New Haven Firefighters, Race, Tests & The Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 June 29 in favor of 20 New Haven firefighters, returned the case to U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton, who is to decide on issues surrounding the promotions such as retroactive salary, according to the Hartford Courant. It does not appear that a new exam will be required. Arterton originally ruled in favor of the city, which tossed results of a promotional exam when no black candidates qualified for promotion to captain and lieutenant. That decision was appealed to the U.S. Second Court of Appeals, which also ruled in favor of the city. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayer supported the court of appeals decision.

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[gusbdman]

This test provided an "equal opportunity," it never guaranteed an "equal result." The test was supposed to be written at a 10th grade level, the City of New Haven lowered it to an 8th grade level. The questions were phrased in English. All were based on several department manuals, and outside nationally recognized authors . Everyone had the same time to study, but not all used their time wisely. Video-phones will be used to validate or negate any bias claims in future New Haven FD tests.

[TheBestTroller]

@brdmakan Ya they do it because it's easier to blame "whitey" then to just admit its there fault

[1dkidd]

How can the test be rigged? It's about firefighting and leadership and operations not about ethnic culture!

[dasupa666]

Black guy scraps by on a test and gets the 69%.... White guy gets a 89% and they should give the job to a under qualified dude because he is Black? I'd rather have the most qualified people in life saving services. How can their tests be biased ? Either you know your shit or you don't. Black people are cry babies who have been taught by Democrats to hate themselves. Should we dumb up the tests so blacks are able to past them? Talk about a disservice to all Black people.

[brdmakan]

what a load of crap . what was asked in teh test rock music . how can a test be biased .

I FIND IT AMAZING HOW AMERICAN BLACKS COMPLAIN SO MUCH .

[StoogeWatcher]

The only racists are the liberals who attacked the New Haven firefighters.

[FreeDogdylan]

Wow, this kind of black supremacists will rule america soon. Funny at it is, is that the Latino population is racist as hell. So the blacks are going to have a tuff time when they are a minority alongside whites.

[forshigity5000]

The man to the far left is very intelligent.

[pep103]

This decision by this conservative supreme court may push employment equality back to the pre-civil rights era.We have come to long to let that happen.Conservatives are very good at using race between whites and minorities into re-election campaigns.I do not ever want to see a voting block like the GOP employed especially in the south with Ralph Reed and Religious Right during the 90's.Even when Obama won that part of the GOP is still formitable.Obama may need to address this problem soon