- ‹ previous
- 1057 of 8902
- next ›
SCOTUS Rules for White Firefighters
In a 5-4 decision that split along ideological lines, with Justice Anthony Kennedy siding with Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito in the majority, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that a group of white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions based on their race. The ruling overturns Sonia Sotomayor's appellate court decision.
The firefighters who brought the suit, Ricci v. DeStefano, claimed reverse-discrimination when the city threw out results of a promotion exam because no black and only two Hispanic firefighters would have been promoted.
The city scrapped the test because it feared promoting a disproportionate number of white firefighters would leave them in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits workplace discrimination. Blacks and Hispanics account for nearly 60 percent of New Haven's population.
New Haven officials claimed they feared a lawsuit from the minority firefighters on those grounds if they let the test results stand, but the court ruled that "fear of litigation cannot justify an employer's reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions." However, the court held the city cannot be sued for throwing out the test results.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, reading her dissent form the bench, said the white firefighters had "had no vested right to promotion...The Court today holds that New Haven has not demonstrated 'a strong basis in evidence' for its plea. In so holding, the Court pretends that '[t]he City rejected the test results solely because the higher scoring candidates were white.'"
Read the entire ruling here (PDF).
I am no lawyer, and I have
I am no lawyer, and I have not read the context of this portion of Ginsburg opinion, but it strikes me as either trivial, or wrongheaded.
The city had a procedure established before hand. Firefighters entered into a voluntary agreement with the city to fight fires in exchange for pay and adherence to the various regulations from the city and established procedures dictating promotions.
Seems like a contracts or "vested right"s to me.
The city broke that contract based on a fear that had no grounds in evidence.
"[t]he City rejected the test results solely because the higher scoring candidates were white.'""
The city DID reject the test solely because the higher scoring candidates were not black (whites and hispanics). If one or more African Americans had been in the top 7 eligible for the openings available, would the city have tossed the results?
Elsewhere in the opinion, Ginsburg said the Civil Service Board was politically insulated and an external body and thus, I guess, free from undue influence. Yet, the CSB is entirely appointed by the mayor. How can such a body be declared free of undue influence?
WTF was up with Ginsburg in this ruling?
Another Example of SCOTUS Overthrow of the Rule of Law
In February former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor had an opinion “How To Save Our Courts” published in PARADE which indicted the Supreme Court for overthrowing the Rule of Law.
This latest SCOTUS decision is yet another example of the legacy of the “Ahmadinejad” Bush-“Ayatollah” Cheney Theocracy, with the religious right neocons continuing their efforts to overthrow the U.S. Constitution.
http://www.motherjones.com/mo
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo