Quota-like employment practices were upheld by the court in Local 28 Sheet Metal Workers International Association v. Equal Employment Opportunity, wherein a five-to-four decision a lower court ruling was allowed to stand that imposed a race-based quota requirement on a labor union. Gender-based preferences would also be upheld under Title VII in the case of Johnson v. Transportation Agency, Santa Clara County. In these cases, the court acknowledged that affirmative action is a prospective policy based on the idea of group rights that aims at achieving racial and gender balance, under the idea of proportional representation.

Restrictions were placed on affirmative action programs in many areas, exemplarily inWygant v. Jackson Board of Education. The collective bargaining agreement between the Jackson Board of Education and a teachers' union provided that, if it became necessary to lay off teachers, those with the most seniority would be retained, except that at no time would there be a greater percentage of minority personnel laid off than the current percentage of minority personnel employed at the time of the layoff. After this layoff provision was upheld in litigation arising from the Board's noncompliance with the provision, the Board adhered to it, with the result that, during certain school years, nonminority teachers were laid off, while minority teachers with less seniority were retained. Petitioners, displaced nonminority teachers, brought suit in federal district court, alleging violations of the Equal Protection Clause and certain federal and state statutes. The court ruled that an affirmative-action plan that protected black teachers while white teachers with more seniority were being laid off violated Title VII.