Civil Rights Chief Predicts End to Race, Sex Quotas in Hiring : U.S. Ready for Colorblind Attitude in Employment, He Tells Bar Assn.

MIAMI — The Reagan Administration’s chief civil rights enforcement officer predicted today that the nation may soon “put behind us for good” court-ordered mandatory hiring quotas based on race and sex.

In a speech to labor and employment committees of the Florida Bar Assn., Assistant Atty. Gen. William Bradford Reynolds said he believes that America is ready, instead, to choose a civil rights course “that is blind to color differences.”

Such a change, he said, “will help to bring an end to that stifling process by which government and society view citizens as possessors of racial characteristics, not as the unique individuals they are.”

Reynolds reiterated his belief that a Supreme Court decision involving Memphis, Tenn., firefighters severely restricts the ability of courts to issue affirmative action consent decrees and orders requiring race and sex-based employment quotas and set-asides.

Seeking Court Reviews

Reynolds, who heads the Justice Department’s civil rights division, noted that his department has been seeking to get courts to review previous affirmative action decrees in light of the June, 1984, Supreme Court decision in the Memphis case.

In its 6-3 decision in the case, the court’s majority ruled that Memphis could not scrap a last-hired, first-fired seniority system, when faced with the need for layoffs, to protect affirmative action programs giving blacks and women jobs.

Reynolds cited the Memphis decision as the reason why “I dare to make so bold a statement” forecasting an end to mandatory quotas.

The “inescapable consequence” of the Memphis case, he said, “is to move government at the federal, state and local levels noticeably closer to the overriding objectives of providing all citizens with a truly equal opportunity to compete on merit for the benefits that our society has to offer. . . . “

‘Recruitment, Outreach’

As for race- and sex-based affirmative action hiring plans embraced by private companies, Reynolds said he doubts that such plans will withstand court challenges in the future, even when they are voluntary.

He did say that affirmative action plans involving “active recruitment and outreach” programs aimed at increasing job opportunities for minorities and women “should be utilized to the fullest extent possible.”