The highest court in the country will decide if the city New Haven did something wrong by tossing out results of promotion exam after minority candidates scored to poorly to move up in rank.
Nineteen white firefighters and one Hispanic firefighter sued New Haven in 2004. The Supreme Court will take the reverse discrimination lawsuit.
They would have been promoted if the city hadn't thrown out the results of two tests for lieutenant and captain because minorities generally did poorly on the exams, they claim.
New Haven officials claimed the exams were unfair to minority firefighters and the city faced potential discrimination lawsuits if it went ahead with the promotions.
Scores on the exams indicated that no blacks would be promoted.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
