# City of Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co. > Supreme Court of the United States · January 23, 1989 · 488 U.S. 469 URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9842103 ## Case - **Full name:** City of Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co. - **Court:** Supreme Court of the United States - **Decided:** January 23, 1989 - **Citations:** 488 U.S. 469; 36 Cont. Cas. Fed. 76,005; 57 U.S.L.W. 4132; 48 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 38,578; 53 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 197; 109 S. Ct. 706; 102 L. Ed. 2d 854; 1989 U.S. LEXIS 579 - **Precedential status:** Published - **Opinion:** Dissent by Blackmun - **Judges:** Announced, Blackmun, Brennan, Kennedy, Marshall, O'Connor, Scalia, Stevens - **Cited by:** 937 later opinions in the Frix Law Library ## Citator (automated) - No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases. - Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9842103 ## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction) - explaining that “[i]n the employment context, we have recognized that for certain entry level positions or positions requiring minimal training, statistical comparisons of the racial composition of an employer’s work force to the racial composition of the relevant population m… - explaining “[t]hat Congress may identify and redress the effects of society-wide discrimination does not mean that, a fortiori, the States and their political subdivisions are free to decide that such remedies are appropriate” because “Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment is … - stating, in an equal protection case, "[i]ndeed, the purpose of strict scrutiny is to 'smoke out' illegitimate [purposes] . . . . The test also ensures that the means chosen 'fit' this compelling goal so closely that there is little or no possibility that the motive for the cl… - stating, in an equal protection case, “[ijndeed, the purpose of strict scrutiny is to ‘smoke out’ illegitimate [purposes] .... The test also ensures that the means chosen ‘fit’ this compelling goal so closely that there is little or no possibility that the motive for the class… - explaining that a prima facie case of 14 discrimination can arise “[w]here there is a significant statistical disparity between the number of qualified minority contractors willing and able to perform a particular service and the number of such contractors actually engaged by … ## Opinion text Justice Blackmun, with whom Justice Brennan joins, dissenting. I join Justice Marshall’s perceptive and incisive opinion revealing great sensitivity toward those who have suffered the pains of economic discrimination in the construction trades for so long. I never thought that I would live to see the day when the city of Richmond, Virginia, the cradle of the Old Confederacy, sought on its own, within a narrow confine, to lessen the stark impact of persistent discrimination. But Richmond, to its great credit, acted. Yet this Court, the supposed bastion of equality, strikes down Richmond’s efforts as though discrimination had never existed or was not demonstrated in this particular litigation. Justice Marshall convincingly discloses the fallacy and the shallowness of that approach. History is irrefutable, even though one might sympathize with those who — though possibly innocent in themselves — benefit from the wrongs of past decades. *562 So the Court today regresses. I am confident, however, that, given time, it one day again will do its best to fulfill the great promises of the Constitution’s Preamble and of the guarantees embodied in the Bill of Rights — a fulfillment that would make this Nation very special. --- Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9842103. Public record. Not legal advice.