News outlets this morning reported that the plaintiffs (a group of firefighters in New Haven) in the Ricci v. DeStefano reverse discrimination case were awarded damages of about $2 million (plus attorneys fees of $3 million).
What the reports don’t really get into, however, is exactly how that has come about. Turns out that the
Haven’t we heard this before?
A Bourne, Massachusetts firefighter was recently fired for — imagine this — his Facebook posts in which he "allegedly railed against [a] police officer over some incident, angrily carried on about being forced to work on the Fourth of July holiday and made a homosexual slur", according to press reports
So, while everyone has been paying attention to the Ricci v. DeStefano case, which dealt with a group of white firefighters who claim that they should’ve been promoted, another case involving New Haven firefighters has been making its way through the state court system.
(As an aside, are there any firefighters in New Haven
It was never really a question of if, but when.
And yesterday, the United States District Court in Connecticut made final what had long been anticipated in the Ricci v. DeStefano case — the promotions of variou
s firefighters to the positions of Lieutenant and Captain. You can download the order here.
In doing
Yesterday, a group of black firefighters filed a motion to intervene in the Ricci v. DeStefano case claiming their rights will be "irrevocably impaired " if they aren’t allowed to join in the case. You can download the motion and the accompanying memorandum of law here. 
The motion was not unexpected though I’m not
Well, that didn’t take too long.
Just a few months after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Ricci v. DeStefano, a black firefighter filed suit yesterday in U.S. District Court alleging that he was unfairly denied promotion to the position of lieutenant because of the city’s scoring of a 2003 promotional exam.
You can
Credit the Connecticut Bar Association Young Lawyers Section with landing all the major players in the Ricci v. DeStefano case for a panel discussion on August 18,
2009 at Quinnipiac University School of Lawl.
Full program details are available at the CBA’s website, including registration.
The panel brings together both the attorney representing
Although I tipped my hand yesterday through some posts (here and here) and an interview with the Connecticut Law Tribune, here are some takeaways for employers from the Ricci v. DeStefano case.
For a case out of little Connecticut, the Ricci v. DeStefano case today sure has drawn big interest. Seems like everyone has an opinion on the matter.
There are plenty of wrapups of the case out today. Many of them are, predictably, saying much of the same thing: Interesting case; probably applies to private employers
A further read-through of the Ricci v. DeStefano case today has reinforced my view that there are going to be some real lessons learned for employers out of this case. The case had the potential of being a very narrow decision which would have minimized the impact to employers. However, because the court addresses head-on