Monday
May242010
Supreme Court Says Minority Firefighters Can Proceed With Suit
Monday, May 24, 2010 at 5:34PM
A group of black Chicago firefighting job applicants won a major victory today in the Supreme Court when all nine Justices agreed to let the applicants' employment discrimination case Lewis v. Chicago go forward. A lower court had dismissed the suit, saying the applicants filed the case too late.
Chicago had given a written exam to applicants for firefighter positions, but the applicants had waited to file their lawsuit until after Chicago started hiring firefighters based on the exam. Because no hiring action was taken until 430 days after the test results were released, Chicago argued the suit was filed after the 300-day statute of limitations had passed.
In a unanimous ruling today, the Supreme Court said that each hiring action qualifies as an event over which applicants could file a lawsuit. Justices worried during the oral arguments that this kind of ruling could mean a flood of lawsuits, but the alternative—ruling for Chicago—would mean that a city could simply wait 300 days after announcing the results of a racially-biased test and avoid any liability.
The Court's ruling rests on its interpretation of the term "employment practice." The Court found that in this case, "employment practice" does include the city's exclusion of applicants who had scored below 89 on the exam, and thus every time those test results were used there was a violation of the law.
Chicago had given a written exam to applicants for firefighter positions, but the applicants had waited to file their lawsuit until after Chicago started hiring firefighters based on the exam. Because no hiring action was taken until 430 days after the test results were released, Chicago argued the suit was filed after the 300-day statute of limitations had passed.
In a unanimous ruling today, the Supreme Court said that each hiring action qualifies as an event over which applicants could file a lawsuit. Justices worried during the oral arguments that this kind of ruling could mean a flood of lawsuits, but the alternative—ruling for Chicago—would mean that a city could simply wait 300 days after announcing the results of a racially-biased test and avoid any liability.
The Court's ruling rests on its interpretation of the term "employment practice." The Court found that in this case, "employment practice" does include the city's exclusion of applicants who had scored below 89 on the exam, and thus every time those test results were used there was a violation of the law.
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