Personnel Administrator of Massachusetts v. Feeney

Personnel Administrator of Massachusetts v. Feeney
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 26, 1979 Decided June 5, 1979
Full case name	Personnel Administrator of Massachusetts et al. v. Feeney
Citations	442 U.S. 256 (more) 99 S. Ct. 2282; 60 L. Ed. 2d 870; 19 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1377; 19 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) ¶ 9240
Case history
Prior	451 F.Supp. 143 (reversed and remanded)
Holding
A state law giving hiring preference to veterans over nonveterans does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, even though many more men than women are able to take advantage of it. District of Massachusetts reversed and remanded.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Potter Stewart Byron White · Thurgood Marshall Harry Blackmun · Lewis F. Powell Jr. William Rehnquist · John P. Stevens
Case opinions
Majority	Stewart, joined by Burger, White, Blackmun, Powell, Rehnquist, Stevens
Concurrence	Stevens, joined by White
Dissent	Marshall, joined by Brennan
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV

Personnel Administrator of Massachusetts v. Feeney, 442 U.S. 256 (1979), was a case heard by the Supreme Court of the United States. The decision upheld the constitutionality of a state law, giving hiring preference to veterans over nonveterans.^[1]

The law was challenged as violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution by a woman, who argued that the law discriminated on the basis of sex because so few women were veterans.^[1]