Firefighters Case: What Really Happened

06/13/2009

by Stuart Taylor - National Journal Magazine

The victims of the city's discrimination included lead plaintiff Frank Ricci. Like other plaintiffs, he studied for months, for as many as 13 hours a day, in 2003 to prepare for the combined written and oral exam that he hoped would win him a promotion. He also spent more than $1,000 buying the books that the city had suggested as homework and paying to have them read onto audiotapes. (Ricci is dyslexic.) And he got one of the highest scores.

I sketch below some of the evidence belying the Sotomayor panel's assertion in its own strangely sketchy opinion that the city "was simply trying to fulfill its obligations" under disparate-impact law when it blocked the promotions. This and other evidence show that the exams were fair -- although not perfect (no exam ever was or ever will be) -- and that the city's decision was driven by racial politics, not by any desire to comply with the law.

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