Posted on 02/20/2010 5:14:22 PM PST by Steelfish
Supreme Court To Consider Another Case On Racial Bias In Hiring Chicago firefighters say they were illegally discriminated against through test scores. A lawyer calls it the flip side to last year's case involving white firefighters in New Haven, Conn.
By David G. Savage February 20, 2010
Reporting from Washington - The controversy over racial bias, testing and firefighters that blew up at both the Supreme Court and the Senate last year returns Monday, this time as the justices decide whether blacks who were not hired in Chicago because of their test scores are due damages for years of lost wages.
The potentially $100-million civil rights case comes before a high court that has already shown its skepticism toward such claims.
Last year, the justices ruled for white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who said they were victims of illegal racial discrimination when the city threw out the results of a promotion test. The whites had earned high scores and would have gotten nearly all the promotions. City officials dropped the test results because they feared being sued by blacks who were denied promotions.
By contrast, the city of Chicago was sued for illegal discrimination by more than 6,000 African Americans who earned "qualified" scores on an entry-level test given by the Fire Department, but who lost out to mostly white applicants who had higher, "well qualified" scores.
"This case is the flip side of Ricci," said Benna Solomon, deputy corporation counsel for Chicago, referring to the New Haven case. "It illustrates the tension that public employers face."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
This case looks like a slam dunk. The plaintiffs want racial preferences, jumping ahead of those who scored highly qualified. In addition, the deadline for legal actions seems to have passed. I am surprised that the supreme court took this case.
In this jobless economy, I have sympathy for anyone who wants to work and can’t find a job.
If I’m an employer, I only consider those for the job who, in my opinion, are fully qualified. I try to hire the one I think is best qualified.
I can see a problem with using only test scores to determine something like that, but I can also see not underestimating the information that the test scores give you.
Well, it wouldn’t be the flip side, would it? The higher scores were hired. How is that discrimination?
[Only “Well Qualified” Hired]
Raciss?
Affirmative action has long served its purpose....time to repeal it.
No doubt we will see, in all walks of life, equal jobs for all reagardless of skills if liberalism, blowing on the wind, continues its blast. For example,if anyone thinks medicine is “chancy’ now, even with “board certified” marketed to the nth degree, wait until “board certified” gets challenged, broadened and diluted to a much lower level for inclusion in the to be unionized and salaried medical millieau that is coming.
Bad timing on their part. All they need was one extra liberal vote and they’d own the court. Too bad.
Well then, black people need to start being “well-qualified”. That means study hard and know what your employer is looking for.
I don’t see how a case that was filed more than 2 months after the presumably statutory deadline got past the first court. If they didn’t get it done, they didn’t get it done. Courts are always issuing orders to dismiss cases because something or another was ‘out of time.’ So why are these guys not only allowed to proceed with their case, but get it taken at the SCOTUS?
I am reminded of the Pepsi case a few months ago where the company didn’t file its answer and the plaintiffs granted default judgment of something like $16B (yes, BILLION). That will probably get an exception to deadlines, too.
To answer my own rhetorical question -- I guess it depends on what the definition of "is" is and how much more we are willing to take.
So the fact that they scored lower than others is a case of discrimination?
BS
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