Lomack v. Newark , 463 F.3d 303 ( 2006 )


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  •                                                                                                                            Opinions of the United
    2006 Decisions                                                                                                             States Court of Appeals
    for the Third Circuit
    9-18-2006
    Lomack v. Newark
    Precedential or Non-Precedential: Precedential
    Docket No. 05-4126
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    Recommended Citation
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    http://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/thirdcircuit_2006/393
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    PRECEDENTIAL
    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
    No. 05-4126
    CHARLES LOMACK; HAROLD J. BANE, JR.; RAMON
    DOMINGUEZ; JAMES P. WILLIS; KEVIN L. JOHNSON;
    PAUL T. MAZZA; KENNETH REEDS; GARY HOLMAN;
    LUTHER ROBERSON, III; GERRELL ELLIOTT;
    CLARENCE R. BRUTON; JAMES GILES; DEAN GATTI;
    PETER J. COONEY; JOHN P. MELANI; GREGORY
    HIGHSMITH; JUAN H. RAMOS; DAYON COBBS; DEBLIN
    RODRIGUEZ; RAMON RIVERA; CHARLES H. WEST;
    SCOTT WOLF; WILFREDO RIVERA; KARREEM
    JACKSON; JOHN BROWN; WYNDELL COOPER;
    SHANNON MCTIGHE; ASHTON ROBINSON; MARK
    PISERCHIO; CHRIS DEMURO; NEWARK FIREFIGHTERS
    UNION; ERIC BARNES; EDWARD GRIFFITH; LEWIS
    MANNING; FRANK ZIDZIUNAS, NEWARK
    FIREFIGHTERS OFFICERS UNION, INTERNATIONAL
    ASSOCIATION OF FIRE FIGTHERS, AFL-CIO, CLC,
    LOCAL 1860,
    Appellants
    v.
    CITY OF NEWARK; SHARPE JAMES; EDWARD
    DUNHAM; LOWELL F. JONES; NORMAN J. ESPAROLINI
    APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
    FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY
    D.C. Civil No. 04-cv-06085
    District Judge: The Honorable John W. Bissell
    Argued: June 29, 2006
    Before: BARRY, VAN ANTWERPEN and
    JOHN R. GIBSON,* Circuit Judges
    (Opinion Filed: September 18, 2006 )
    David Tykulsker, Esq. (Argued)
    David Tykulsker & Associates
    161 Walnut Street
    Montclair, NJ 07042
    Counsel for Appellants
    Carolyn A. McIntosh, Esq. (Argued)
    Room 316
    City of Newark
    920 Broad Street
    Newark, NJ 07102
    Counsel for Appellees
    John H. Findley, Esq.
    Pacific Legal Foundation
    3900 Lennane Drive, Suite 200
    Sacramento, CA 95834
    Counsel for Amicus-Appellants
    *
    The Honorable John R. Gibson, Senior Circuit Judge,
    United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, sitting by
    designation.
    2
    OPINION OF THE COURT
    BARRY, Circuit Judge
    On July 1, 2002, Sharpe James, newly re-elected as
    Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, issued a “mandate” in his
    inaugural speech that, “to improve morale,” all single-race fire
    companies in the Newark Fire Department would be eliminated.1
    The racial composition of each of the 108 fire companies was
    thereafter examined, and dozens of firefighters were
    involuntarily transferred to different companies solely on the
    basis of their race. In January 2004, Mayor James announced
    that “[w]e have created a rainbow at each firehouse.” (Pl. App.
    at 74). The firefighters sued, and lost.
    It is important at the outset to note what this case is not
    about. This case is not about whether diverse workplaces are
    desirable. It is not disputed that they are. Neither is this case
    about a remedy for unlawful past discrimination because, again,
    it is not disputed that there was no unlawful discrimination in the
    past. And this case is not about whether the numbers of minority
    firefighters being hired are satisfying long-range hiring goals.
    Rather, this case is about whether the City of Newark may
    employ a race-based transfer and assignment policy when any
    racial imbalance in the 108 fire companies is not the result of
    past intentional discrimination by the City. We hold that it may
    not and, accordingly, will reverse the District Court’s entry of
    1
    Mayor James used the term “fire houses,” but there is no
    evidence that there were any single-race fire houses in Newark,
    and it became clear that the mandate was directed to the 108 fire
    companies. Each of the fire companies is made up of three or
    four firefighters working under the supervision of a fire captain
    in a fire house. Each company works a designated shift known
    as a tour. The parties use the terms “company” and “tour” to
    refer to the small group of firefighters working together on a
    particular shift. We will refer to these groups as “companies.”
