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    Vol.62/No.16           April 27, 1998 
 
 
U.S. Court Overturns Affirmative Action Program  

BY HILDA CUZCO
Striking a blow against affirmative action programs, a federal appeals court overturned a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirement that radio and television stations encourage job applicants of oppressed nationalities.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia claimed the program does not serve the purpose of ending racial discrimination but instead gives special breaks to Blacks and others.

"We do not think it matters whether a government hiring program imposes hard quotas, soft quotas, or goals," reads the April 14 decision, written by Judge Laurence Silberman. "Any of these techniques induces an employer to hire with an eye toward meeting the numerical target. As such, they can and surely will result in individuals being granted a preference because of their race."

According to the FCC, the percentage of Blacks, Latinos, and other oppressed nationalities employed full-time in radio and television broadcasting has more than doubled since the affirmative action measure was put in place, from 9.1 percent in 1971 to 19.9 percent today.

The FCC employment recruitment guidelines, first adopted in 1968, were among many affirmative action measures conquered in the late 1960s and early '70s by the struggle for Black rights and the women's liberation movement as a way of combating discrimination in education, industry, society and politics.

The FCC regulations, which had been revised over the years, required that broadcasting businesses' hiring reflect the composition of the community regarding oppressed nationalities and women, and establish affirmative action programs for recruitment, job applications, and training.

The case was brought by an appeal of a Lutheran church in Clayton, Ohio, against a 1989 FCC ruling penalizing its two radio stations for not taking steps to recruit employees of oppressed nationalities.

The FCC has not said whether it will appeal the decision.  
 
 
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