Ever since the feds first claimed back in 2007 that New York’s fire department had discriminated against minorities, we’ve argued the case has no merit. Yesterday, a federal appeals panel ruling suggested we’ve been right all along.
The decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis’ finding in 2010 that the FDNY had intentionally discriminated against blacks and Hispanics in its hiring practices. This charge, lodged by a group representing the city’s black firefighters, had helped broaden the feds’ claim.
Garaufis arrived at his conclusion of racial discrimination without the benefit of a trial. He ruled that little things such as witnesses and arguments were not necessary: The city was purposely screening out minorities, because, well, he said so.
It was a preposterous — and revealing — position, and yesterday the appeals panel said as much: Garaufis, wrote Judge Jon Newman on behalf of the majority, “made an unwarranted venture into fact-finding at a preliminary stage” — that is, before a trial was held. As a result, the panel said, any trial now on the question of intentional discrimination would have to go to a different judge.
“[A]n objective observer,” Newman wrote, “would have a reasonable basis to question [Garaufis’] impartiality in assessing [the] evidence.” Indeed.
Yesterday’s decision brings enormous relief to New York. For Garaufis had all but put himself in charge of the FDNY, ordering the city to hire consultants and a monitor (whose hefty bills the judge won’t even let city officials see). The new ruling erases much of his order, saving taxpayers a bundle and returning the department to its rightful commissioner.
There’s more. Garaufis had earlier found that two tests given to FDNY applicants had a “disparate impact” on minorities, just as the feds claimed. But that finding, too, is now suspect, as are the justification for new exams now in place and the financial damages still to be determined.
But the most important question for the city remains: Will Garaufis’ bias and interference turn out to have degraded the quality of New York’s firefighters by, in effect, elevating racial considerations over merit?
Let’s hope New Yorkers don’t have to find out the hard way.