Denver partner Steven Moore co-authored an article, "Firefighter Plaintiffs Prevail in Landmark Supreme Court Case," with Mark Risk, principal at Mark Risk, P.C., which was published in the Summer 2009 edition of the American Bar Association's Labor and Employment Law newsletter.
The focus of the article is the convtroversial case Ricci v. DeStefano, "which addressed one of the most politically charged employment-related questions to come before the Supreme Court in recent times: when can an employer discard promotion-test results to achieve racial balance in the workplace?"
The authors, who are co-editors of the newsletter, provided a history of the case and detailed a number of points made by the Justices in their opinion, which decided in favor of the 17 white and one Hispanic firefighters who alleged that the city discriminated against them with regard to promotions, as well as the dissenting opinion.
According to Moore and Risk, "Court-watchers had anticipated that the Court would reach the question of whether a legitimate fear of disparate impact liability under Title VII is ever sufficient to justify race-based decision making under the Equal Protection Clause. However, because the Court ruled in favor of the petitioners under Title VII, Justice Kennedy found it unnecessary to reach the constitutional question."
ABA members can access the full article here.