Supreme Court backs New Haven Firefighters

[starang21]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

NO. No one got promoted because no black firefighters and only one latino fire fighters scored well enough to be promoted.

well, yea. ok, the reason i stated was the reason the test got thrown out initially.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by starang21

well, yea. ok, the reason i stated was the reason the test got thrown out initially.

No it wasn't, because like UGAalum94 says, no one got promoted.

The test results were thrown out because (again, as UGAalum94 says) no black firefighters and only one latino fire fighters scored well enough to be promoted to begin with, leading the city to believe that if it certified and relied on the test results, the city would be open to a lawsuit claiming that the test was unfair to non-whites. So instead, they got a lawsuit from the employees who would have been promoted had the test results been certified.

[starang21]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

The test results were thrown out because (again, as UGAalum94 says) no black firefighters and only one latino fire fighters scored well enough to be promoted to begin with

Originally Posted by me

no black firefighters and only one latino fire fighter

good grief. talk about majoring in minors. that was the geist of my post.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by starang21

good grief. talk about majoring in minors. that was the geist of my post.

Sue me -- I'm a lawyer and I pick the nits like crazy when it comes to court opinions.

And here, it is a distinction with a legal difference -- or at least a difference that matters in understanding the opinion -- I think.

[UGAalum94]

The sequence of how it went down is what actually matters in the case, I think.

The actual suit resolved today depends entirely on the promotions being canceled.

The city claims that the reason they canceled the results was that they expected Black and Hispanic firefighters to sue if they went through with the promotion. Today, the Supreme Court said that being afraid you'd get sued alone wasn't a good enough reason to discriminate against a different racial group.

It's hard not to feel bad for the dyslexic guy who said he studied for like 10 hours a day and scored well enough for a promotion and then didn't get one based on the performance of other racial/ethnic subgroups on the test, over which, of course, he had absolutely no control.

[starang21]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

The city claims that the reason they canceled the results was that they expected Black and Hispanic firefighters to sue if they went through with the promotion.

where'd you read this at? just want to know the source.

that's a very poor reason to throw out results.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by starang21

where'd you read this at? just want to know the source.

that's a very poor reason to throw out results.

I found this on MSN:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31609275...s-white_house/

At the end of the article, the author points out that the test results were thrown out to avoid a lawsuit.

It looks like they avoided one lawsuit but walked right into another. Awesome.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by starang21

where'd you read this at? just want to know the source.

that's a very poor reason to throw out results.

"The 19 white and one Hispanic firefighter who sued the city in Ricci v. DeStefano argued that their civil rights were violated under Title 7 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. They say that the Civil Service Board failed to certify the exams in a 2-2 vote on the recommendation of then-City Attorney Thomas Ude because no blacks or Hispanics scored high enough to be promoted.

Ude had warned that if the tests were approved, the city could be sued by minority firefighters under the same Title 7, since the scores resulted in a "disparate impact" against non-white firefighters."

These two paragraphs are from the http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news...e=1&cat=&more= article I added to a post above.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

It's hard not to feel bad for the dyslexic guy who said he studied for like 10 hours a day and scored well enough for a promotion and then didn't get one based on the performance of other racial/ethnic subgroups on the test, over which, of course, he had absolutely no control.

Thank you for mentioning this. This guy probably studied and worked ten times as hard as everyone else, and he was still turned down because he was white.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

Thank you for mentioning this. This guy probably studied and worked ten times as hard as everyone else, and he was still turned down because he was white.

Welp, poor dyslexic guy. Life's a party.

And there goes the semantics of reverse discrimination. They weren't turned down because they were white. Organizations, in general, haven't gotten to the point where they discriminate against whites in the manner that nonwhites have been discriminated against for generations. The test results were thrown out because of the poor performance of the nonwhites, which they feared would lead to a questioning of the test and perhaps of organizational practices.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by starang21

good grief. talk about majoring in minors. that was the geist of my post.

I was getting ready to say you all are typing in circles over semantics. I knew what you meant.