by Clint Bolick, Forbes: Today the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a New Haven, Conn., decision [5-4] to jettison a firefighter test that the city felt promoted too few minorities, overturning a ruling by Sonia Sotomayor, the appellate judge who likely will join the Court this October. . . .The Court's majority agreed. In this case, the city painstakingly developed a promotion examination linked to job performance. However, as Justice Anthony Kennedy observed for the majority, "after the tests were completed, the raw racial results became the predominant rationale for the city's refusal to certify the results." When no blacks and only two Hispanics qualified for promotion, the city threw out the test rather than face an adverse-impact lawsuit from minority candidates. That, the Court ruled, violated the rights of the non-minority candidates who studied hard and passed the exam.
Judge Sotomayor has faced intense criticism for her appeals-court ruling that upheld the decision to throw out the examination because the city was between a legal rock and a hard place. Judge Jose Cabranes, her colleague and mentor on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, castigated the cursory decision for failing to confront "indisputably complex and far from well-settled questions." The Court corrected that deficiency, ruling that an employer need not fear an adverse-impact lawsuit unless there is a "strong basis in evidence" that the tests are discriminatory. Given New Haven's efforts to develop a fair test, it could not throw out the results based merely on a fear of litigation. . . .
Meanwhile, the Court remains closely divided on issues that go to the core of American values. Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation will not likely change the mix, because Justice David Souter, the man she will likely replace, votes consistently to uphold racial preferences. But the Court's decision sends a signal that as a justice, Sotomayor will have to give these issues far more thought and effort than she did in this case. . . .[Full Story]
Tags: Connecticut, employment discrimination, New Haven, nominee, SCOTUS, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court, SCOTUS To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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