Reference no: EM133310838

Magnolia, a city situated in the southeastern United States has established a new hiring policy for the city's police department. The policy sets a goal for the number of Black American entry-level patrol officers based on the percentage of Black Americans residing in the city. Because Black Americans make up 20% of the city's population, the ordinance establishes a target of 20% Black American patrol officers. Until the target is met, the policy requires the department to give preferences to "qualified" Black American applicants.

All applicants for the police department participate in the same hiring process. Applicants take a written exam followed by a face to face interview. The department's hiring committee then reviews the test results and interview evaluations and assigns each applicant a score from 1 to 100. Any applicant scoring below 65 is deemed "unqualified" and thus ineligible for hiring. Before the new hiring policy, applicants were hired in rank order of their score. Under the new hiring policy, however, qualified Black American applicants must be hired until the 20% target is met.

The police department hopes its policy will promote much needed diversity in hiring. The department points to the following. First, while a full 20% of the city's residents are Black Americans, only 4% of the patrol officers are Black Americans. Second, data shows that racial discrimination exists in police hiring in other major cities in southeastern United States. Third, the department is concerned that the lack of minority patrol officers could be linked to an educational disadvantage that Black American children suffered due to racially segregated city public schools up and through the late 1970s.

If challenged on Equal Protection grounds what level of scrutiny will the Court apply?

Would the police department's hiring policy likely to be found in violation of the Equal Protection Clause?