# Court rules for white firefighters over promotions



## uspresident1 (Jan 12, 2007)

Court rules for white firefighters over promotions - Yahoo! News

*Court rules for white firefighters over promotions*

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer Mark Sherman, Associated Press Writer 12 mins ago

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Monday that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.
New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said Monday in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities.
The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide and make it harder to prove discrimination when there is no evidence it was intentional.
"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 said in his opinion for the court. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the white firefighters "understandably attract this court's sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them."
Justices Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens signed onto Ginsburg's dissent, which she read aloud in court Monday.
Kennedy's opinion made only passing reference to the work of Sotomayor and the other two judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who upheld a lower court ruling in favor of New Haven.
But the appellate judges have been criticized for producing a cursory opinion that failed to deal with "indisputably complex and far from well-settled" questions, in the words of another appeals court judge, Sotomayor mentor Jose Cabranes.
"This perfunctory disposition rests uneasily with the weighty issues presented by this appeal," Cabranes said, in a dissent from the full 2nd Circuit's decision not to hear the case.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Sotomayor should not be criticized for the unsigned appeals court decision, which he asserted she did not write. "Judge Sotomayor and the lower court panel did what judges are supposed to do, they followed precedent," said the Vermont Democrat who will preside over Sotomayor's confirmation hearings next month.
Leahy also called the high court decision "cramped" and wrong.
In New Haven, Nancy Ricci, whose son, Frank, was the lead plaintiff on the lawsuit, carried a large cake decorated with red, white and blue frosting into the law office where the firefighters were celebrating their victory.
Ricci's father, Jim Ricci said the ruling is a victory for firefighters across the country. "Now we're going to get the best managers as far as firefighters go. That's really important," Ricci said.
Monday's decision has its origins in New Haven's need to fill vacancies for lieutenants and captains in its fire department. It hired an outside firm to design a test, which was given to 77 candidates for lieutenant and 41 candidates for captain.
Fifty six firefighters passed the exams, including 41 whites, 22 blacks and 18 Hispanics. But of those, only 17 whites and two Hispanics could expect promotion.
The city eventually decided not to use the exam to determine promotions. It said it acted because it might have been vulnerable to claims that the exam had a "disparate impact" on minorities in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The white firefighters said the decision violated the same law's prohibition on intentional discrimination.

Kennedy said an employer needs a "strong basis in evidence" to believe it will be held liable in a disparate impact lawsuit. New Haven had no such evidence, he said. 
The city declined to validate the test after it was given, a step that could have identified flaws or determined that there were no serious problems with it. In addition, city officials could not say what was wrong with the test, other than the racially skewed results. 
"The city could be liable for disparate-impact discrimination only if the examinations were not job related" or the city failed to use a less discriminatory alternative, Kennedy said. "We conclude that there is no strong basis in evidence to establish that the test was deficient in either of these respects." 
But Ginsburg said the court should have assessed "the starkly disparate results" of the exams against the backdrop of historical and ongoing inequality in the New Haven fire department. As of 2003, she said, only one of the city's 21 fire captains was African-American. 
Until this decision, Ginsburg said, the civil rights law's prohibitions on intentional discrimination and disparate impact were complementary, both aimed at ending workplace discrimination. "Today's decision sets these paired directives at odds," she said.


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## Figgsy142 (Feb 20, 2009)

Thats great news, the test is the test. I bombed on the sgt exam once, and it was not because I grew up in a triple decker and went to a shitty public school. 
It's because I was watching TV and not studying, no one to blame but myself.


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## Sam1974 (Apr 8, 2009)

and they say that reverse- racism doesn't exist.. 
i've been denied a lot of things because i'm white.

school loans to name one.. i proofed that theory by changing my last name to my grandmother's maden and re-submitting the application and it got approved. I didn't take the money but it goes to show you...


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## SgtAndySipowicz (Mar 17, 2008)

*Re: congrats*

Congrats to those firemen who studied, scored well and finished at the top of the testing class, regardless of their race. The best person for the job should always get it. The days of *affirmative action* should be over now. Let's stop blaming* all* of today's white males for the sins of a *few* 50+ years ago. We have a black President, Governor and AG to name a few. Women are more powerful than ever in this country. *Equality* is here now, thus affirmative action programs are no longer needed........


