision of the Court ignored the crucial distinction between the adoption of a seniority system and its application. The section\u2019s clear use of the language of application on the part of the employer \u2014 without any mention of adoption or the union \u2014 indicated a more narrow meaning. He also argued that the legislative history showed that Congress meant the Act to have a stronger effect on systems put in place after the effective date of the Act. Justice Thurgood Marshall and Justice Harry A. Blackmun joined in the dissent.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a dissent where he expressed that the Court misread the section as referring to seniority systems both before and after the effective date of the Act. He argued that the purpose of the section was limited to determining which of the pre-Act systems should be considered legal and which should not; the section has no bearing on any post-Act systems. \u003C\/p\u003E\n","advocates":[{"advocate":{"ID":27625,"name":"Henry L. 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