Opinion

New York City Transit Authority v. Beazer

  • 440 U.S. 568
  • 99 S. Ct. 1355
  • 59 L. Ed. 2d 587
  • 1979 U.S. LEXIS 77
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Filed
Mar 26, 1979
Status
Published
Author
Brennan
On the bench
Brennan, Stevens, Burger, Stewart, Blackmun, Rehnquist, Powell, Bren-Nan, White, Marshall
Cited by
568 cases

holding that transit authority was justified in refusing to hire methadone users for “safety- sensitive” positions

How later courts described this case

  • holding that transit authority was justified in refusing to hire methadone users for “safety- sensitive” positions
  • holding that Section 1981 “afford no greater substantive protection than Title VII”
  • noting that the Court’s equal protection cases have recognized a distinction between “ ‘invidious discrimination’ — i.e., classifications drawn ‘with an evil eye and an unequal hand’ or motivated by ‘a feeling of antipathy’ against, a specific group of residents” — and other evenhanded classifications
  • holding the exclusion of those in methadone maintenance programs from employment in the Transit Authority was constitutionally permissible even though many participants would be able to perform the requisite job functions safely

Written by the judges who cited it.

Distinguished

  • Distinguished by Kindem v. City of Alameda, 502 F. Supp. 1108 (1980)

    440 U.S. 568, 99 S.Ct. 1355, 59 L.Ed.2d 587 (1979), also cited by the City, is distinguishable on a number of grounds: (1) the regulation in
    District Court, N.D. CaliforniaNov 11, 1980Read it

The opinion

Mr. Justice Brennan,

dissenting.

1 would affirm for the reasons stated in Part I of Mr. Justice White’s dissenting opinion.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

A word about cookies

We need a few to keep you signed in and the library working. The rest help us see which pages people use and where they get stuck. They stay off unless you say yes.