Supreme Court to Hear Ricci v. DeStefano

In what has been described as a reverse discrimination case, the Supreme Court has has agreed to hear what may be a potential landmark case that looks at the role of race in public sector hiring. The case involves firefighters in New Haven, CT who took a promotional exams. While 17 white and 1 Latino firefighter passed the exam, none of the African American candidates did. As a result, the city threw out the results because of adverse impact.

The firefighters subsequently filed suit. One of the core issues to be decided is whether test results can be disregarded solely on the basis of the race of the top scorers without violating the Equal Protection Clause and the prohibition against the use of race-based cut scores. (New Haven has apparently conceded that the exam itself was well-constructed and its validity is not in question.) Tom Sharf's article in the January 2009 SIOP TIP provides a good overview and interesting analysis of the case.

Here is the case before the Supreme Court and one of the earlier rulings.