    3
    judgment for the defendants.
    I. BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
    In 1977, the United States filed a complaint against the
    State of New Jersey, several New Jersey officials, the City of
    Newark, and eleven other New Jersey cities alleging “a pattern
    or practice of discrimination” in the hiring and promotion of
    minority firefighters. A Consent Decree resolving the United
    States’ claims was approved and entered by the District Court in
    1980. The Consent Decree did not contain a finding that any
    unlawful discrimination had occurred, but did require the various
    defendants “to undertake affirmative action to increase
    substantially the proportion of black and Hispanic personnel on
    their respective fire departments.” With respect to the Newark
    Fire Department, the Decree called for an interim goal of at least
    60% of all vacancies to be filled with qualified minority
    candidates.
    Fifteen years passed, and in 1995, the Newark City
    Council hired Samuel Rosenfarb, a certified public accountant,
    to “determine [statistical] compliance with [the 1980] consent
    decree.” (Supp. App. at 90.) Rosenfarb reported his findings to
    the Council in a December 1995 report, which indicated that
    68.8% of the Fire Department’s uniformed employees were
    white, 24% were black, and 6.9% were Hispanic. He also
    reported that of 195 promotions granted between 1980 and 1994,
    168 were given to white employees, twenty-four to black
    employees and three to Hispanic employees. In conducting his
    analysis, Rosenfarb noticed that “the [companies] were
    significantly homogenous either black or white.” (Id.) His
    report noted that 81 of the 108 companies “had a majority of
    white personnel with 30 being comprised entirely of white
    personnel. Fifteen of the [companies] were predominantly black
    . . . . Only one . . . had a majority of hispanics. The remaining
    eleven [companies] did not contain a majority of any one group.”
    (Pl. App. at 124.)2
    2
    Also in 1995, the Council retained Lesli Baskerville, an
    attorney, “for the purpose of examining legal documents relating
    4
    The City took no action with respect to the existence of
    single-race fire companies for another seven years. Then, in July
    2002, Mayor James, apparently out of the blue, ordered that all
    fire houses, i.e., companies, in the Newark Fire Department be
    integrated “to improve morale” and “to honor a court order to
    make our Fire Department the mirror of the City of Newark . . .
    .” (Id. at 55). With reference to the former, we note, there is no
    evidence that morale needed improving; with reference to the
    latter, the by-then twenty-two year old Consent Decree required
    no such thing.
    The Mayor appointed the Department’s former
    Affirmative Action Specialist, Edward Dunham, as the new
    Director of the Fire Department, and charged him with
    implementing this “diversification order.” (Id. at 54.) Dunham,
    in turn, directed Fire Chief Lowell Jones to diversify the fire
    companies. In a November 27, 2002 letter to Chief Jones,
    Dunham directed Jones to “formulate a mass departmental
    transfer list.” (Id. at 56.) Jones did so, and in so doing, “tried to
    achieve an element of diversity as well as assign department
    personnel as per their specialized training.” (Id. at 57.) He also
    considered the “need to maintain a high degree of readiness in
    [the] face of world and/or domestic terrorist threats.” (Id.) In
    his memorandum to Dunham, he noted that “[u]nits that have
    been training together and that have achieved a high level of
    efficiency [were] maintained and where we could comply with
    diversity we did so.”3 (Id.)
    to the Consent Decree.” (Pl. App. at 170.) Her report was not
    admitted into evidence, its only purpose being to show what
    action, if any, the City and the Fire Department took in response
    thereto. Accordingly, and unlike the District Court, we neither
    note nor rely on any of the factual allegations contained in the
    report.
    3
    In his testimony at trial, Jones indicated that he used the
    “probationary firefighters that came out of the training division,
    as well as some of the [voluntary] transfer requests that were
    made, to try to incorporate an element of diversity.” (Supp.
    App. at 37-38; Pl. App. at 242.) His list did not include any
    5
    Dunham asked Battalion Chief Raymond Wallace to
    review Jones’s list, and Wallace determined that the list would
    not achieve the mandated diversity. He noted in a memorandum
    to Dunham that “[i]f Chief Jones transfer list were to be used,
    there would be 14 companies all Caucasian and 10 companies
    African American. . . . This list does not meet the directive and
    is unsatisfactory.” (Id. at 61 (emphasis in original).)
