Hamer v. Atlanta

[Editor’s Note: This case is also listed as Hamer v. City of Atlanta.] William Hamer (plaintiff) filed suit on his behalf and on behalf of a group of African-American firefighters against the City of Atlanta (the city) (defendant). The suit alleged that the city was engaging in racial discrimination in employment actions, particularly in the use of a particular promotion test that had a racially disparate impact. Although the plaintiffs did demonstrate that the test had an adverse racial impact, the city had the ability under Title VII to validate the questioned test. Validation required a demonstration that business necessity required employees to perform particular skills and that the suspect promotions were made by testing applicants for those skills in a proper procedure. In essence, the question was one of correlation between performance ratings and test scores. Hamer presented a witness, Dr. Stephen Cole, who testified that the correlation was weak but relied on a comparison of just 25 of the 89 results, choosing the individuals who would be most favorable to a result of no correlation. The city, in contrast, offered several experts, including one who established with a statistical significance of less than a one-percent chance that the correlation coefficient was a product of chance and that the test in question did show correlation sufficient to meet professional standards. At trial, the court excluded Dr. Cole’s testimony and relied on the city’s witnesses to find that the test was properly validated. Hamer appealed this result.