The issue before the court was of a discriminatory organizational practice; brought on by years of overzealous attorneys manipulating the intent of civil rights legislation.

As a country, both minorities and the white majority have allowed lawyers to take control of civil rights issues. Instead of working out our misunderstands, both sides have created confusion and distorted legal constucts.

We need to take Civil Rights out of the courts and apply common sense reasoning and understanding. It's no wonder our courts seem overwhelmed at times. I have great respect for our Judges at all levels; especially those that hold true to our Constitutional founding; instead of sympathetic untones.

To Mr Pate. If it is known that the test has been around for decades why does the minorities show the "whities" a thing or two by taking the personal time to take classes, get study buddies, have study teams, and have a can do attitude instead of a poor mouth that the test is unfair.

Look at the National Spelling Bee. Just look at the nationalities that are winning. Do I hear anyone screaming discrimination because of the minorities winning? They just studied harder and had a can do attitude.

Guys learn in sports to have teams and lean on them. Use that advantage. In the university I attended, that was encouraged and in fact required. You had to have a study team. We found that each person and strengths and weaknesses. It became quite competitive in some of our classes. And all were mixed ethnicities.

So the minorities had opportunities. They just blew the chance to look great.

The issue on hand was whether this test is fair or not. The argument against the test, is the fact that minorities do poor compared to white on this type of test compared to real hands on test, in which they excelled. Now, I much rather have a person have the hands on experience than the book knowledge, and how I know this, I was almost blown up by a fellow soldier that got a perfect scored on a demolition test but when it came to hands on, did not know the difference between detonating cord (it explodes at about 40K feet per second compared to time fuze that burns at about 40 seconds per minute). Just my two cents.

It's time we started thinging in terms of "Americans", not ethnic groups. It's so danged ridiculous. It should be that "whoever" takes the tests, and passes the tests, gets promoted because they earned it. They took the time and put out the extra effort to know the material and take the test.
Why should those test get thrown out just because other Americans chose not to take the test?

I agree pilot.

1. All participants knew of the test prior to taking it and had no objections.
2. The testing practices were contested because the percentage of minorities that passed was lower than expected and they feared a lawsuit from minorities.
3. It was a standard testing procedure.

I agree with the Supreme Court ruling and why. Over all it was a very wise decision, I’m actually surprise of the decision.

zbarbb - your right the same opportunities are there for everyone..BUT...what you fail to understand is that just because its available to everyone doesn't mean that it wont be discriminated against given the particular person(s) applying or working for that opportunity. I dont feel anyone is crying or whining..I think that this is a very legitimate reason to feel that there was a form of racism that played a huge roll in all of this. I do agree that people are quick to blame racism..but with this incident I think not. And that's just MY opinion.

These men all took the same test. What's unfair or racist about it? NOTHING!!! I am latin and I'm so tired of these people crying racism when thing's don't go their way. The same opportunities are there for everyone who wants it. Quit your crying and blaming your failures on everyone else. Geeezzzzz!!!!!!

to most people discrimination only happens to blacks and hispanics. in todays America, reverse discrimination will become more blatant, with rascist groups like la raza (the race) to supreme court justice nominee (bad choice) Sotomayor. by the way hispanic is not a race, it is an ethnicity.

It's a sad thing, but I believe it was because of race. "Some" blacks are racist just like "Some" whites "Some" Hispanics...etc....are racist..that's the unfortunate part about our society. And I fear it always will be this way. No one race is free from racism. And to me when you get a certain amount of One particular race in a work place etc... there is more of a chance for there to be racism....That's what I think.

The strongest reason for agreement with the Supreme Court's decision is it's judgment that all those who took the test knew the rules ahead of time and therefore knew that the results would determine who qualifies for promotion consideration. Because no blacks scored a passing grade is not reason enough to abrogate those results. It had to be shown that the rules were illegal to begin with, that such a test should not be used to determine who qualifies for promotion in the fire department. Since decades of racial segregation are known to have hindered the ability of blacks to take and pass tests of this nature the test should never have been offered. And when it was required, that was when the Blacks should have protested loudly and argued their cause vigorously. Why did they not take that tactic? From ignorance? Because they wanted to prove they could pass it just like the white firefighters? In retrospect, it's rather easy to see that the black firefighters would inevitably fail when trying to play by the rules of the "white folks," which they were not yet prepared to do successfully.

Apparently the people voting in this poll haven't read much about this story. The test scores were thrown out because it was determined that there were not enough minorities taking the test to keep their quota of minorities in ranking positions. It doesn't say they were passed over to give jobs to minorities they were bypassed because no minorities took the test. It's not fair to bypass these firefighters because no minorities took the test. It was available for all to take and no one but these firefighters took it. The last time I checked there was a term for this. It's called reverse discrimination. I appreciate this department trying to be fair but when NO minorities take the test it's no one's fault but the minorities. Not the department or the firefighters who did test. I believe EVERYONE deserves a fair shake but not at someone else's expense.