NATIONAL BRIEFING / NEW YORK

New York City has discriminated against minorities in its hiring of firefighters, and as a result blacks and Latinos make up only 10% of the Fire Department’s workforce even though most city residents are minorities, U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis ruled.

The judge agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice and a fraternal order of black firefighters, finding that disparities among those taking firefighter recruitment exams in 1999 and 2002 were so wide that no trial was needed to rule against the city.

He drew a distinction between the New York case and the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that New Haven, Conn., had improperly set aside the results of its promotional exam for firefighters when blacks and Latinos did worse than whites.

Garaufis said the Connecticut case concerned whether New Haven could defend its decision to toss out exam results by saying it was trying to comply with laws against discrimination in testing. The New York lawsuit, he said, concerned whether the exam had “actually had a disparate impact upon black and Hispanic applicants for positions as entry-level firefighters.”