United States v. Paradise

Petitioners returned to the court again in April, 1983, to seek an order enforcing the terms of both the 1979 and 1981 decrees. They also requested that criteria for promotions should be the same as hiring, one-for-one. Soon thereafter, four white officers who had been waiting for promotion sought to intervene, claiming that the two decrees were "unreasonable, illegal, unconstitutional or against public policy." In review, the district court ignored assertions of the white claimants noting that even if the ADPS promoted 79 officers to corporal, none would be black. Thus, ADPS was ordered to submit another promotion schema which consisted of at least 15 qualified persons and did not result in deleterious affect on black officers. The ADPS submitted numerous motions for reconsideration of the court's order but the district court held fast to its ruling. Finally, in February 1984, the ADPS promoted eight white and eight black police officers. Interestingly, the U.S. Justice Department (of the Reagan administration) challenged the court's order, holding that it violated the Fourteenth Amendment; however, the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court's decision that the one-for-one promotion scheme did not violate the Constitution of the United States.