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Supreme Court Rules Black Firefighter Lawsuit Can Proceed
JESSE J. HOLLAND
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a group of African Americans did not wait too long to sue Chicago over a hiring test they challenged as discriminatory, freeing them to further press their case.
It is the second time in as many years that the high court has tackled discrimination in testing within the firefighting ranks. In a landmark case last year, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision said New Haven, Conn., violated white firefighters' civil rights, throwing out an exam in which no African-Americans scored high enough to be promoted to lieutenant or captain.
In Monday's opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the court that the applicants' lawsuit over a city of Chicago test used to weed out potential firefighter trainee applicants was not too late.
Anyone who scored 64 or below was deemed not qualified. But the city set a second cutoff score of 89 points.
Officials told applicants who scored below 89 but above 64 that although they passed the test, they likely would not be hired because of the large number of people who scored 89 or above. The majority of those in the top-scoring group were white; only 11 percent were black.
People are supposed to sue within 300 days after an employment action they seek to challenge as unlawful.
The city says the clock started when it announced the use of the test scores on Jan. 26, 1996. The first lawsuit in the case was filed on March 31, 1997, 430 days after the city announced the results.
But the plaintiffs say a new act of discrimination also happened each time the scores were used in hiring firefighter trainees between May 1996 and October 2001.
A U.S. District judge agreed with the black applicants, but the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision.
In Monday's high court ruling, Scalia said: "It may be true that the City's January 1996 decision to adopt the cutoff score (and to create a list of the applicants above it) gave rise to a freestanding disparate impact claim. ... But it does not follow that no new violation occurred _ and no new claims could arise _ when the City implemented that decision down the road. If petitioners could prove that the City 'used' the 'practice' that 'causes a disparate impact,' they could prevail."
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a group of African Americans did not wait too long to sue Chicago over a hiring test they challenged as discriminatory, freeing them to further press their case.
It is the second time in as many years that the high court has tackled discrimination in testing within the firefighting ranks. In a landmark case last year, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision said New Haven, Conn., violated white firefighters' civil rights, throwing out an exam in which no African-Americans scored high enough to be promoted to lieutenant or captain.
In Monday's opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the court that the applicants' lawsuit over a city of Chicago test used to weed out potential firefighter trainee applicants was not too late.
Anyone who scored 64 or below was deemed not qualified. But the city set a second cutoff score of 89 points.
Officials told applicants who scored below 89 but above 64 that although they passed the test, they likely would not be hired because of the large number of people who scored 89 or above. The majority of those in the top-scoring group were white; only 11 percent were black.
People are supposed to sue within 300 days after an employment action they seek to challenge as unlawful.
The city says the clock started when it announced the use of the test scores on Jan. 26, 1996. The first lawsuit in the case was filed on March 31, 1997, 430 days after the city announced the results.
But the plaintiffs say a new act of discrimination also happened each time the scores were used in hiring firefighter trainees between May 1996 and October 2001.
A U.S. District judge agreed with the black applicants, but the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision.
In Monday's high court ruling, Scalia said: "It may be true that the City's January 1996 decision to adopt the cutoff score (and to create a list of the applicants above it) gave rise to a freestanding disparate impact claim. ... But it does not follow that no new violation occurred _ and no new claims could arise _ when the City implemented that decision down the road. If petitioners could prove that the City 'used' the 'practice' that 'causes a disparate impact,' they could prevail."
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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The test in question was the basic one that begins the application process to get hired. Basic reading and writing skills are and should be required.
For the "next leaders" it's even more important. Without appropriate reading and writing skills how are they going to continue on in their own education in the fire service? Leaders (by which I'm referring to Officers) are not only responsible for basic report writing but employee evaluations and in their own continuing education they will be taking classes, tests and writing papers. If they can't pass what is essentially a civil service exam how then can they ever expect to move forward in the fire service? Suing each time they fail a promotional exam?
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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Still thinking outside the box, I'm not convinced Jack.
With the technology available today, full reports can be written by totally illiterate people. There's software out there such as Dragon Naturally Speaking which scribes the spoke nword of the user. (I worked for a Manager at one stage, who could not write to save himself, but could speak very fluently- he used Dragon for ALL written correspondance).
