High Court Reverses Ricci v. DeStefano

The Supreme Court today ruled that New Haven, Conn., officials violated the civil rights of a group of white firefighters when they set aside results of a promotion test because not enough minority candidates fared well on it.

Minority candidates had threatened to sue New Haven for discrimination if it did not set aside the results. Following public debate on the issue, New Haven officials nullified the test results. But that action prompted a lawsuit from white and Latino firefighters, who performed well on the promotion test, arguing that the city had discriminated against them in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled against the white firefighters, upholding the city's decision to toss aside the test results.

In Ricci v. DeStefano, Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the 5-4 majority, reversed course and sided with the white firefighters. "We conclude that race-based action like the City's in this case is impermissible under Title VII unless the employer can demonstrate a strong basis in evidence that, had it not take the action, it would have been liable under the disparate-impact statute," Kennedy wrote. Kennedy was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg filed a dissent, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens. Ginsburg, who read her dissent from the bench, wrote, "The white firefighters who scored high on New Haven's promotional exams understandably attract this Court's sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion."

Ginsburg also wrote that the Court's majority opinion "leaves out important parts of the story." She wrote that, "Firefighting is a profession in which the legacy of racial discrimination casts an especially long shadow. In extending Title VII to state and local government employers in 1972, Congress took note of a U.S. Commission on Civil rights (USCCR) report finding that racial discrimination in municipal employment even ‘more pervasive than in the private sector.'" Ginsburg went on to note that in New Haven "racial disparity" in the firefighting ranks was "even more pronounced."

The BLT: The Blog of the Legal Times has early reaction to Ricci here. Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that, "It is less likely now that employers will conscientiously try to fulfille their obligations under this time-honored civil rights law. This is a cramped decision that threatens to erode these protections and to harm the efforts of state and local governments that want to build the most qualified workforces."

The high court also issued its opinion in Cuomo v. The Clearing House, which found that states can combat discrimination in mortgage lending. The justices did not rule in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, involving whether a negative movie about Hillary Rodham Clinton aired during last year's presidential campaign should be regulated as a campaign advertisement The justices announced they would rehear arguments in the case in early September.

Check ACSblog later for an online symposium regarding today's Ricci v. DeStefano decision. The symposium will include a series of expert commentaries on the decision.