courant.com
By DAVID SAVAGE
Tribune Newspapers
April 6, 2009
WASHINGTON —
Frank Ricci, a firefighter from New Haven, spent months listening to study tapes as he drove to work and in the evenings as he prepared for a promotional test. It was a once-a-decade chance to move up to a command rank in the fire department.Ricci earned a top score but no promotion.The city had coded the test takers by race, and of the top 15 scorers, 14 were white and one was Hispanic. Because there were only 15 vacancies in the top ranks of the fire department, it looked like no blacks would be promoted.After a racially charged debate that stretched over four hearings, the city's civil service board rejected the test scores in 2004 and promoted no one."To have the city throw it out because you're white or because you're not African American is insulting," Ricci said when he and 19 other firefighters sued the city for race discrimination.The Ricci case, due to be argued at the U.S. Supreme Court this month, is the first to come before the court under Chief Justice John Roberts that broadly raises the issue of race in the workplace. The outcome could reshape hiring and promotion policies for millions of the nation's public employees — and possibly for private employers as well. And Roberts, leading a five-justice majority, has made clear he believes it is time to forbid the use of race as a factor in the government's decisions.The Obama administration, taking its first stand on race and civil rights, sided with the city and said it was justified in dropping the test if it had "gross exclusionary effects on minorities." Although blacks make up about 31 percent of New Haven's 221 firefighters, 15 percent are officers — eight of 42 lieutenants and one of 18 captains.At issue is whether an employer can weigh the racial effect of a hiring or promotional standard.
Full Story: http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-firefighter-race-lawsuit.artapr06,0,5219178.story
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