Messer v. Meno’s Empirical Analysis
1996
Citation profile
2 federal appellate ·
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (Civil Rights Act of 1866) · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corporation · McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green · Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine · St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks
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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'lure[d]' " from outside the agency and in three cases, came to TEA with a significant reduction in salary. The court deemed this a credible, non-discriminatory reason for the pay difference and dismissed all of these claims because it found that Messer's evidence failed to show that TEA's proffered reasons for these decisions were pretextual. Id. 25 In his conclusion on pretext, however, the magistrate judge arbitrarily discounted Messer's evidence that the AAP was vigorously enforced to ensure that TEA's workforce would resemble as closely as possible the state's racial and gender breakdown. Messer cites many portions of the record to substantiate the discriminatory impact of TEA's affirmative action policy. Among the evidence is the following: 26 1. From 1989-1994, TEA AAP's stated as their purpose: "The overall objective of this plan is to achieve a workforce balanced with a proportionate number of minorities and women in the population. This balance is to be realized in all levels of responsibility within the Agency.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Messer v. Meno“Managers should survey their staffing patterns, especially concerning race and sex, when vacancies occur. While persons must ultimately be employed on the basis of job-related criteria, the needs of the unit, which include balanced workforce considerations, should have significant influence on employment decisions.... Remember, it is not required that the most qualified applicant be hired, only that the person hired meet the minimum qualifications set for the position.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Messer v. Meno“[c]redible reasons for your recommendation become absolutely critical if the person recommended belongs to an over-utilized race and/or gender.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Messer v. Meno
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.