Saint Francis College v. al-Khazraji

Saint Francis College v. al-Khazraji, 481 U.S. 604 (1987), is a United States labor law case decided by the United States Supreme Court.

Saint Francis College v. al-Khazraji
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 25, 1987 Decided May 18, 1987
Full case name	Saint Francis College v. al-Khazraji
Citations	481 U.S. 604 (more) 107 S. Ct. 2022; 95 L. Ed. 2d 582; 1987 U.S. LEXIS 2054
Holding
Persons of Arabian ancestry are protected from racial discrimination under Section 1981.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · John P. Stevens Sandra Day O'Connor · Antonin Scalia
Case opinions
Majority	White, joined by unanimous
Concurrence	Brennan
Laws applied
42 U.S.C. § 1981 (Civil Rights Act of 1866)

Facts

Al-Khazraji, a professor and U.S. citizen born in Iraq, filed suit against his former employer and its tenure committee for denying him tenure on the basis of his Arabian race in violation of 42 U.S.C. Section 1981. The District Court held that while Al-Kharzraji had properly alleged racial discrimination, the record was insufficient to determine whether he had been subjected to prejudice.

The question posed was "Does 42 U.S.C. Section 1981 apply to Arab minorities?"

Judgment

In response to this question the Court held that persons of Arabian ancestry were protected from racial discrimination under Section 1981. Writing for a unanimous Court, Justice White maintained that section 1981 encompassed discrimination even among Caucasians. Justice White noted that history did not support the claim that Arabs and other present-day "Caucasians" were considered to be a single race for the purposes of section 1981.

Justice Brennan, in a separate concurrence, discussed the difference between discrimination based on ancestry and discrimination based on birthplace. For many people, these are the same, but that is not a universal experience. In Brennan's view, the decision did not allow people to sue based on birthplace discrimination alone.

Significance

In the companion case, Shaare Tefila v. Cobb, a unanimous Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 likewise applies to discrimination against Jews.

See also

• Shaare Tefila Congregation v. Cobb
• United States labor law
• Civil Rights Act of 1866
• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 481
• List of United States Supreme Court cases
• Lists of United States Supreme Court cases by volume
• List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Rehnquist Court.

External links

• Text of Saint Francis College v. al-Khazraji, 481 U.S. 604 (1987) is available from: Cornell CourtListener Findlaw Google Scholar Justia Library of Congress OpenJurist Oyez (oral argument audio)