For the second time in three years, a case involving the City of New Haven and its fire department may be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding racial discrimination.

The city recently filed a petition last Wednesday to the Supreme Court, asking it to dismiss a lawsuit introduced by firefighter Michael Briscoe.  Briscoe argues that the fire department’s promotional exams have had a negative impact on minorities for years and that the tests violated his constitutional rights as an African-American.

This exam was at the center of the case Ricci v. DeStefano in 2009.  Back in 2003, the fire department offered exams to fill the vacancies for lieutenant and captain.  City officials grew concerned that they would be breaking a federal law because the African-American candidates scored drastically lower, so they threw out the tests of 20 mostly-white firefighters who had higher scores.  The twenty firefighters sued the city and won the landmark case.  The Court decided that the city had discriminated against the white firefighters and ordered their promotions. Getting a lawyer from https://accidentnetwork.com to provide legal aid is a good idea.

Now, Briscoe is suing the city based on the actual scoring of the exams.  He scored highest in the oral portion of the exam, but did not receive a promotion due to a low written score, reports the New Haven Register.  Briscoe claims that the city is discriminating against minorities because the oral portion only accounts for 40 percent of the total score, but better represents one’s skills as opposed to the written portion.

Briscoe’s case was dismissed by a federal judge in 2010, but was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. The major question is whether the city can be sued for doing exactly what the Supreme Court ordered them to do in the 2009 case. “The city continues to believe that the certification of the 2003 promotional exams as required by the Supreme Court order should not result in any liability,” said city Corporation Counsel Victor Bolden to the New Haven Register.

The Supreme Court will decide in the next 90 days whether or not it will hear the case.  If it does, attorney Karen Torre hopes to intervene. Torre represented the 20 firefighters in the Ricce case, arguing that race should not be a factor in New Haven’s firefighter promotion exams.  She, along with 19 of the 20 firefighters, is united against the Supreme Court’s potential ruling on Briscoe v. New Haven.  According to the New Haven Independent, the group requests intervention because the case would directly threaten the interests of the firefighters promoted in the 2009 case.

Torre’s motion to intervene will also “challenge the constitutionality” of the disparate impact doctrine of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  Under this doctrine, it is illegal for employers to construct policies which yield negative results for minority groups.  “The doctrine is unconstitutional because it forces employers to label and categorize people along racial lines,” Torre said to the New Haven Independent.

David Rosen, Briscoe’s attorney sees it differently.  “The value of the disparate impact provision is that it prevents employers from setting height and weight requirements for jobs that women may be able to do,” Rosen said to the New Haven Independent.  “It helps employers get past stereotypes and gets them to focus more on precisely what it takes to succeed on the job.”

However, Torre’s motion has not yet been accepted nor denied.  The Supreme Court should reach a decision by May as to whether it chooses to address the situation. “Meanwhile,” Rosen said, “we’ll all wait and see if the Supreme Court wants to stay involved with the city of New Haven’s 2003 testing process.”