    Accordingly, Wallace proposed an alternative transfer list that
    would achieve 100% diversity. Dunham accepted Wallace’s
    proposal. On January 15, 2003, Dunham issued “Executive
    Order No. 426—Transfers & Assignments,” in which he
    announced a list of transfers “effective at 0800 hours on Friday,
    January 31, 2003,” and stated that “[f]uture transfer requests will
    not be accepted until further notice.” (Id. at 67-70.)
    Thirty-four firefighters who were involuntarily
    transferred or denied requests to transfer due to the new policy,
    together with the Newark Firefighters Union and the Newark
    Fire Officers Union, brought this action against the City of
    Newark, Mayor James, and three officials of the Newark Fire
    Department, challenging the constitutionality of the policy under
    the Equal Protection Clause; Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
    1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.; and the New Jersey Civil
    Rights Act, N.J.S.A. 10:6-1 & 10-6:2. Following a bench trial,
    the District Court dismissed their claims and entered judgment
    for defendants. This timely appeal followed.
    II. JURISDICTION AND STANDARD OF REVIEW
    We have jurisdiction over this appeal pursuant to 28
    U.S.C. § 1291. Because the diversity policy is a race-based
    classification, it must pass strict scrutiny: it must be narrowly
    tailored to achieve a compelling state interest. See Johnson v.
    California, 
    543 U.S. 499
    , 506 (2005) (explaining that “‘racial
    classifications receive close scrutiny even when they may be
    said to burden or benefit the races equally.’”) (quoting Shaw v.
    Reno, 
    509 U.S. 630
    , 651 (1993)). The District Court found that
    the policy satisfied both prongs of this test. We review the
    involuntary transfers.
    6
    District Court’s findings of fact for clear error. Contractors
    Ass’n of Eastern Pa. v. City of Philadelphia, 
    91 F.3d 586
    , 596
    (3d Cir. 1996). The existence of a compelling state interest,
    however, is a question of law that is subject to plenary review.
    
    Id. III. ANALYSIS
    The City argues that it has three somewhat interwoven
    compelling interests in implementing the diversity policy. First,
    it argues that it has a compelling interest in eliminating de facto
    segregation in the Fire Department. Second, it contends that
    there is a compelling interest in securing the “educational,
    sociological and job performance” benefits of diverse fire
    companies. Finally, it argues that the policy is required by the
    1980 Consent Decree, compliance with which constitutes a
    compelling interest. As we have already suggested, we are not
    persuaded by these arguments. We will address each in turn.
    1. Remedying Past Discrimination
    It is well settled that a government has a compelling
    interest in remedying its own past discrimination. See, e.g.,
    United States v. Paradise, 
    480 U.S. 149
    , 167 (1987).
    Accordingly, it may employ racial classifications to cure racial
    imbalances—but only if it can prove that it engaged in prior
    intentional discrimination or was a “passive participant” in a
    third party’s discrimination. Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co., 
    488 U.S. 469
    , 492 (1989). “[R]ace-based preferences cannot be
    justified by reference to past ‘societal’ discrimination in which
    the municipality played no material role.” Contractors 
    Ass’n, 91 F.3d at 596
    ; see also Shaw v. Hunt, 
    517 U.S. 899
    , 909-12 (1996)
    (rejecting racial classifications to “alleviate the effects of societal
    discrimination” in the absence of findings of past discrimination,
    and to promote minority representation in Congress); 
    Richmond, 488 U.S. at 511
    (1989); Wygant v. Jackson Bd. of Educ., 
    476 U.S. 267
    , 274-76 (1986) (rejecting racial classifications in a
    teacher layoff policy aimed at providing minority role models for
    students and alleviating past societal discrimination).
    The City does not even suggest that it participated,
    7
    directly or passively, in any form of discrimination; indeed, it
    concedes that it neither intentionally discriminated against
    minority firefighters with respect to assignments or transfers, nor
    intentionally segregated firefighters into racially homogeneous
    companies. Moreover, the City concedes that single race fire
    companies resulted, not from “Fire Department management,”
    but from the “tendency on the part of management to allow
    people to work where they choose to work,” and to
    accommodate their desire to work in the neighborhoods where
    they live. (Pl. App. at 334, 335). Accordingly, the remedial
    justification for the use of racial classifications is wholly
    inapplicable here, and the District Court’s finding to the contrary
    is clearly erroneous.
