Connecticut Employment Law Blog : Connecticut Employment Lawyer & Attorney : Daniel Schwartz : Stamford, Hartford New Haven, CT

This post continues my public service outreach on a program developed by the Connecticut Bar Foundation.

As I mentioned earlier this month, I am chairing what I expect will be a terrific educational program on April 9th at UConn Law School on how technology is changing the practice of law. Full details to this free program are available here.  We hope this symposium will sell out, so please register today (did I mention it includes breakfast and lunch and is FREE?). 

We've spread the word through conventional means (ads, e-mails, mailings) but there are still many others who we think will benefit from this (particularly for those out-of-state who would like to see the webinar). Thus, we're going to try to use the power of social media to do so.  We need your help.

Here's how you can help:

Everyone knows (or should know) of at least one U.S. Supreme Court case.  It could be a favorite case, a notable one, or even an obscure one.   We thought it would be fun to try to summarize, comment on, or write something pithy on that Supreme Court case.  But there's a catch.  Can you do so in 140 characters or less; in other words, in a "tweet" that you can post to Twitter? 

What do we mean? Take these examples:

• Brown v. Bd of Ed: Remember Plessy v. Ferguson? We don't know what we were thinking. Yes, separate schools are inherently unequal #cbftech
• What would Law & Order be without its most common phrase "You Have the Right to Remain Silent"? Thank you Miranda v. AZ #cbftech
• Roe v. Wade: The decision that determined how George Washington got across the Delaware River #cbftech

Ok, so the last one might not pass muster, but hopefully you're getting the idea (and we'll explain the hashtag below).  In essence, we're asking you to come up with your favorite Supreme Court summary tweet.  We'll be asking all of our presenters at the symposium to come up with their favorite "tweet" of a Supreme Court case and will share them with you as well. I've already seen a few and you have your work cut out for you.

So how do you participate? A few simple steps:

• First, using any Twitter account, just "tweet" or post your summary.  It can be serious, funny, pithy, cute, whatever you wish.  But it has to be on Twitter. No e-mails or comments to this post will be included in the contest though you are welcome to add one. (For tips on how to get started on Twitter, click here.)
• Next, and this is critical, you MUST use the hashtag (or symbol) of #cbftech for your tweet. This hashtag is being used to promote the Connecticut Bar Foundation symposium and is the official tag for the conference. In addition to spreading the word about the free educational conference, it will also allow us to keep track of the tweets.
• You can enter as many tweets as you'd like. In fact, we hope to spread the word about this contest so tweet early and often!  But only tweets made by midnight of April 2, 2010 will count towards to the contest.  We will announce the winner at the symposium on April 9, 2010. 
• By participating in this contest, you allow the Bar Foundation to re-tweet or publicize or use, in any way, without any compensation or further permission, the tweets in any future publication or for any other purpose.  Of course, we will attempt to link each tweet with the Twitter user name (for examples of this, David Pogue did a Twitter contest as well.)
• A winner (or winners) will be chosen in the sole discretion of myself and members of the symposium committee. Our decision is final and we reserve the right to modify the rules as necessary to ensure that this runs smoothly.
• The prize or prizes are still being finalized.  But it won't be an iPad or anything close; this is a non-profit educational foundation we're talking about. Besides, shouldn't just being named the "winner" be a prize enough? (Scratch that, we'd probably want an iPad as well.)
• If you'd like to track all the entries, you can search on Twitter for the hashtag #cbftech. This should also work on Google!

Sound fun? We think so. So, take a minute to spread the word about this great contest and tweet away! And don't forget to register for this terrific program on April 9th. 

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Earlier this year, a case out of New Haven caused quite a stir at the Second Circuit when it addressed (or, as some people believe, failed to address) a reverse discrimination case. 

Now, word comes that the firefighters who lost the case are seeking to have the U.S. Supreme Court decide the issue by asking the nation's highest court to review the matter. Doug Malan, from the The Connecticut Law Tribune reports:

A group of 20 New Haven firefighters are pushing to have the nation’s highest court determine if the city discriminated against them when it denied promotions despite high test scores. For some of the men, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on whether to hear their case will determine whether the firefighters remain in what they believe to be dead-end jobs due to their skin color.

After a divided Second Circuit this summer turned down the firefighters’ appeal, national law firms and advocacy groups have lined up to assist the New Haven parties on both sides.

The plaintiff firefighters in Ricci v. DeStefano allege that they are victims of a system that was changed in midstream to favor black firefighters over white and Hispanic ones and that they have been blocked from attaining fire lieutenant and captaincy ranks. In 2004, the city of New Haven told its Civil Service Commission to stop administering two written exams that were used to determine the most qualified candidates for promotion because too few minority candidates were advancing. City officials feared a lawsuit would be filed by minorities under the federal Civil Rights Act.

Although the case was originally set for a conference on September 29, 2008, that date has been extended.  A check of the Supreme Court's docket does not yet give an indication on when the court will review the matter and determine whether to take the case.  But given the other matters under consideration, it is not unreasonable to expect a ruling on whether to accept the case by the end of the year.

The case is notable for employers in Connecticut because there aren't a lot of reverse discrimination cases out there. If the Supreme Court decides to hear the case, it is likely that there will be some new guidance about what is, and is not, appropriate in such cases.

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