Supreme Court Decides Discrimination Suit in Favor of White Firefighters

June 30, 2009 by Suzanne Conlon

The Supreme Court yesterday ruled in favor of a group of white firefighters in New Haven, Connecticut who sued over reverse race discrimination. The ruling tells employers that efforts to combat potential discrimination against one group can create discrimination against another.

The firefighters alleged that the city violated their rights when it threw out the results of a test on which few minorities scored well. When promotion test results showed that no African Americans and only two Hispanics would be eligible for promotion to the ranks of lieutenant and captain, city officials feared they faced a discrimination lawsuit.

The city was caught between different provisions of Title VII, which says that individuals may not be treated differently because of their race, religion or sex, but also that seemingly neutral testing requirements can be discriminatory if they have a negative impact primarily on members of one group.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing the majority decision, wrote: "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."

Kennedy said that test properly evaluated what candidates would need to know to perform their jobs, and that it was equally applied to candidates of all races and ethnic backgrounds. "The process was open and fair," he said. "The problem, of course, is that after the tests were completed, the raw racial results became the predominant rationale for the city's refusal to certify the results."

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a dissenting opinion, said the majority decision undermines Title VII.  "Congress and, until the decision just announced, this court, regarded Title VII's dual prescriptions on intentional discrimination and disparate impact as complementary," Ginsburg wrote. "Standing on equal footing, both provisions aim to end workplace discrimination and promote genuinely equal opportunity."

Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, had been part of a panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit that upheld a ruling in favor of New Haven's decision. 

Sotomayor’s critics cited the Supreme Court ruling as evidence that she allowed her personal preferences to influence her judicial decisions, while her supporters said the decision was a straightforward application of court precedents. "She doesn't legislate from the bench," said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.