Reference no: EM131702657

Question: The city of South Bend, Indiana, adopted an affirmative action plan to give preference to minorities in hiring and promotion for police and firefighter positions. The affirmative action plan was adopted voluntarily by the city in response to the marked disparity between the percentage of African American employees in the police and fire departments with the percentage of African Americans in the general population of the city. Janowiak, a white, filed suit challenging the affirmative action plan; he argued that the city should have compared the percentage of African-American employees in the police and fire departments with the percentage of African Americans in the qualified area labor pool to determine whether the affirmative action plan was necessary. How will the court rule on his challenge? What is the proper comparison to determine whether the affirmative action plan is justified? See Janowiak v. Corporate City of South Bend [836 F.2d 1034 [PN (7th Cir. 1987), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1051 (1989)].