Attorney Says FAA Told Plaintiff He Was "Wrong Color For The
Job"
Michael Ryan says FAA
repeatedly passed him over for promotion because he is white and
male. The case, Michael C. Ryan v. Norman Y. Mineta, Secretary, US.
Department of Transportation, pits merit promotion principles
against the FAA’s unlawful affirmative action program.
In a rare legal move, Chief Judge John W. Bissell of Federal
District Court, District of New Jersey, granted Ryan’s motion
to sue his employer, the federal government, for violating his
constitutional right to equal protection. Judge Bissell and a
jury will consider this case under, respectively, the US
Constitution’s equal protection clause and Title VII of the
United States Code. Trial will begin on April 28, 2004. Hanan M.
Isaacs represents the plaintiff, Ryan. US Attorney Christopher
Christie represents the Secretary of the Department of
Transportation.
Michael C. Ryan is a white male employee at the FAA’s
William J. Hughes Technical Center, in Atlantic City (NJ). The FAA
has repeatedly denied Ryan’s promotion bids, despite his
respected 28-year career at the Agency. Between 1995 and
1997, Ryan was denied eight promotions for which he applied and for
which his lawyer, Hanan Isaacs, says he was well-qualified. Seven
of the eight individuals chosen for the disputed jobs were
minorities or women. Ryan had trained one of the eight selectees,
an African American woman, when she was first recruited to the FAA
under a special program for minorities and women. When promoted
ahead of Ryan, who was her former teacher, this individual had 13
years less seniority than he did.
Isaacs says he'll show
four of the seven challenged applicants were not merit-selected,
but rather were chosen so that managers could meet the FAA’s
minority and female promotion quotas established under what he
calls an unlawful Affirmative Action Plan. Isaacs says he can also
prove Ryan was denied promotions because, as stated by an FAA
employee who worked for one of the selecting officials, he was "the
wrong color for the job."
Ryan and his lawyer say the FAA used an unwritten but well
publicized "50-50" policy, under which FAA managers were required,
as a condition of their own performance reviews, to promote women
and minorities at least 50% of the time. Managers received
financial and career incentives to meet and exceed those promotion
goals, and were warned that they would be held accountable if they
did not. Ryan’s lawsuit seeks to have those policies declared
void as a matter of federal constitutional and statutory law.
Ryan has been an FAA employee since 1976. Until 1986, when his
career stalled, Ryan had received numerous awards and promotions,
rising steadily to a GS-14 level. In 1988, the FAA produced an
Affirmative Action Plan, calling for "a workforce that looks like
America by 2000." But in reports sent to the highest levels of FAA
management in the 1990’s, Ryan’s expert witness told
the FAA that its plans violated US. Supreme Court case law, as
interpreted by US. Justice Department guidelines issued especially
for federal agencies. That witness, John G. Larsen, a current FAA
senior manager, will testify at trial, along with other senior
managers who recognize that the FAA’s Affirmative Action
policies are fundamentally flawed.
Ryan is asking for a promotion, back pay, pain and suffering
damages, counsel fees, a declaratory judgment, and injunctive
relief.