CHICAGO (CN) - A group of black applicants waited too long to file discrimination claims over not being hired as Chicago firefighters, the 7th Circuit ruled.
The firefighters claimed that the applicant test discriminated against blacks, leading them to being classified as "qualified."
This status would almost never get them hired, since 600 spots were open, and 1,782 applicants earned the higher grade of "well-qualified."
The applicants' lawyer waited more than 400 days to file a complaint. He said he thought the 300-day statute of limitations would not begin to run until the city began hiring the well-qualified applicants.
"That was a fatal mistake," Judge Posner wrote.
The judge also found that the test results did not cause a racial divide among applicants.
"It's not as if the city divided applicants into a White Branch and a Negro Branch," he wrote.
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