Over at Volokh Conspiracy, I saw that the 2d Circuit last week denied a request for an en banc rehearing of Ricci v. DeStefano, a case in which the town of New Haven rejected the results of a fire department promotion test because it did not like the racial distribution of the grades. At issue is whether the Equal Protection Clause and Title VII prohibit or allow this practice.
As Prof. Adler points out in his posts on Volokh (here and here), the real interesting aspect of this decision is that the Circuit divided 7-6, an unusually close vote, and created two dissenting opinions and one concurrence.
Prof. Somin agrees with the dissenters and Prof. Adler over here and outlines some additional constitutional considerations about the case.
Ed Whelan gives his take over at Bench Memos over here.
And Connecticut Employment Law Blog offers a sympathetic view of the case over here.
