Legal News

Back In Action, SCOTUS Revisits Firefighter Bias Issues

By Nathan Koppel

Following a three-week winter hiatus (it must be nice) the Supreme Court is back in action today.

This morning it will hear oral arguments in a case that involves alleged racial discrimination by a city's fire department.

Sound familiar, huh?

Last term the court ruled that white firefighters in New Haven were unfairly denied promotions because of their race. The Ricci case stemmed from the city of New Haven’s decision not to certify a test after no black firefighters scored highly enough to merit promotion. The case, however, was perhaps most famous for its lineage: a Second Circuit panel, joined by Justice Sotomayor, rejected the firefighters’ discrimination claims in a per curiam opinion.

Today, the court will hear a case out of Chicago brought by 6,000 African Americans who were not hired by the city's fire department even though they earned "qualified" scores on an entry level exam given by the fire department. Here's a preview from the Chicago Tribune.

“This case is the flip side of Ricci,” Benna Solomon, deputy corporation counsel for Chicago, told the Trib.

Lewis v. City of Chicago involves a 1995 test by the city’s fire department. Only 11.5% of the test takers who scored "well qualified" – and stood a good chance of landing a job – were black. African American applicants sued in 1997, asserting that the Civil Rights Act bars job tests that unfairly screen out minority applicants.

The case, however, could turn more on timing than civil rights law.

The plaintiffs sued more than a year after the results were announced – too late, according to the 7th Circuit, which dismissed the case. The Supremes are due to consider whether the statute of limitations on discrimination claims runs from the time that an employer adopts a discriminatory practice or from the date the employer actually uses the discriminatory practice. Here's an overview of the case from ScotusWiki.

The court, according to the Trib, could stick to the narrower timing issue or tackle the broader matter of bias claims based on test scores. Chicago has since adopted a pass-fail test for fighters; all those who pass qualify to join the department.

We expect that many of the cognoscenti attending the argument will pay close attention to Sotomayor.

http://www.scotusblog.com/2010/02/should-attorney%e2%80%99s-fees-be-awarded-to-attorneys-or-their-client/#more-16348

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 22, 2010 (boomark / email).