Government By Judiciary Update: NYC could pay billions for a test that didn’t really discriminate

The New York Post reports:

It’s just nuts that the city might have to cough up billions for supposedly racist teacher-certification exams it stopped using long ago. But don’t count on Mayor de Blasio to fight it.

To be clear: No one has ever had to show that the Liberal Arts and Sciences Test, aka LAST, was actually discriminatory. “Disparate impact” law makes it necessary to demonstrate only that members of minority groups perform worse on an exam than their peers. And if officials can’t then prove the tests are effective at screening out unqualified would-be employees — a highly subjective measure — well, case closed.

Thus, federal Judge Kimba Wood found that the fact that more than 90 percent of whites passed the LAST, but less than 62 percent of blacks and 55 percent of Hispanics did, was enough to brand it “biased” and hold the city liable.

Now, as The Post reported Thursday, a court-appointed special master has recommended the city pay $91.6 million to 219 plaintiffs theoretically harmed by the LAST “discrimination.”

Thing is, a total of 4,000 minority members got demoted or weren’t hired because they failed the test. They’re all eligible for payments; if they collect in line with the first 219, the hit to taxpayers would come to a whopping $1.67 billion.

When facts don't matter..... government by judiciary. Your vote at the local level doesn't mean too much when a federal judge decides they are the boss.