Word: richmond
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...cannot agree, however, with the staff's characterization of the Richmond case as the culmination of the Justice Department's attempts to do away with affirmative action. The staff fails to recognize that the Supreme Court remains constitutionally independent from the executive branch. The Justice Department's attempt to roll back affirmative action and the Court's deciding on the constitutionality of certain affirmative action remedies are entirely separate issues...
...affirmative action -- the attempt to remedy past discrimination by giving preferential treatment to minorities. Last week, only days after Reagan left office, his goal of reining in such programs got a major boost from the Supreme Court. By a 6-to-3 vote, the court struck down a Richmond ordinance intended to guarantee blacks and other minorities a greater share of the city's construction contracts. The decision not only threatened similar programs in 36 states but also potentially opened the door to legal attacks against other racially based government schemes...
...Richmond case began in 1983, when the black-dominated city council approved an ordinance setting aside 30% of the dollar amount of its municipal projects for minority-owned construction firms. The council found that although Richmond's population was half black, less than 1% of all public- works contracts had gone to minority firms. But Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, writing for the majority, charged that the city had not specifically proved a level of past discrimination that would support its 30% set-aside rule. Wrote O'Connor: "An amorphous claim that there has been past discrimination in a particular...
Some experts took a political view of the ruling. Professor Charles Abernathy of Georgetown University Law Center attributes the court's decision to the fear that as blacks take power in cities such as Richmond, laws will be passed to benefit blacks over whites. Observes Abernathy: "The court is saying that it won't stand for black leaders using power to reward their friends at the expense of others...
That kind of ID is easily forged by out-of-state buyers. "People come into a gun shop with a Virginia driver's license, and the ink is barely dry," laments George N. Metcalf, Assistant U.S. Attorney in Richmond. "They buy half a dozen guns with cash, get into a car with New York license plates, and they are gone." Some gunrunners prefer to hire one or more "straw buyers," local Southerners paid as little as $100 for the use of their legitimate IDs to make the purchases. Through such means, gun smugglers often buy a dozen weapons or more...