    The City nevertheless argues that it can employ a racial
    classification to eliminate what it characterizes as “de facto
    segregation” in the Fire Department. De facto segregation is
    defined as “[s]egregation which is inadvertent . . . and not caused
    by any state action.” Black’s Law Dictionary (6th ed.); see also
    Washington v. Davis, 
    426 U.S. 229
    , 240 (1976) (“‘The
    differentiating factor between de jure segregation and so-called
    de facto segregation . . . is purpose or intent to segregate.’”)
    (quoting Keyes v. School Dist. No. 1, 
    413 U.S. 189
    , 208 (1973));
    Reginald Oh, Race Jurisprudence and the Supreme Court:
    Where Do We Go From Here?: Discrimination and Distrust, 7
    U. PA. J. CONST. L. 837, 859-860 (2005) (“[D]e facto
    segregation is considered a ‘nondiscriminatory’ form of
    segregation.”).4 The City relies on Brown v. Board of
    4
    It has been noted that the term “de facto segregation” is
    somewhat of an oxymoron because “‘segregate’ is a transitive
    verb [that] requires an actor to do an act which effects
    segregation.” Parents Involved in Cmty. Sch. v. Seattle Sch.
    Dist., 
    426 F.3d 1162
    , 1196-97 (9th Cir. 2005) (Bea, J.,
    dissenting); see also 
    id. at 1198
    (“It should be remembered . . .
    that one can no more ‘segregate’ without a person actively doing
    the segregation than one can separate an egg without a cook.”).
    Judge Bea also noted that this “rhetorical ploy” is “clearly
    understandable” since it is “much easier to argue for measures to
    end ‘segregation’ than for measures to end ‘racial imbalance.’
    8
    Education, 
    347 U.S. 483
    (1954), to support its assertion that
    government has a compelling interest in eliminating de facto
    segregation. This reliance is misplaced. Brown involved de jure
    (i.e., intentional) segregation.5 In Brown, and in the later
    desegregation cases, the Supreme Court held that the
    remediation of de jure segregation justifies the use of a racial
    classification. This holding has never been extended to
    encompass unintentional – de facto – segregation. Accordingly,
    while we agree with the City that the elimination of de facto
    segregation may well benefit individual employees and society
    at large and is, indeed, a laudable goal, we cannot agree that
    doing so constitutes a compelling interest that can be achieved
    by means of a racial classification.
    2. Educational and Sociological Benefits of Diverse
    Fire Companies
    In Grutter v. Bollinger, 
    539 U.S. 306
    (2003), the Supreme
    Court clarified that non-remedial goals may also justify race-
    based classifications in certain circumstances. 
    Id. at 328
    (“It is
    true that some language in [earlier] opinions might be read to
    suggest that remedying past discrimination is the only
    permissible justification for race-based governmental action. . . .
    But we have never held that the only governmental use of race
    that can survive strict scrutiny is remedying past
    discrimination.”). Specifically, the Grutter Court held—quite
    narrowly—that the “educational benefits” of a diverse student
    Especially is this so in view of the U.S. Supreme Court’s
    frequent pronouncements that ‘racial balancing’ violates the
    Equal Protection Clause.” 
    Id. at 1197,
    1198.
    5
    In direct contrast to de facto segregation, “[t]he essential
    element of de jure segregation is ‘a current condition of
    segregation resulting from intentional state action.’”
    
    Washington, 426 U.S. at 240
    (quoting 
    Keyes,, 413 U.S. at 205
    );
    see also 3 Ronald D. Rotunda & John E. Nowack, Treatise on
    Constitutional Law § 18.9(2)(1) (3d ed. 1999) (“De jure (‘by
    law’) segregation is racial separation which is the product of
    some purposeful act by government authorities.”).
    9
    body are a sufficiently compelling interest to justify race-based
    enhancements of minority students’ applications to law school.6
    
    Id. at 328
    -33.
    The City argues that it has a compelling interest in
    integrating its fire companies because “integration in the
    workplace is no less important than in an educational setting.”
    (Appellees’ Br. at 30.) Specifically, it contends that
    “integration in fire companies leads to greater camaraderie
    between coworkers, acceptance and consideration for people of
    varying backgrounds, sharing of information and study support.
    It also promotes tolerance and mutual respect among
    colleagues.” (Id.) The District Court agreed, as do we, but
    went on to find that the “educational, sociological, and job-
    performance enhancements” supported, if not by themselves
    compelled, the diversity policy. With that, we disagree.
