1. Personnel Administrator of Mass. v. Feeney, (1979)

2. Facts: Mass. had a state law which gave an “absolute lifetime” preference to veterans over non-veterans for civil service positions. The veterans in Mass. were 98% male and 2% female. In effect, the law gave statistically significant preferences to males.

3. Issue: Whether the law, which is facially neutral, is nevertheless a violation of equal protection given its disparate impact on men vs. women.

4. Holding: No.

5. Majority Reasoning: Davis stands for the principle that the 14th amendment “guarantees equal laws, not equal results.” Clearly, this law is facially neutral. Although it has a disparate affect on women, that is the result of the traditional military roles of men and women, which is not on trial here. Also, many men are disadvantaged by this law as well. It is not a pretext for discrimination against women, but rather against non-veterans, a significant portion of whom are men.

6. Concurrence Reasoning: [Stevens] stated that the statistics show clearly that there are about 2 million men disadvantaged by this preference, and only about 3 million women. When taken in combination with other evidence, this difference does not support a finding that the law was intended to benefit males as a class.

7. Dissent Reasoning: [Marshall] felt that the law was purposeful discrimination because the legislators were presumed to have intended the natural and probable consequences of the law - discrimination against women. There is clear evidence from the legislative history that the legislature understood the impact against women, and took steps to make sure that women could still qualify for the lower-paying jobs.