Wygant v. Jackson Board of Education

A public school board's collective-bargaining agreement with the teachers' union provided that layoffs would generally follow seniority, except that the percentage of minority teachers laid off could never exceed the percentage of minority teachers still employed — effectively protecting some junior minority teachers from layoffs that would otherwise hit them under straight seniority. The Supreme Court reviewed the agreement's constitutionality under the Equal Protection Clause.

Whether, under the Equal Protection Clause, a school district may take race-based remedial action without a strong basis in evidence that such action is necessary to correct past discriminatory hiring practices.