by William Kaempffer
New Haven Register
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
NEW HAVEN — A U.S. District Court judge, under instruction by the Supreme Court decision, today issued an judgment finding the city violated the civil rights of a group of white firefighters when it threw out two promotional exams in 2004, and ordered the city to promote 14 of them.
The two-page, bare-boned judgment issued late this afternoon was the culmination of five years of litigation that wound all the way to the nation’s highest court — and has been the target of a recent flurry of legal wrangling trying to prevent the promotions from being made.
Judge Janet Bond Arterton, who in 2006 threw out the firefighters’ lawsuit only to have the decision ultimately overturned by the nation’s high court in June, laid out the city’s road map. It left no ambiguity:
The judgment says the city’s Civil Service Commission “shall certify” the results of the contested 2003 promotional examinations for fire lieutenant and captain and “shall certify” promotional lists and then promote 14 members of the so-called New Haven 20.
The article continues at the Register.
