138 F. Supp. 2d 1 - Ward v. Caldera’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “To hold [in favor of the non-promoted plaintiff] would be to hold that every time “one or more females and one or more members of racial groups other than Caucasian” are placed on a selection board, the collective promotion decisions of the selection board are unavoidably altered. Such a conclusion would necessarily include two presumptions. First, that all women and non-whites have an inherent and unavoidable disposition to favor their own race and gender. And second, that all promotion decisions by selection boards are con trolled by the voting habits of a few women and non-whites. The first presumption is not just patently false, it is diametrically opposed to Supreme Court jurisprudence which this Court is bound to follow. The Supreme Court has consistently shunned such racial and gender stereotypes, and, in any event, has never held that a decision-maker’s race or sex, by itself, prevents her from making an objective decision. The second presumption behind the plaintiffs claim is completely devoid of logic. While it is reasonable to assume that women and non-whites, together with the other members of selection boards, inform the decisions of the board, it is patently unreasonable to assume that a few members, constituting a numerical minority of the board, can control the outcome of the board’s decisions. Thus, even if women and nonwhites were possessed of the class narcissism which the plaintiff implies, there is no reason to think they would be successful in converting”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 191 F. Supp. 2d 95 - Saunders v. White

2. “the plaintiff in this case might, in accordance with his duty to demonstrate a discriminatory purpose under Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229, 242 , 96 S.Ct. 2040 , 48 L.Ed.2d 597 (1976), utilize the selection board membership, together with other evidence such as the promotion rate for certain races and genders, to persuade the Court that he has been discriminated against.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 191 F. Supp. 2d 95 - Saunders v. White