In a classic case of history repeating itself, a New Haven firefighter is suing the city for alleged discrimination. An African-American firefighter has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of New Haven, claiming that the city’s 2003 promotional exam discriminated unfairly against African-Americans. The city initially tossed the firefighter exam, fearing precisely the sort of lawsuit they currently face.

The original suit, Ricci v. DeStefano, was filed by the 20 firefighters—known as the New Haven 20—who scored highest on the test. They claimed that the city’s refusal to certify their scores, and thus their promotions, constituted race-based discrimination, since the high scorers were all Caucasian or Hispanic. Their case made it to the Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled in favor of the New Haven 20. The court ruled that the test was generally fair and clearly was not intended to discriminate, which seemed to validate the results of the exam. This new case challenges the fairness of the original promotion test, citing both national norms and disparate impact on different races.

The new plaintiff, Michael Briscoe, is a longtime New Haven firefighter who sought promotion to lieutenant in 2003. According to the rules of the test, 60 percent of the grade was determined by a written exam and 40 percent was determined by an oral exam. The top 20 scorers would receive promotions to lieutenant while the remainder would not receive promotions or commensurate raises. Briscoe claims that the test undervalued oral exam scores and overvalued written scores, which resulted in a disparate impact on African-Americans. Briscoe had the highest score on the oral exam out of the 77 promotion candidates, but fared so poorly on the written exam that he did not make the cut for a promotion. He claims that most promotion tests nationwide place a higher weight on the oral exam than the written exam, and New Haven’s inverted weights made the exam unduly favorable to Caucasian candidates.

The courts will now have to decide once more whether the demonstrable difference in performance constitutes discrimination or reflects preexisting disparities in the quality of training or education provided to members of different racial groups. Either way, the flurry of lawsuits serves as an uncomfortable reminder that racial equality in America remains on the national “To-Do List,” despite the immense progress of the past 50 years. On a local level, the legal mayhem has wreaked havoc on New Haven’s fire department, which has been unable to issue any major promotions since the promotion exam was first challenged in court. One can only hope the situation gets resolved before the quality of local fire protection services declines appreciably.