Actually, the suit is not going to address the merits of the exam, just the stupidity of some of the applicants. Can we do this in the NBA? Because if they skew everything for short, dumpy, white people, I reckon I could hang 40 points a game.
The Justice Department Civil Rights Division announced Thursday that it is suing the state of New Jersey over a police examination that it claims discriminates against African-American and Hispanic candidates. The exam, a written test that New Jersey police officers must pass in order to advance to the rank of sergeant, quizzes candidates on state and local laws.
“This complaint should send a clear message to all public employers that employment practices with unlawful discriminatory impact on account of race or national origin will not be tolerated,” said Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department will take all necessary action to ensure that such discriminatory practices are eliminated and that the victims of such practices are made whole.”
It all sounds eerily familiar. Last summer, 20 New Haven firefighters were thrown under the spotlight thanks to a similar lawsuit. After the firemen passed a written exam in order to advance to the rank of captain, the city threw out the results because too few African Americans scored well. Their lawsuit sparked a political firestorm that threatened to derail the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, who had ruled against the firefighters as a circuit court judge. Ricci v. DeStefano went all the way to the Supreme Court, which narrowly ruled in favor of the firefighters in a 5-4 decision.
White officers pass the New Jersey test at a rate of 89 percent, as opposed to 77 percent of Hispanic candidates and 73 percent of African-American candidates.
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