Supreme Court Rules Against New Haven in Discrimination Case
by Lars Etzkorn
Last week, in a much anticipated decision, the Supreme Court ruled that a group of firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race after the city decided not to certify the results of a civil service exam in order to avoid a charge of discrimination from a different group of firefighters.
The court’s decision reverses a ruling that nominee Sonia Sotomayor supported as a court of appeals judge.
“Confronted with arguments both for and against certifying the test results — and threats of a lawsuit either way — the city was required to make a difficult inquiry. But [the city] … produced no strong evidence of a disparate-impact violation, and the city was not entitled to disregard the tests based solely on the racial disparity in the results,” Justice Anthony Kennedy said in the majority opinion for the court.
The case, Ricci v. New Haven, arose as a result of civil service tests given in 2003 for promotion to lieutenant and captain in the city’s fire department. When none of the black firefighters who took the exam scored high enough to be eligible for advancement, the city threw out the results and promoted no one. That decision triggered a lawsuit by 18 firefighters, 17 white and 1 Hispanic, who alleged that the city’s actions constituted racial discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In rejecting New Haven’s decision to discard the tests, the court held that 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, Justice Kennedy said in the decision. ''We conclude that there is no strong basis in evidence to establish that the test was deficient in either of these respects.''
“I have no doubt that the firefighters who brought the lawsuit genuinely felt that they had done nothing wrong, and that they were egregiously wronged,” said New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr., in a press conference after the ruling. “I also have no doubt that there is another group of firefighters today who feel that the rules are constantly stacked against them. And that when they finally do start to get ahead, the rules get changed.”
Because state and local governments rely on civil service exams to hire and promote the vast majority of their employees pursuant to laws requiring merit-based hiring and promotion, the court’s ruling could alter public sector employment practices nationwide, potentially limiting the circumstances in which employers can be held liable for decisions when there is no evidence of intentional discrimination against minorities.
"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," the court held.
Joining Justice Kennedy in the majority were 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 — in his last case as a member of the court — and John Paul Stevens signed onto Ginsburg's dissent.
The International Municipal Lawyers Association and NLC participated as amicus curiae in the case supporting the City of New Haven.
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