I also recently saw a person using a device that recorded the conversation, then it was uploaded onto a PC and what was spoken appeared on the screen within minutes.
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Permalink Reply by Norm Tindell on
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Speaking of "outside the box".......Some our "leaders" of today got there simply by being best at memorization. A very big city department nearby tests with a book that is written solely for the test and is then thrown out after the test. New book for each test! The book has nothing to do with real SOP's! I believe it is written by a psychologist. There are "leaders" there with very few years on the truck. So far they haven't been sued......=/
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Lutan1,
Some boxes, perhaps, shouldn't be thunk outside of.
Regardless of what technologies are available that compensate for anything from poor spelling to functional illiteracy, a person incapable of performing basic 6th grade skills shows either a fundamental learning disability or abject laziness. Either would be detrimental, on the fireground specifically and in the fire service in general.
But to the point of the discussion, a person that scores poorly on a test should not get the job simply because of their race or gender. Not when there are plenty of applicants that can and do exceed a given benchmark grade.
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This where the systems are flawed though Norm. That sort of testing makes a mockery out of the process.
I keep coming bakc to literacy- me being able to write as well as the candidate sitting beside me is not a measure of a good leader. Is reading and writing important? Absolutely! But there's different ways of doing it now.
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lutan1,
For starters, you keep referencing "leadership" when the subject of the discussion is job applicant. And while leaders will evolve from the rank and file, they are going to be the ones with the overall better academic skill set.
Reading and writing skills are not going to determine who is the better leader, granted. But the better leader is most likely going to have decent reading and writing skills. But then, beyond a certain point are we really talking 'leadership' or management? I suggest that a Chief of Department is going to rely heavily on being able to read, write and speak well. (Good speakers are almost always capable of something more than just being functionally adept writers.)
One other thing to bear in mind: Regardless of what technologies arise, they aren't going to be of any help to a person that is inarticulate. An ability to formulate coherent thoughts, into speech or onto paper is the result of a practical education.
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My leadership reference Jack, is in response to your comment earlier, "For the "next leaders" it's even more important. Without appropriate reading and writing skills how are they going to continue on in their own education in the fire service? Leaders (by which I'm referring to Officers) are not only responsible for basic report writing but employee evaluations and in their own continuing education they will be taking classes, tests and writing papers. If they can't pass what is essentially a civil service exam how then can they ever expect to move forward in the fire service? "
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The comment of mine that you quoted was in response to your earlier comment; So, for out-of-the-box thinking, is a written test the best way to determine the next leaders?
You actually brought up the issue of leadership and literacy, I was just responding to it.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Luke, I couldn't disagree more. In today's world, literacy is critical for people who have the legal right to enter stranger's homes in the middle of the night. If you can't accurately and adequately describe the situation that requred the entry in literate written and verbal terms, then you have a deficiency that says "I'm probably not the best candidate."
If you move into a leadership position, you'll be writing reports, schedules, training plans, and maybe even budgets and master plans. If those are illiterately written, your department might find itself defending an unnecessary lawsuit, wasting resources, or maybe not getting needed resources because the Parks-and-Recreation, Public Works, or Police folks wrote their plans more literately.
Our candidates take a written test, which is a pass-fail. If they don't make the cut line, they don't progress to the next step in the testing process, much less make the hire list.
As Al Brunacini used to say, "Our hiring and promotions process isn't designed to exclude women or minorities, it's designed to exclude FIRE."
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If one minority with the lower-range scores get reconsideration based upon this court case, shouldn't the rest of the candidates in the same score range get the same consideration?
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Luke, there are many fire departments in the U.S. that don't have moblie computing technology, so your solutions won't work for them.
Additionally, literacy isn't just about speaking and writing, it's about listening and reading. I don't want an illiterate firefighter pulling up on a target hazard, asking for the MSDS sheet, and then not being able to read well enough to determine what the specific hazardous materials on site are - or what their hazards are.
Illiteracy could kill firefighters in that scenario, and that's just one example.
Further, "within minutes" is waaaaaaaayyyyy too long to wait for information in many fire or emergency circumstances. Many fireground, rescue, and hazmat decisions must be made in seconds. Waiting even a couple of minutes on interpreting software isn't an option when you don't have minutes to wait.
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