Justice: Cutback on Quotas

In yet another blow against affirmative action, the Justice Department has asked some 50 states, counties and cities to abandon numerical goals in hiring or promoting women and minorities. Ironically, the quotas were established as a result of lawsuits filed by the Justice Department itself under previous Administrations. William Bradford Reynolds, head of the department's civil rights division, said the Reagan Administration is not interested in "displacing" workers who are currently employed under quotas.

The Justice Department's attack on quota agreements stems from last June's Supreme Court ruling, in Firefighters Local Union No. 1784 vs. Stotts, that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was intended to rectify past discrimination only against particular individuals, not entire classes. Justice had argued for that interpretation; it will now use the decision to ask courts to modify orders and consent decrees if cities, counties and states refuse to delete quota provisions.

Barry Goldstein, an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, called Reynolds' efforts "a gross misallocation of prosecutorial resources." A fight is shaping up in New York State, where officials have said they will abide by a court order establishing numerical hiring goals for the state police.