Hot Topic Program: Reading Ricci: The Impact of the New Haven Firefighters Case

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Session Type: AALS Hot Topic Programs

Session Capacity: N/A

Hotel: N/A

Room: Grand Salon A

Floor: First Floor

In June 2009 the Supreme Court decided Ricci v DeStefano.  The five vote majority opinion largely accepted the claims of the Ricci plaintiff class—a group of white (and one Latino) firefighters—that New Haven’s refusal to make promotions based on exam results constituted purposeful racial discrimination even though the City’s asserted motive was to avoid disparate impact liability resulting from the tests’ exclusion of  virtually all minority candidates from promotion. Thus the employer’s effort to avoid discriminating against minority employees was deemed to be discriminatory against a group of white employees.  This “hot topic” panel considers the ramifications of the Ricci case.  What is or should be the relationship between Title VII doctrine and equal protection?  Are Title VII’s disparate treatment and disparate impact provisions in tension?  What is the proper role of standardized tests in assessing job qualifications?  Why are efforts to ameliorate racially disparate impact produced by such tests often cast as “racial preferences”? What are the implications of the decision for employers who rely on standardized employment tests for making hiring and promotion decisions?  How will Title VII disparate impact claims, including a lawsuit—Briscoe v. City of New Haven—and an EEOC complaint filed by seven African-American New Haven firefighters challenging the way test scores were weighted fare in the post-Ricci landscape?  Should Congress respond to Ricci in light of what is arguably the Court’s reinterpretation of Title VII?