New Haven 20 to go before Supreme Court

New Haven (WTNH) - A reverse discrimination lawsuit filed by 20 New Haven firefighters will soon go before the United States Supreme Court.

In less than two weeks, the highest court in the land is preparing to hear a case out of New Haven that could have ramifications for civil rights practices across the country.

"I think the case is monumental because we really need to see where we are going," said Karen Torre, lawyer for the New Haven 20.

Karen Torre represents the firefighters who have filed a reverse discrimination lawsuit after a 2003 promotional exam. The results were thrown out by the city because the top scorers were white.

"What the city did was turn a race neutral, race blind, merit-based promotional process into a race conscious process by race coding the candidates and looking at the results of the competition and the skin color of the successful candidates and making a decision on that basis," Torre said.

But Victor Bolden, the city's acting corporation counsel, says this issue isn't about discrimination. He says the test is flawed.

"The city was clearly faced with litigation if it went ahead and promoted. If you are faced with litigation why would you complicate things by promoting," Bolden said.

This could be a landmark decision - the first of its kind in decades - a ruling that could change the racial dynamics of the workplace.

"If we have gotten to that point in society, where people can be sued on claims of race discrimination, without any real evidence they were trying to discriminate, then we have a real problem," Bolden said.

"Are we going to go forward, and stay true to the Constitution's promise of a race-blind society - or are we going to go backwards, and keep labeling people," Torre questioned.