labor/community

I. Background

A. The Underlying Lawsuit

In 1994, BRU filed a class action under several federal civil rights statutes,1 charging MTA with violating the Fourteenth Amendment by discriminating against low income and minor- ity residents of Los Angeles County. The alleged discrimina- 1 The complaint relied upon 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, and 2000d. LABOR/COMMUNITY v. L.A. COUNTY MTA 5211 tion included expending a disproportionately high share of its resources on commuter rail services, whose primary users were wealthy non-minorities, and a disproportionately low share on bus services, whose main patrons were low income and minority residents.

In March 1995, the district court certified a plaintiff class of “[a]ll poor minority and other riders of MTA buses who are denied equal opportunity to receive transportation services because of the MTA’s operation of a discriminatory mass transportation system.” On the eve of trial the parties submit- ted a proposed consent decree, which the district court approved on October 29, 1996. See Labor/Community, 263 F.3d at 1043.

B. The Consent Decree

The decree committed MTA to a wide array of improve- ments in its bus…