    Initially we note that the under-inclusiveness of the
    diversity policy, specifically its failure to consider gender, other
    ethnic groups, age, or socio-economic class, seems to belie
    Newark’s claim that “educational benefits” were its actual
    purpose.7 It bears mention, as well, that neither Mayor James
    nor the Fire Department officials called upon to implement the
    6
    The Court accepted the argument of the school and
    various amici that the University of Michigan Law School
    needed to enroll a “critical mass” of minority students in order to
    fulfill its educational mission and prepare students for successful
    careers in an increasingly diverse workforce. 
    Id. at 330.
    The
    Court agreed that it was essential for students to be exposed to
    “widely diverse people, cultures, ideas, and viewpoints,” 
    id., and that
    it was “necessary that the path to leadership be visibly open
    to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity”
    in order to “cultivate a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes
    of the citizenry,” 
    id. at 332.
           7
    “To be a compelling interest, the State must show that
    the alleged objective was the legislature’s actual purpose for the
    discriminatory classification.” Shaw v. Hunt, 
    517 U.S. 899
    , 908
    n.4 (1996) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).
    10
    diversity policy referred to “educational benefits” or anything
    akin thereto as a reason for the policy. By accepting educational
    benefits as an interest compelling the policy, however, the
    District Court, at least implicitly, found that that was the City’s
    “actual purpose,” or at least one of its purposes.
    We need not resolve whether or not the District Court’s
    finding was clearly erroneous, because even if the alleged
    “educational benefits” were an “actual purpose,” they do not
    constitute a compelling interest in the circumstances presented
    by this case. While Grutter established that educational benefits
    are compelling in a law school context, we do not find its
    holding applicable in the firefighting context. See 
    Grutter, 539 U.S. at 327
    (“Context matters when reviewing race-based
    governmental action under the Equal Protection Clause.”).
    The “relevant difference,” 
    id., between a
    law school and a
    fire department is their respective missions. The mission of a
    school is to educate students, “prepar[e] students for work and
    citizenship,” and cultivate future leaders. 
    Id. at 331,
    332. The
    Grutter Court found, based on extensive testimony and other
    evidence, that a “critical mass” of diverse students was necessary
    for the University of Michigan Law School to effectively
    achieve this mission. But Grutter does not stand for the
    proposition that the educational benefits of diversity are always a
    compelling interest, regardless of the context. Rather, it stands
    for the narrow premise that the educational benefits of diversity
    can be a compelling interest to an institution whose mission is to
    educate.
    The Fire Department’s mission is not to educate. Its
    mission is “the control, fighting and extinguishment of any
    conflagration which occurs within the city limits.” Newark, N.J.
    General Ordinances v. I, tit. II, ch. 21, § 1.2 (2005).
    Accordingly, Grutter’s holding regarding a compelling interest
    in the educational benefits of diversity is unavailing here. And,
    we note, the City does not argue that diversity within individual
    fire companies is in any other way necessary, or even beneficial,
    to the Fire Department’s mission of fighting fires, i.e., that the
    11
    Department has an operational need for diverse fire companies,8
    and we do not read the City’s assertions of increased
    “camaraderie,” “acceptance,” and “tolerance” as making such an
    argument. Even if we were to liberally construe those assertions
    as an operational needs argument, however, utterly no evidence
    supports it. See Patrolmen’s Benevolent 
    Ass’n, 310 F.3d at 52
    -
    53 (citations omitted) (“[C]ourts recognizing the [operational
    needs] defense have required the government actor to
    demonstrate that it is ‘motivated by a truly powerful and worthy
    concern and that the racial measure . . . adopted is a plainly apt
    response to that concern.’ The justification must be
    substantiated by objective evidence . . . .”).
    In sum, we conclude that the benefits of diversity, as set
    forth by the City, are not a compelling interest that justifies its
    diversity policy.
