The Revised Philadelphia Plan, often called the Philadelphia Plan, required
government contractors in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
to hire minority workers, under the authority of
Executive Order 11246. Declared illegal in 1968, a revised version was successfully defended by the
Nixon administration
Richard Nixon's tenure as the 37th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1969, and ended when he resigned on August 9, 1974, in the face of almost certain impeachment because of the Watergate Scanda ...
and its allies in Congress against those who saw it as an illegal quota program.
US Department of Labor
The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemplo ...
Assistant Secretary for
Wage and Labor Standards Arthur Fletcher implemented the plan in 1969 based on an earlier plan developed in 1967 by the
Office of Federal Contract Compliance and the Philadelphia Federal Executive Board. The plan required federal contractors to meet certain goals for the hiring of minority employees by specific dates in order to combat
institutionalized discrimination
Institutional discrimination is discriminatory treatment of an individual or group of individuals by society or institutions, through unequal consideration of members of subordinate groups.
These unfair and indirect methods of discrimination are o ...
on the part of specific
skilled building trades unions. The plan was quickly extended to other cities.
In 1971, the Contractors Association of Eastern Pennsylvania challenged the plan and Executive Order 11246 by arguing that it was beyond the President's constitutional authority, that it was inconsistent with Titles VI and VII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and that it was inconsistent with the
National Labor Relations Act. The
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (in case citations, 3d Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts for the following districts:
* District of Delaware
* District of New Jersey
* East ...
rejected the challenges and the
US Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...
declined to hear the case, ''Contractors Association of Eastern Pennsylvania v. Secretary of Labor'', in October.
See also
*
Affirmative action
*
Ethnic penalty
References
External links
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, "Affirmative Action as an International Human Rights Dialogue: Considered Opinion" Winter 2000
History of Philadelphia
History of affirmative action in the United States
Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson
Presidency of Richard Nixon
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