Appeals Court Judge Finds Decision to Revamp FDNY Diversity Efforts Excessive

This article was written by C. Zawadi Morris.

A Manhattan federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the findings in a lawsuit against the New York City Fire Department for discriminatory hiring practices forced changes in the department that were excessive, The New York Times reports. 

The appeals court found that the judge presiding over the lawsuit, Nicholas G. Garaufis, went too far in forcing the department to revamp their hiring practices, raising enough doubts about the decision to re-assign a key part of the case to another judge.   

The city’s finding did not dispute Garaufis’s ruling that the entrance exams had a discriminatory impact. However, it found the judge’s statement during a preliminary hearing declaring that the discrimination was intentional enough evidence of bias toward his final decision.   

“We have no doubt that Judge Garaufis is an entirely fair-minded jurist who could impartially adjudicate the remaining issues in the case,” Judge Jon O. Newman wrote in a 59-page opinion. 

But, “an objective observer would have a reasonable basis to question the judge’s impartiality in assessing that evidence at trial.”