    3. Compliance With the 1980 Consent Decree
    The City also argues that compliance with the 1980
    Consent Decree constitutes a compelling interest. This, too, is
    unavailing. Compliance with a consent decree may certainly be
    a compelling interest, see Citizens Concerned About Our
    Children v. Sch. Bd. of Broward County, Florida, 
    193 F.3d 8
             Courts have found such “operational needs” arguments
    to be persuasive in the law enforcement context. See, e.g., Petit
    v. City of Chicago, 
    352 F.3d 1111
    , 1114 (7th Cir. 2004) (finding
    a “compelling operational need for a diverse police department”
    in a “racially and ethnically divided major American city”);
    Patrolmen’s Benevolent Ass’n v. New York, 
    310 F.3d 43
    , 52 (2d
    Cir. 2002) (“We have recognized that ‘a law enforcement body’s
    need to carry out its mission effectively, with a workforce that
    appears unbiased, is able to communicate with the public and is
    respected by the community it serves,’ may constitute a
    compelling state interest.”). In a sense, Grutter could itself be
    characterized as an “operational needs” opinion. The Supreme
    Court essentially found that law schools have an operational
    need for a diverse student body in order to effectively achieve
    their educational mission.
    12
    1285, 1292-94 (11th Cir. 1999) (explaining that violation of a
    consent decree “is punishable by contempt,” and “[a]voiding
    contempt and respecting the court that entered the consent
    decree suffice to make obedience a compelling interest”), but
    only if the decree mandates the race-based policy at issue:
    When the compelling interest is compliance with a
    court order, that means that the governmental
    entity must face a likelihood of contempt under the
    order if it abandons the racial policy. The reason is
    obvious: any policy that exceeds the bare
    requirements of the order no longer closely fits the
    compelling interest because abandoning the policy
    is consistent with respecting the court, avoiding
    contempt liability, and righting the wrongs
    underlying the decree.
    
    Id. at 1293.
    The Consent Decree says nothing about the diversity
    policy at issue here, much less does it require the City to engage
    in that policy. The Decree establishes policies and benchmarks
    for the hiring and promotion of minority firefighters, with the
    only language even arguably relevant here found in one
    paragraph of the twelve-page Decree where the defendants were
    prohibited from making unlawfully discriminatory assignments.
    Reading a complete diversity requirement into that prohibition,
    however, particularly where, as here, it is conceded that there
    was no unlawful discrimination, would stretch that language
    beyond its logical or intended limits. Fire Department officials
    effectively admit as much. Stanley Kossup, Director of the Fire
    Department from 1988 to 2002, testified that he did not believe
    that the existence of single-race fire companies violated the
    Consent Decree. Similarly, Edward Dunham, who served as
    Director of the Fire Department from 2002 to 2004 after serving
    as the Affirmative Action Officer in the late 1990s, testified that
    the Consent Decree did not mandate the elimination of single-
    race fire companies and that issue of single-race companies
    “never came up” before the “consent decree committee” on
    which he served. (Id. at 308.)
    13
    4. Summary of Compelling Interest
    In the concluding paragraphs of its analysis, the District
    Court implied that the three interests—remedying past
    discrimination, educational and sociological benefits of
    diversity, and compliance with the Consent Decree—together
    constitute a compelling interest. (Id. at 34 (“When one ‘strictly
    scrutinizes’ the Newark transfer policy and finds it to be
    designed to eliminate de facto segregation in its firehouses, in
    pursuit of the mandate of the Consent Decree to which it was a
    party, with attendant educational, sociological and
    job-performance enhancements as well, one is led to the
    inevitable conclusion that this policy was implemented to
    achieve a ‘compelling interest’ of the City.”).) As explained
    above, however, we simply cannot conclude that, individually or
    in the aggregate, these interests are compelling.9
    III. CONCLUSION
    We conclude this opinion as we began, by reiterating
    what this case is not about. It is not about remedying intentional
    discrimination in the Newark Fire Department. It is not about
    improving the Department’s ability to extinguish fires. It is not
    about whether diverse work places are good for employees or for
    society or whether long-range hiring goals are being met. This
    case is about whether Newark can “create[] a rainbow” in each
    of the 108 companies solely by means of a racial classification.
    We hold that it cannot. Racial balancing, and that is what this is,
    simply cannot be achieved by means of a racial classification
    without running afoul of the Equal Protection Clause of the
    Constitution. Grutter v. Bollinger, 
    539 U.S. 306
    , 330 (2003)
    (explaining that “outright racial balancing . . . is patently
    unconstitutional”); see also Freeman v. Pitts, 
    503 U.S. 467
    , 494
    (1992) (“Racial balance is not to be achieved for its own sake.”).
    Accordingly, we will reverse the order of the District Court, and
    remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
    9
    Because we find that the diversity policy does not
    further a compelling state interest, we need not determine
    whether the policy is narrowly tailored.
    14
    15