Personnel Administrator of Massachusetts v. Feeney
United States Supreme Court
442 U.S. 156, 99 S. Ct. 2282, 60 L. Ed. 2d 870 (1979)
- Written by Megan Petersen, JD
Facts
The State of Massachusetts enacted a veteran-preference statute providing that all veterans qualified for state civil-service positions must be considered for appointment ahead of any qualifying nonveterans. Feeney (plaintiff) was a female nonveteran applicant for the civil service who scored very highly on a number of competitive civil-service exams. However, she was passed over for employment opportunities by males with lower scores who were veterans. Feeney challenged the veteran-preference statute in federal district court against the personnel administrator of Massachusetts (defendant), alleging that the statute disadvantaged women and thus violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The district court found that the preference operated overwhelmingly to the advantage of males. Although the district court believed the statute’s stated goals were noble and that the statute was not enacted to specifically disadvantage women, the district court held the statute unconstitutional. The court of appeals affirmed, and the personnel administrator appealed to the United States Supreme Court.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Stewart, J.)
Dissent (Marshall, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 812,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
