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June 29, 2009 in Nation/World
Court rules for white firefighters over promotions
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, 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,” 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.
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Ninch on June 29 at 8:26 a.m.
I do not understand the dissent opinion: “But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them.”
Promotions are based on the test results, so although not a “vested” right, it is a REQUIRED step toward a promotion… but that test got thrown out because of FEAR of a civil rights suit… which apparently would have failed because all had equal opportunity to study for the test. It seems like the dissenters made up a circular argument to justify some weird liberal ideology that went far beyond that of Affirmative Action… and the case in front of them.
The authentic discrimination is against both the white and Hispanic firefighters because a legitimate test was thrown out based on some idea that a certain number of “selected” minorities should have been successful (aka “race quota”). Bottom line… they need to study more. Lots of people of all races do not do well on such tests in the beginning but they keep taking the test and improving. Additionally, knowledge needed for a fire service promotion test is NOT a secret and is based on accepted national standards… not a unique cultural/ethnic worldview.
This case was decided correctly, but the judges who dissented need to look at reality in the fire service and not fantasy overreaching arguments about racial equality. BTW: The dissenting Justice Souter is one who voted that it is OK for government to take private property for use by influential private developers (not for public good). Luckily our state already had a law in place to prevent such egregious takings.