Supreme Court to Hear "Reverse Discrimination" Case

The US Supreme Court will hear arguments over a lawsuit brought by firefighters who were passed over for promotion because of "diversity" rules:

The US Supreme Court has agreed to take up a potential major reverse discrimination case examining the use of race as a factor in government hiring.

The announcement came Friday afternoon after the justices' private conference earlier in the day. The case will likely be argued in April.

It stems from a 2004 lawsuit filed by white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who say they passed an exam for a job promotion only to have the test results thrown out because no African-American candidate received a high enough score to also be considered for promotion.

City officials said they wanted to add diversity to management ranks within the fire department. They made special efforts to design a test process that would reduce any bias that might disadvantage minority candidates.

But when no blacks and only two Hispanic applicants qualified for consideration for the management jobs, the city decided to scrap the entire test.

Seventeen white firefighters and one Hispanic firefighter who passed the test sued, claiming the city violated their constitutional right to equal treatment. They also charged that the city violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against them solely because they weren't black.

It's about time this was finally debated publicly. For years, whites with greater qualifications were routinely passed over for promotions and jobs simply because of the color of their skin. In short, they were discriminated against, which is unconstitutional any way you look at it.

In a way, these archaic policies have contributed to a workforce that is less productive than the optimum because the great firm of this nation were so worried about government-mandated diversification and the threat of lawsuits that they would hire less-qualified candidates to fill positions while higher qualified candidates were turned away. White, some Hispanic and Asian job seekers and students were left with little recourse or means to air their grievances and the laws enacted actually drove a wedge between races instead of fostering racial harmony in the workplace.

Add to that the fact that anytime someone spoke out against quotas, they were immediately deemed a racist; even if they were, in fact, black. I probably will be labeled racist just for writing this post.

What's needed is a little historical perspective on how these laws came to be enacted in the first place.

President Nixon issued executive orders that required government contractors to meet certain racial quotas in hiring in an effort to increase minority participation. The goals were admirable and worked to the extent that they did increase the minority middle class throughout the nation. Similar programs were soon developed for college admissions and nearly every other government and private entity.

But as with many government policies, the law of unintended consequences kicked in and a backlash against those who received preferences by those who were hurt by them occurred. Add to that the fact that higher qualified candidates were routinely denied employment or promotions simply because they were not of a certain ethnic origin and we end up where we are today. Furthermore, as with most government programs, there was no expiration date written in so they remain in perpetuity, or until they are rescinded or ruled unconstitutional.

Which brings us to the present; we are on the cusp of inaugurating the first African-American president and African-Americans as a racial class have made great strides in nearly every facet of American life. Is it finally time to eliminate racial quotas? Is it now time to do away with discriminatory laws that require businesses to hire based solely on race and not ability?

Previous court cases have not yet decided the issue and it will interesting to see the opinions issued by the Roberts court.