HR: Supreme Court Hearing Another HR Case

Note: Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayer, as an appellate judge, voted in favor of the City's decision at the federal appeals level. Interesting to see if this comes up during the comfimation hearings.

In another case that demonstrates how difficult the work of HR Professionals has become, the Supreme Court is going to be hearing a case involving "reverse bias."

18 firefighters in Connecticut (17 White, 1 Hispanic) say that the city tossed out their passing grades on a promotion test -- "because no black candidates scored high enough to qualify for the promotion." The 18 firefighters (out of 118 applicants who took the test) claim that they have been discriminated "because they are not black."

The case has wound its way through the courts -- and the city is now basically trying to argue that the test it designed to eliminate the biases is in fact biased.

Comment: Interesting - the complexity of HR work demonstrates so many things -- keeping up, meeting the challenges -- and staying aware.