Tag Archives: consent decree

Fire Law Roundup for October 14, 2024

In this episode of Fire Law Roundup for October 14, 2024, Brad and Curt discuss the settlement of a lawsuit arising out of an assault in California; a ruling that upheld a public utility decision citing a utility for not ...

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North Carolina City Enters Into Consent Decree Over Hiring Process

The City of Durham has entered into a consent decree with the US DOJ in response to claims that the hiring process used by the Durham Fire Department unintentionally created a disparate impact on African Americans. The consent decree resolves allegations that the city “disproportionately excluded African-American applicants from employment" as firefighters.

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Massachusetts Consent Decree on Racial Quotas to Expire at the End of 2024

A federal court has ruled that a fifty-year-old consent decree that mandated strict race-conscious hiring quotas for Massachusetts fire departments has achieved its intended goals in all but three communities, and will be terminated on December 31, 2024. The consent decree was the result of a series of lawsuits brought in the early 1970s by the Boston Chapter of the NAACP.

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Court Dissolves Chicago Fire Department’s 42-Year-Old Consent Decree

The City of Chicago and the US Department of Justice have agreed to dissolve a 42-year-old consent decree that has governed promotions within the Chicago Fire Department since 1980. The race-based consent decree governed the promotional process from engineer through battalion chief within the department for the past four decades.

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Fired Texas Recruit Files Race Discrimination Suit

An Austin firefighter cadet who was fired in 2016 for poor performance has filed suit claiming he was the victim of race discrimination. Damon Easter filed suit last Friday in US District Court accusing the department and academy instructors of being on a “continuous crusade” against him...

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Buffalo Fire Argues That Four Decades is Enough

In 1974, the US DOJ filed suit against Buffalo alleging the fire department’s hiring process was discriminatory. What followed was nearly forty years of court mandated hiring quotas overseen by Judge John T. Curtin. Now the city is seeking to end the court mandated hiring quotas and bring Judge Curtin’s role in hiring to an end...

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DOJ and Austin Settle Discrimination Suit

The City of Austin, Texas and the US Department of Justice have reach an agreement to settle a race discrimination lawsuit filed in 2013. The DOJ filed suit on behalf of 12 African-American and 18 Hispanic applicants who alleged the ...

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