Monday, June 29, 2009

Content of Their Character…

Good ruling. 

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.

The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide and make it harder to prove discrimination when there is no evidence it was intentional.

New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said Monday in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities.

(1) Comments
Posted by Owen at 2017 hrs
Law + Politics + Politics - General

  1. In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said,”...they had no vested right to promotion.”

    Except for the fact that Ricci spent thousands of dollars and overcame dyslexia to achieve his passing score. If this is not a vested right to a well-earned promotion, then I do not know what is.

    Does anyone know they make-up, on a percentage basis, of those that took the test? Where the results ‘racially skewed’ and did they exhibit “starkly disparate results”, as Justice Ginsburg asserts?

    I did find the numbers, and of 118 who took the test, 68 were white (~58%), 27 were African-American (~23%), and 23 were Hispanic (~19%). Of those that attained passing scores, ~73% were white (41 of 56), ~16% were African-American (9 of 56), and ~11% were Hispanic (6 of 56). In a sample that small, where each individual passing accounts for nearly a 2% swing, is a difference of 15% (whites taking the test vs whites who passed) statistically significant? Or the 7% difference for African-Americans. or the 8% for the Hispanics?  Any statisticians who can address the confidence level of the results?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 29, 2009 at 2325 hrs


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