High Court Rules For White Firefighters In Promotion Exam Suit

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 29 that the City of New Haven, Conn. unfairly denied white firefighters a chance at promotion to Lieutenant and Captain because not enough minorities scored high enough on the civil service exam to also advance.

While officials of that city had nullified the exam list because they knew it would spark a lawsuit on behalf of the minority candidates, "Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer's reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his opinion for the 5-4 majority.

Case Handled By Sotomayor

The case has received heightened attention over the past month, because a Federal appeals panel whose members included Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court, had upheld a lower court ruling in favor of New Haven's decision. If confirmed, she would replace Justice David Souter, who is retiring from the high court.

Mr. Souter was among the dissenting Justices; Mr. Kennedy, long the swing vote in controversial cases, was joined by the court's four most-conservative members in the majority: Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

The dissenting opinion, authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, stated that while the white Firefighters who scored well enough to have a reasonable expectation of promotion "attract this court's sympathy. . . they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them."

No Evidence of Test Bias

The lower-court rulings had drawn criticism, including some by Appeals Court Judge Jose Cabranes, a mentor of Ms. Sotomayor's, because there had been no evidence presented that the exam unfairly discriminated against minority Firefighters. Given New Haven's need for Lieutenants and Captains in the coming years, however, among the candidates whose scores were high enough to make promotion likely, 17 were white and two were Latino, with no black candidates having high-enough scores to reasonably expect upgrades.

The New York Times quoted Jim Ricci, the father of the lead plaintiff in the white firefighters' suit, Frank Ricci, as calling it a victory for firefighters across the country. "Now we're going to get the best managers as far as firefighters go," the elder Ricci told the newspaper.