They celebrated with a Stars-and-Stripes-iced cake. On June 29th the Supreme Court ruled in favour of white and Hispanic firefighters who were discriminated against by the city of New Haven, Connecticut. Six years ago the city put them through an exam to decide whom to promote. When no black scored highly enough, it scrapped the test and promoted no one. The passed-over firefighters sued.rnThe city said the test must have been unfair. By a 5-4 majority, the Supreme Court disagreed, finding it both fair and relevant. The ruling added a little clarity to America's incomprehensible racial laws. Employers sometimes face a Catch-22: they are barred from treating employees differently because of their race, but forbidden from treating everyone the same if that has a "disparate impact" on one group.
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