Piscataway Township Board of Education v. Taxman - Significance, Taxman Fights Dismissal On Racial Grounds, Court Of Appeals Ruling, Dissent And Aftermath

petitioner decision transportation justices

Petitioner

Picataway Township Board of Education

Respondent

Sharon Taxman

Petitioner's Claim

That the Piscataway Board of Education's decision to dismiss a white teacher in order to keep a comparably qualified African American teacher on staff was valid under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Chief Lawyer for Petitioner

David B. Rubin

Chief Lawyer for Respondent

Stephen E. Klausner

Justices for the Court

Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Edward R. Becker, Robert E. Cowen, Morton I. Greenberg, Carol Los Mansmann (writing for the Court), Richard Lowell Nygaard, Jane R. Roth, H. Lee Sarokin, Walter K. Stapleton

Justices Dissenting

Timothy K. Lewis, Theodore Alexander McKee, Anthony J. Scirica, Dolores K. Sloviter

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

14 May 1996

Decision

Piscataway Board of Education's action in dismissing Taxman was held to be a violation of her civil rights.

Related Cases

Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405 (1975).
McDonald v. Santa Fe Trail Transportation Co., 427 U.S. 273 (1976).
United Steelworkers v. Weber, 443 U.S. 193 (1979).
Johnson v. Transportation Agency, Santa Clara County, 480 U.S. 616 (1987).

Additional Topics

Piscataway Township Board of Education v. Taxman - Taxman Fights Dismissal On Racial Grounds

In 1989, the Board of Education of Piscataway, New Jersey received instructions from the school's superintendent to lay off one of the teachers in its business department. At the time, two teachers with equal seniority--having started work on the same day nine years earlier--were on the staff: Sharon Taxman, who was white, and Debra Williams, who was African American. Williams was the only minorit…

Piscataway Township Board of Education v. Taxman - Court Of Appeals Ruling

The court of appeals defined the issue in simple terms: to decide "whether Title VII permits an employer with a racially balanced work force to grant a non-remedial racial preference in order to promote racial diversity." In other words, they asked whether the Piscataway Board of Education could employ racial hiring preferences even in a case where it was not addressing a past wrong, i.e. discrimi…

Piscataway Township Board of Education v. Taxman - Dissent And Aftermath

A number of impassioned dissents occurred in the case. Citing the belief "that students derive educational benefit by having a black faculty member in an otherwise all-white department," Chief Judge Sloviter would have left it up to the discretion of the school board which teacher to dismiss. Judge Scirica echoed these sentiments, adding: "I do not believe Title VII prevents a school district, in …

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