On October 14, 1999, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit handed WLF a victory when it decided that the City of Pittsburgh had unlawfully used race in deciding which of its police officer candidates to hire. On April 16, 1999, WLF filed a brief with the appeals court, urging it to decide that federal law gives the same protection from racial discrimination to everyone. Certain applicants for the Pittsburgh Police Department sued the City, charging that it rejected them because of their race. A jury delivered a verdict in favor of the applicants. The City then appealed, arguing that the verdict should be reversed because the applicants should have met “a heightened standard” to establish a presumption of intentional discrimination, because they are white. WLF argued that federal law gives every person the same opportunity to use indirect evidence as proof that an employer engaged in intentional racial discrimination.
