On April 23, 2012, the United States, on behalf of black firefighters filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, against the Consolidated City of Jacksonville, FL and the union representing its firefighters. The plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief as well as monetary compensation, alleging that the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department's practice of testing to screen and select candidates for promotion has a disparate impact on black firefighters.

On April 30, 2013, the NAACP and Jacksonville Brotherhood of Firefighters filed a complaint in intervention, echoing the claims and allegations of the United States while adding to the action several named plaintiffs and a class of Black Firefighters who tested for and were denied promotion while the testing practice was in place.

The District Court (Judge Timothy J. Corrigan) denied the plaintiff's motion for preliminary injunction on December 27, 2013. In their motion, the U.S. asked that the Jacksonville Fire Department be required to set aside five slots from the next round of promotions following the November 2013 test for those fire suppression captain candidates allegedly discriminated against on the 2004 and 2008 test administrations. The court denied the motion because the remedy offered did not correlate to the severity of the alleged injury, it would be difficult for the city to administer, and the plaintiffs had not established that they were likely to succeed on the merits of their case.

On June 9, 2015, the court granted partial summary judgment for the plaintiff finding the plaintiff successfully established a prima facie case of disparate impact, which enabled the parties to engage in additional phases of discovery. 2015 WL 3618367. Over the next eighteen months, the parties participated in discovery. The plaintiff amended their complaint three times, the latest of which was filed on November 28, 2016.

On January 13, 2017, the parties notified the court that they had reached a tentative settlement and requested the case be removed from the trial calendar.

The case remains open as of January 18, 2018.

Benjamin St. Pierre - 10/15/2014
Cade Boland - 11/11/2017


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