Word: thurgood
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Justices William J. Brennan, Thurgood Marshall, Harry A. Blackmun and John Paul Stevens dissented...
...always in affirmative-action cases, the court was sharply divided. Brennan's opinion was joined by Justices Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun and Lewis Powell. Justice John Paul Stevens provided the fifth vote, but in a separate, seemingly more sweeping opinion stressed that in cases of proven discrimination, judges have "broad and flexible authority to remedy the wrongs...
Writing the main opinion, Justice Thurgood Marshall concluded that the California law did not violate the federal law or discriminate against men, as Cal Fed claimed. Rather it "promotes equal employment opportunity" by allowing "women, as well as men, to have families without losing their jobs." The Justice noted that the California statute "does not compel employers to treat pregnant workers better than other disabled employees; it merely establishes benefits that employers must, at a minimum, provide to pregnant workers. Employers are free to give comparable benefits to other disabled employees...
Harry Blackmun's passionate dissent (joined by William Brennan, Thurgood Marshall and John Paul Stevens) asserted that "only the most willful - blindness could obscure" the connection between sexuality and the right to privacy. "No matter how uncomfortable a certain group may make the majority of this court," wrote Blackmun, that does not justify denying homosexuals the right to privacy. As for constitutional authority, the dissenters relied on the due-process clause and the Fourth Amendment's guarantee of "the right of the people to be secure in their persons (and) houses." Wrote Blackmun: "The right of an individual to conduct...
...today's rulings, Brennan was joined by Justices Thurgood Marshall, Harry A. Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell, John Paul Stevens and Sandra Day O'Connor...