The Volokh Conspiracy - Stuart Taylor on The Firefighters Case and the Nondiscrimination Principle. --

Stuart Taylor's article on the public's opposition to racial preferences and support for the nondiscrimination principle includes an interesting exchange from the New Haven firefighters case:

Race: Sotomayor And Obama Versus Voters. It's clear that Americans want racially preferential affirmative-action programs abolished. . . .

[S]enators and others who speak out for nondiscrimination and against racial preferences will be falsely accused of playing the race card. The best response is to avoid inflammatory rhetoric while stressing the nondiscrimination principle and the real-life consequences that are at stake.

Consequences such as those described by Karen Lee Torre, the white firefighters' lawyer, in her December 2007 oral argument before the Appeals Court panel.

In response to Judge Rosemary Pooler's assertion that "no one was hurt" in the New Haven case, Torre said: "No one was hurt? For heaven's sakes, judge, if they didn't refuse to fill the vacancies, these men would be lieutenants and captains. How can you say they weren't hurt? They're out $1,000 apiece [for test preparation].... They spent three months of their lives holed up in a room, like I was and you were when we took the bar exam."

Torre went on to emphasize why the test was a valid basis for making promotions — and what can happen when promotions go to people who have not done their homework:

"These men [are not] garbage collectors. This is a command position of a first-responder agency. The books you see piled on my desk are fire-science books. These men face life-threatening circumstances every time they go out.... They are tested for their knowledge of fire, behavior, combustion principles, building collapse, truss roofs, building construction, confined-space rescue, dirty-bomb response, anthrax, metallurgy.... The court [should] not treat these men in this profession as if it were unskilled labor. We don't do this to lawyers or doctors or nurses or captains or even real estate brokers. But somehow, they treat firefighters as if it doesn't require any knowledge to do the job....

"Firefighters die every week in this country .... A young father and firefighter, Eddie Ramos, died after a truss roof collapsed in a warehouse fire because the person who commanded the scene decided to send men into an unoccupied house... with a truss roof known to collapse early in [a] fire because of the nature of the pins that hold the trusses together.... And the fire chief had to go tell a 6-year-old that her father wasn't coming home."

Judge Sotomayor responded by observing that there must be "a fair test that could be devised that measures knowledge in a more substantive way."

Translation: New Haven needs a test that won't give such an advantage to the firefighters who have learned the most about fighting fires.

	[Jim Lindgren, June 9, 2009 at 12:01am] Trackbacks Stuart Taylor on The Firefighters Case and the Nondiscrimination Principle. -- Stuart Taylor's article on the public's opposition to racial preferences and support for the nondiscrimination principle includes an interesting exchange from the New Haven firefighters case: Race: Sotomayor And Obama Versus Voters. It's clear that Americans want racially preferential affirmative-action programs abolished. . . . [S]enators and others who speak out for nondiscrimination and against racial preferences will be falsely accused of playing the race card. The best response is to avoid inflammatory rhetoric while stressing the nondiscrimination principle and the real-life consequences that are at stake. Consequences such as those described by Karen Lee Torre, the white firefighters' lawyer, in her December 2007 oral argument before the Appeals Court panel. In response to Judge Rosemary Pooler's assertion that "no one was hurt" in the New Haven case, Torre said: "No one was hurt? For heaven's sakes, judge, if they didn't refuse to fill the vacancies, these men would be lieutenants and captains. How can you say they weren't hurt? They're out $1,000 apiece [for test preparation].... They spent three months of their lives holed up in a room, like I was and you were when we took the bar exam." Torre went on to emphasize why the test was a valid basis for making promotions — and what can happen when promotions go to people who have not done their homework: "These men [are not] garbage collectors. This is a command position of a first-responder agency. The books you see piled on my desk are fire-science books. These men face life-threatening circumstances every time they go out.... They are tested for their knowledge of fire, behavior, combustion principles, building collapse, truss roofs, building construction, confined-space rescue, dirty-bomb response, anthrax, metallurgy.... The court [should] not treat these men in this profession as if it were unskilled labor. We don't do this to lawyers or doctors or nurses or captains or even real estate brokers. But somehow, they treat firefighters as if it doesn't require any knowledge to do the job.... "Firefighters die every week in this country .... A young father and firefighter, Eddie Ramos, died after a truss roof collapsed in a warehouse fire because the person who commanded the scene decided to send men into an unoccupied house... with a truss roof known to collapse early in [a] fire because of the nature of the pins that hold the trusses together.... And the fire chief had to go tell a 6-year-old that her father wasn't coming home." Judge Sotomayor responded by observing that there must be "a fair test that could be devised that measures knowledge in a more substantive way." Translation: New Haven needs a test that won't give such an advantage to the firefighters who have learned the most about fighting fires.