PA 752

Public Administration and the Law

Fall 2008

Short Paper Assignment # 1

Due October 20

The Use of Legislative History in Making Public Law

In 1964, against a background of nationally televised civil rights demonstrations, Congress passed the landmark Civil Rights Act.  Sociologist Paul Burstein, who has written extensively about the history of civil rights legislation, believes the Act passed when it did, at least in part because “the American people were confronted, day after day, by intensive media coverage of peaceful civil rights demonstrators being violently attacked by those who opposed their pleas for justice, particularly if the attackers were public officials”* and they, in turn, put pressure on Congress to do something.  Title VII of the Act prohibited discrimination in employment on the basis of color, religion, sex, or national origin.  Ten years later, Weber, a white employee of Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. filed suit alleging that he had been discriminated against in violation of the statute.  When the case reached the Supreme Court. Justices Brennan and Rehnquist, in sharp disagreement with each other, invoked the legislative history to support their conflicting positions on the merit’s of Weber’s suit.

The purpose of this assignment is to have you evaluate the relevant text of the law and the legislative history as described by each of the justices to assess whether you believe Weber should have prevailed in his suit.   It will also, hopefully, give you a flavor for some of the activity that occurs in Congress when a bill is being considered.  Your assignment is to write a short paper (not to exceed three pages, double spaced) providing your assessment as to whether Weber should have prevailed and the reasons for your decision. Your paper should also briefly discuss how much weight, if any, should be given to each of the:

 

      The “plain meaning” of the statute

      The legislative history  

      The ”sprit” of the Act

      The context in which the statute was passed; i.e., what was going on in the country in 1964 and at the time the suit was filed (1974).

The documents you should use are:

      The facts of the case (taken directly from the Supreme Court decision)

      The parts of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act which Weber alleged were violated

      Opinions written by Justices Brennan and Rehnquist. Note: In the interest of reducing the amount of reading required, I have provided here only excerpts of their opinions. If you prefer, you can read the complete decision by looking the case up on Findlaw.com