Free Republic

A fierce constitutional battle is being waged between an out-of-control federal judge determined to impose racial quotas on New York City’s fire department and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, equally determined to resist race-based hiring. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis appointed himself the city’s de facto fire commissioner last week by enjoining the department from hiring any new firefighters without his approval—and he will give his approval only to the racial hiring schemes he has already tried to foist on the department. Mayor Bloomberg has courageously refused to cave in to the judge’s quota demands—a stance vanishingly rare in today’s politically correct...

In blunt, scolding language, a federal judge on Tuesday criticized the city’s conduct during legal negotiations aimed at diversifying the Fire Department, accusing the Bloomberg administration of shirking its responsibility for redressing discrimination and of exaggerating claims about threats to public safety during the dispute. The judge, Nicholas G. Garaufis, of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, also raised the possibility of imposing sanctions on New York City. In a 20-page decision, the judge, who had previously found that the city administered tests that discriminated against black and Hispanic firefighter candidates, ordered the city not to hire new firefighters. That permanent...