United States v. Town of Cicero

The Town of Cicero, Illinois (the town) (defendant) was a suburb of Chicago with 61,000 residents. Although the town adjoined two predominantly Black communities, Black residents made up only 0.1 percent of the town’s population. Municipal ordinances required applicants for police and fire-department jobs to have resided in the town for a minimum of three years and required applicants for all other municipal jobs to have resided in the town for a minimum of one year. No Black employee had ever worked for the town, even though the town’s largest private-sector employers had a workforce that was 18.7 percent Black. The United States government (plaintiff) sued the town, alleging discrimination pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The United States moved for a preliminary injunction against the town’s enforcement of the ordinances, arguing that, although the ordinances were facially neutral, they had an impermissibly discriminatory impact on Black job applicants. The town argued that it had four nondiscriminatory reasons for enacting the ordinances: (1) town residents would be more familiar with the area and would therefore provide better services, (2) hiring only town residents would result in employees spending money in the town and thus reduce the other residents’ tax burdens, (3) hiring only residents would give town employees a stake in the community, and (4) requiring police officers and firefighters to be town residents would make residents feel safer and raise their morale. The district court denied the motion, reasoning that the ordinances were facially neutral and neutral in their effect because they applied to all nonresident job applicants regardless of race. The United States appealed.