Thread: Supreme Court to rule on Firefighters test - racial bias?

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court appeared divided Wednesday over whether a Connecticut city's decision to scrap a promotion exam for firefighters because too few minorities passed violates the civil rights of top-scoring white applicants.
As is often the case with closely fought social issues at the court, Justice

Anthony Kennedy appeared to hold the key to the outcome. He seemed concerned that New Haven, Conn., scuttled the test after it learned that no African Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be promoted based on the results.

"It looked at the results and classified successful and unsuccessful applicants by race," said Kennedy, who often frowns on racial classifications, yet is not as opposed to drawing distinctions on the basis of race as his more conservative colleagues.

But where Kennedy saw shades of gray, the rest of the court seemed to view the case clearly in terms of black and white.

The court's conservative bloc seemed inclined to side with the white firefighters. "You had some applicants who were winners and their promotion was set aside," Justice Antonin Scalia said.

The liberals indicated that New Haven did nothing wrong by throwing out the test over concerns that it had a "disparate impact" on minorities in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

A ruling against the city, Justice David Souter said, could leave employers in a "damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation." Souter's comment reflected the concern of business interests who said in a court filing that a decision in favor of the white firefighters would place employers in an untenable position of having to choose whether to face lawsuits from disgruntled white or minority workers.

The discrimination lawsuit brought by 20 white firefighters — one also is Hispanic — challenges New Haven's decision to throw out promotion exams for lieutenants and captains in its fire department.

The plaintiffs, in their dark blue dress uniforms, posed for photographs Wednesday morning in front of the court.

The city argues that if it had gone ahead with the promotions based on the test results, it would have risked a lawsuit claiming that the exams had a "disparate impact" on minorities in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The federal appeals court in New York upheld a lower court ruling dismissing the lawsuit.

The case has drawn input from interest groups across the ideological spectrum. The Obama administration has weighed in mainly on the city's side, although it recommends allowing the lawsuit to proceed on a limited basis.

Besides affecting how race can be considered in filling government and perhaps even private jobs, the dispute also addresses broader questions about racial progress: Do minorities and women still need legal protection from discrimination, or do the monumental civil rights laws that created a more equal nation now cause more harm than good?

Also, beneath the specific details of the firefighters' lawsuit lies an uncomfortable truth: On most standardized tests, regardless of the subject, blacks score lower than whites.

More in the link.

Should be interesting to see how this shakes out.

It is not really a clear cut deal because of how the '64 Civil Rights Act is written:

The liberals indicated that New Haven did nothing wrong by throwing out the test over concerns that it had a "disparate impact" on minorities in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

But on the other hand:

Torre argues that discarding a test because no minorities would have been promoted violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which forbids discrimination because of race.

Which leads us here:

Call it a legal riddle only the Supreme Court could solve: The white firefighters say Title VII prohibits discrimination against them for being white; New Haven says Title VII prohibits it from using a test that has a disparate impact against blacks.

I'm not sure if they really had any choice but the throw out the test, but it is hard to accept that even the bloke that scored the highest on the test would not get a promotion:

Marcarelli said it was "gut wrenching" to learn that he was No. 1 on the test but would not get promoted.

This might be true:

"All were afforded the same notice, the same study period, the same exam syllabi, etc.," said Torre, who would only answer questions by e-mail. "The rest was up to the individual."

But then again so is this:

Also, beneath the specific details of the firefighters' lawsuit lies an uncomfortable truth: On most standardized tests, regardless of the subject, blacks score lower than whites.

Yet, they seem to have tried to avoid something like this from happening - but failed:

The exams were designed by a professional testing firm that followed federal guidelines for mitigating disparate racial outcomes, the plaintiffs say.

I wonder since the tests where thrown out did they still pay this "professional" testing firm for preparing a test that they seem to be saying failed to provide the desired results?

Originally Posted by Attilla the Hen

If they throw out the test, they are implying that minorities aren't as intelligent, which, I presume, is a racist position.

Could have used yours or Dugs to address this point. But most of the time when test results come out like this - no blacks score well. The general default is to say that the test had a racial bais that made it easier for the non-minority to score better.

In this case the city went thru the trouble of hiring someone to design the test to try and avoid this, and yet still ended up without any of the black people who took the test from scoring high enough.

The artical goes so far as to say:

Also, beneath the specific details of the firefighters' lawsuit lies an uncomfortable truth: On most standardized tests, regardless of the subject, blacks score lower than whites.

A ready made excuse to challenge test results.