Spring Break
Supreme Court rules for white firefighters in bias case
Michael Doyle - McClatchy NewspapersIssue date: 6/25/09 Section: Real News
WASHINGTON - A sharply divided Supreme Court ruled Monday that the city of New Haven, Conn., had discriminated against white firefighters, reversing a key decision by high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
The court's much-anticipated 5-4 decision is guaranteed to become prime fodder for Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearings. It also will change how employers handle hiring decisions.
"Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer's reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote.
Kennedy and the court's four consistent conservatives concluded that New Haven violated Title VII of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 when the city discarded promotion test results on which minorities had scored poorly. City officials claimed that minority applicants otherwise would have sued them.
"The city rejected the test results because too many whites and not enough minorities would be promoted," Kennedy wrote. "Without some other justification, this express, race-based decision-making violates Title VII's command that employers cannot take adverse employment actions because of an individual's race."
The decision puts New Haven firefighter Frank Ricci and his white colleagues back on track for potential promotions they were denied despite high test scores in 2003.
More broadly, the conservative Sacramento, Calif.-based Pacific Legal Foundation predicted that the ruling could shape the Memphis (Tenn.) Police Department, the California Department of Transportation and other agencies that are facing similar legal challenges over race-related hiring decisions.
"It says to employers, if you're concerned about the makeup of your fire lieutenants, or your supervisory ranks, then you need to think about what type of selection process you're going to use at the front end," Stanford University law professor Pam Karlan said.
In the future, the court ruled, employers must have a "strong basis in evidence" that they'll be sued before discarding test results solely on the grounds of race.
The court's much-anticipated 5-4 decision is guaranteed to become prime fodder for Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearings. It also will change how employers handle hiring decisions.
"Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer's reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote.
Kennedy and the court's four consistent conservatives concluded that New Haven violated Title VII of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 when the city discarded promotion test results on which minorities had scored poorly. City officials claimed that minority applicants otherwise would have sued them.
"The city rejected the test results because too many whites and not enough minorities would be promoted," Kennedy wrote. "Without some other justification, this express, race-based decision-making violates Title VII's command that employers cannot take adverse employment actions because of an individual's race."
The decision puts New Haven firefighter Frank Ricci and his white colleagues back on track for potential promotions they were denied despite high test scores in 2003.
More broadly, the conservative Sacramento, Calif.-based Pacific Legal Foundation predicted that the ruling could shape the Memphis (Tenn.) Police Department, the California Department of Transportation and other agencies that are facing similar legal challenges over race-related hiring decisions.
"It says to employers, if you're concerned about the makeup of your fire lieutenants, or your supervisory ranks, then you need to think about what type of selection process you're going to use at the front end," Stanford University law professor Pam Karlan said.
In the future, the court ruled, employers must have a "strong basis in evidence" that they'll be sued before discarding test results solely on the grounds of race.
Be the first to comment on this story