063554P.pdf   08/26/2008  Michael Martinez  v.  City of St. Louis
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  06-3554
   U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri - St. Louis   
   [PUBLISHED] [Loken, Author, with John R. Gibson and Melloy,
   Circuit Judges]
   Civil case - Employment Discrimination. District court erred in
   granting monetary and equitable relief for the City's hiring decisions
   made before dissolution of the consent decree governing the hiring of
   firefighters; compliance with a valid Title VII remedial consent decree
   until it is dissolved is a complete defense to the pre-dissolution claims for
   damages and other individualized relief; while dissolution of the decree
   prospectively eliminated an affirmative defense to the reverse
   discrimination claims asserted by plaintiffs, dissolution alone does not
   establish that the City's post-dissolution hiring decisions were the
   product of intentional race discrimination or adversely affected plaintiffs;
   as the district court did not address the elements of the post-dissolution
   hiring claims, the matter must be remanded for further proceedings on the
   issue of liability and remedy; at this stage of the proceedings, an award of
   attorneys' fees to plaintiffs would be premature.