Court Finds Promotional Tests Violate Title VII

Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Lexology

In Bruce Smith, et al. v. City of Boston, Case No. 12-CV-10291 (D. Mass. Nov. 16, 2015), Judge Young of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts held that the City of Boston Police Department’s (the “Department”) lieutenant-selection process — ranking candidates for promotion based on their scores on a facially neutral exam administered in 2008 (“2008 exam”) — had a racially disparate impact and was not sufficiently job-related to survive scrutiny under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

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