The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Ricci v. De Stefano that New Haven, Connecticut violated Title VII by throwing out the results of an officer test for firefighters that had only been passed by white and Hispanic firefighters. The City had argued that it did this to avoid a disparate impact claim by the failing minority candidates. Justice Kennedy, writing for the majority, rejected this excuse, holding that facially discriminating against the plaintiffs by throwing out the results would only be justified if there was evidence that the tests were not job related and consistent with business necessity, or if there existed an equally valid, less discriminatory alternative. The Court found that the evidence of this was insufficient. The full opinion is available here.

 

Justice Ginsberg wrote a dissent joined by Justices Stevens, Souter, and Breyer.