Vol. 73/No. 26      July 13, 2009

The city had given an exam in 2003 for promotions to lieutenant and captain. The scores of African American and Latino firefighters were about half those of white firefighters. No firefighters who were African American and only two who were Latino were eligible for immediate promotion on the basis of the test results, while 17 whites qualified.

New Haven officials threw out the test results and decided not to promote anyone, based on compliance with Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It says testing that has a “disparate impact” on one group can be discriminatory. The 18 firefighters sued the city, but lost, and appealed up to the Supreme Court.

Writing for the majority, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said, “The city rejected the test results solely because the higher scoring candidates were white.” Judge Kennedy’s opinion ignored the history of race discrimination in the New Haven fire department.

Justice Ruth Ginsburg drafted the minority position upholding the city’s decision. The white firefighters who received high scores “had no vested right to promotion,” she argued. “Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them.” To accept the results of the promotional test, she wrote, would only reinforce the discriminatory practices that continue to exist in the department.

An amicus brief filed in the case by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund detailed the historic segregation of U.S. fire departments. Many departments hired no Blacks until the 1950s or 1960s, and those that did maintained separate firehouses for Blacks and whites. Chicago, for example, had two separate firefighting companies until 1965. Washington, D.C., fire stations were desegregated in the 1960s, but for another decade Black firefighters had to sleep in “C” beds and eat from “C” dishes using “C” utensils. “C” stood for “Colored.”

New Haven’s population today is 24 percent Latino, 36 percent Black, and 44 percent white. But the fire department is 15 percent Latino, 28 percent Black, and 57 percent white. Only 18 percent of officers are Black or Latino. Only one of the 21 captains is Black.

At a news conference June 24 in New Haven, Latino and African American firefighters joined the NAACP in urging the Supreme Court to reject the case.

As of 2007, out of 288,000 firefighters in the United States, 247,000 were white—235,000 of those were men. According to the New Haven Firebirds, a fraternal order of African American firefighters, only 11 of the city’s firefighters are women.

The Obama administration’s Justice Department submitted an amicus brief that argued the city of New Haven was within its rights to decide not to accept the test’s results. But the brief claimed the city might be misusing Title VII as “a pretext for intentional racial discrimination.” It called on the high court to send the case back to the lower courts for reexamination.
 
 
Related articles:
Affirmative action is necessary  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home