01-3448 Nanda v. Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

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“In the present case, the legislative record confirms that Congress was responding to a pattern of discrimination by the States. The legislative history shows that Congress relied upon and adopted two comprehensive studies of racial and national origin discrimination to support its proposed legislation. See H.R. Rep. No. 92-238, at 17 (1971). The first of these ‘indicate[d] that widespread discrimination against minorities exist[ed] in State and local government employment . . . .’ Id. The legislative record also specifically addresses the problem of racial and gender discrimination in academia. See id. at 19-20. Finally, statistical evidence bolstered Congress’ view that ‘there exist[ed] a profound economic discrimination against women workers’ across all fields, and, consequently, legislation was needed to strengthen and broaden federal administrative procedures for combatting this discrimination. Id. at 4.”

“Not only did Congress document the need for additional legislation protecting minority and women workers employed by the states, local governments, and specifically educational institutions, Congress had become familiar with the problems of race and national origin discrimination in the public and private sector in enacting the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and with the problems of gender discrimination in considering the Equal Rights Amendment and the Educational Opportunity Act, see Okruhlik v. Univ. of Ark. ex rel. May, 255 F.3d 615, 625 (8th Cir. 2001). Such familiarity ‘”reduce[s] the need for fresh hearings and prolonged debates.”‘ Id. (quoting Fullilove v. Klutznick, 448 U.S. 448, 503 (1980) (Powell, J., concurring)). As we concluded in Varner, “[w]e believe that this evidence is sufficient to support the limited action taken by Congress in its passage of [the 1972 Act], particularly given the well documented history of gender [and race] discrimination in this Nation.”

Affirmed.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Pallmeyer, J., Ripple, J.