"New Haven 20" Case Comes Back to Court
The case will decide on the promotions
Updated 12:15 PM EDT, Fri, Nov 13, 2009
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of 20 New Haven firefighters and today, the controversial case returns to a local court for a potential jury trial.
In Ricci v. DeStefano, the plaintiffs claimed the rights of the firefighters were violated when the city threw out results of 2003 promotion exams because African-American firefighters performed poorly.
The case made national headlines and went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The nation's top judges ruled in favor of Frank Ricci and his 19 colleagues.
Now, the case has returned to federal court in New Haven, where the case was first heard. The first filings are due today on the central issue of the case: who should be promoted, the the New Haven Independent reports.
No one has been promoted in the six years since the city held those exams and 14 of the so-called "New Haven 20" would have been qualified to be elevated to either captain or lieutenant, the Independent reports.
Karen Torre, attorney for the "New Haven 20", told the newspaper that a jury trial will determine how much money is due to her clients.
“There’s definitely going to be a trial,”Torre told the Independent.
Her original suit in 2004 called for compensatory and punitive damages, both of which will be determined by jurors.
First Published: Nov 13, 2009 9:16 AM EDT
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