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## shawnl2213 (May 5, 2008)

I could not agree with you more SgtAndy!!!


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## Nighttrain (Dec 10, 2004)

Just remember, the appeals court judge who ruled against the white plantiffs, Sonia Sotomay, is up for a spot on the US Supreme Court. The fight may not be over just yet.


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## BB-59 (Oct 19, 2005)

*Re: congrats*



SgtAndySipowicz said:


> Congrats to those firemen who studied, scored well and finished at the top of the testing class, regardless of their race. The best person for the job should always get it. The days of *affirmative action* should be over now. Let's stop blaming* all* of today's white males for the sins of a *few* 50+ years ago. We have a black President, Governor and AG to name a few. Women are more powerful than ever in this country. *Equality* is here now, thus affirmative action programs are no longer needed........


 I guesse you forgot who was elected POTUS and who he wants on the Supreme Court.

"The best person for the job." Yeah sure.

Have some more "Obama aid" and you will see the guiding light.

Just ask Reverand Wright and Bill Ayres.


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## firefighter39 (Apr 10, 2006)

Nighttrain said:


> Just remember, the appeals court judge who ruled against the white plantiffs, Sonia Sotomay, is up for a spot on the US Supreme Court. The fight may not be over just yet.


She won't change the balance of the court, she is just replacing another liberal hippie *** dope smoker


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## SgtAndySipowicz (Mar 17, 2008)

*Re: congrats*



BB-59 said:


> I guesse you forgot who was elected POTUS and who he wants on the Supreme Court.
> 
> "The best person for the job." Yeah sure.
> 
> ...


*Sotomayor* admitted that she got into Yale Law School over those MORE QUALIFIED (because of *affirmative action*). The scary thing is that she stated she has no problem with that! So basically, some white guy ended up going to a "Suffolk Law" type law school instead of Yale Law School, while Sotomayor got to get an *Ivy League* education (when it should have been the other way around based on grades etc). I know it's hard work to get a law degree from any school, but what will land you the better job??? I would assume a Yale grad...........


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## Nighttrain (Dec 10, 2004)

firefighter39 said:


> She won't change the balance of the court, she is just replacing another liberal hippie *** dope smoker


To dismiss her probable appointment as meaningless isn't that wise. Scalia and Kennedey aren't young men and Obama may have yet another apointment to make. To those of us who enforce the law it makes all the diference in the world.


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## grn3charlie (Jul 18, 2005)

So All Men Are Created Equal huh? Not according to the dissnters on the US Supreme Court. 2009's version of white supremesists!


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## Crvtte65 (May 19, 2002)

from the dissenting opinion



> At least two candidates opposed to certification noted unequal access to study materials. Some individuals, they asserted, had the necessary books even before the syllabus was issued. Others had to invest substantial sums to purchase the materials and "wait a month and a half for some of the books because they were on back-order." These disparities, it was suggested, fell at least in part along racial lines. While many Caucasian applicants could obtain materials and assistance from relatives in the fire service, the over-whelming majority of minority applicants were "first generation firefighters" without such support networks.


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## GD (May 2, 2002)

Quote{At least two candidates opposed to certification noted unequal access to study materials. Some individuals, they asserted, had the necessary books even before the syllabus was issued. Others had to invest substantial sums to purchase the materials and “wait a month and a half for some of the books because they were on back-order.” These disparities, it was suggested, fell at least in part along racial lines. While many Caucasian applicants could obtain materials and assistance from relatives in the fire service, the over-whelming majority of minority applicants were “first generation firefighters” without such support networks Quote}

Back order, Try the library!! I got all my promotional books at the library. Study, study and study until your back order is filled. Just a liberal excuse!!


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## BB-59 (Oct 19, 2005)

What if we tried a truely radical idea.

O discrimination

0 reverse descrimination

How do we say one is bad but not the other?


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