Legal Defense Fund Joins in Airline Discrimination Brief

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NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
TO COLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEWYORK19,N.Y. « JUdson 6-8397 
DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS JACK GREENBERG CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY President Director-Counsel Associate Counsel 

Ss 

LEGAL DEFENSE FUND JOINS IN 
AIRLINE DISCRIMINATION BRIEF 

February 1, 1963 

WASHINGTON -- Can a state fair employment law be invoked to bar job 

discrimination by an interstate airline? 

Three national civil rights groups arqued "Yes" today in a joint 

friend-of-the-court brief submitted to the U. S. Supreme Court. They 

urged the high Court to overrule a Colorado Supreme Court decision 

which held that the state anti-discrimination law could not be consti- 

tutionally applied to the employment policies of Continental Air 

Lines, Inc., a Denver-based interstate carrier, 

The three groups that filed the joint "amicus" brief were the 

American Jewish Congress, American Civil Liberties Union, and NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "The outcome of this case can 

affect the proper working of all the state fair employment and other 

civil rights laws throughout the North," commented Jack Greenberg, 

Director-Counsel of the Legal Defense Fund. 

The brief said the three organizations were "deeply concerned" 

by the Colorado decision, which -- if allowed to stand -- would pre- 

vent the "many state and local fair employment laws that have opera- 

ted effectively in this country for more than seventeen years" from 

being applied "to a substantial and vital segment of the nation's 

economy." 

The case, now before the Supreme Court, involves a Negro pilot, 

Marlon D, Green, who sought a flying job with Continental Air Lines 

in 1957, The company's job application form included a question on 

race. Green was not hired, although white pilots interviewed later 

did receive job offers, 

An investigation by the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Commission, 

a state body, found that Green was fully qualified for the position 

he had sought and that Continental had failed to hire him solely 

because of his race. 



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The finding was appealed by the airline, which claimed an 

exemption from the requirements of the Colorado fair employment law 

on the ground that it was engaged in the interstate transportation of 

passengers, which can be regulated only by the Federal Government. 

The Colorado Supreme Court sustained the airline's appeal, holding 

that "with reference to interstate carriers, the requlation of racial 

discrimination is a matter in which there is a 'need for national 

uniformity,’ and...the states are without jurisdiction to act in that 

area." 

Quoting a concurring opinion by retired Justice Felix Frankfurter 

in a case in 1945, the brief urged the high Court to support the 

Colorado policy under which the State has "put its authority behind 

one of the cherished aims of American feeling by forbidding indul- 

gence in racial or religious prejudice to another's hurt." 

HHH