Would YOU still say the City and Appeals court were right for throwing out the exam results if EVERY OTHER FACT was the same EXCEPT that the firefighters were BLACK?
Yes. The failure rate indicated there was racial bias in the testing process, even if it was unintentional. I wouldn’t favor bias against any racial group.
Do YOU agree that if the black firefighters had simply STUDIED like Lieutenant Ricci they would have passed and been promoted too?
You don’t know that they didn’t, or that they didn’t try. From Ginsburg’s dissent, which I suspect you haven’t read, and will never read:
“Other firefighters had a different view. A number of the
exam questions, they pointed out, were not germane to
New Haven’s practices and procedures. See, e.g., id., at
A774–A784. At least two candidates opposed to certifica-
tion noted unequal access to study materials. Some indi-
viduals, they asserted, had the necessary books even
before the syllabus was issued. Others had to invest
substantial sums to purchase the materials and “wait a
month and a half for some of the books because they were
on back-order.” Id., at A858. These disparities, it was
suggested, fell at least in part along racial lines. While
many Caucasian applicants could obtain materials and
assistance from relatives in the fire service, the over-
whelming majority of minority applicants were “first-
generation firefighters” without such support networks.”
