Massachusetts Federal Court Finds Statistical Evidence Insufficient To Support Disparate Impact Race Discrimination Claim

On September 28, 2012, in Jones, et al. v. City of Boston, et al., No-05-11832, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 141440 (D. Mass. Sept. 28, 2012), Judge George A. O’Toole of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted the City of Boston’s summary judgment motion against Plaintiffs, a group of police officers alleging disparate impact race discrimination.

The Boston Police Department (“BPD”) uses hair testing to determine whether its police officers are using illegal drugs. Id. at *2. After Plaintiffs had failed the hair test, the BPD took adverse employment actions against each of them. Plaintiffs sued the BPD and its Commissioner claiming, among other things, that the BPD hair tests had a disparate impact on African-American officers and, as such, violated Title VII and Massachusetts anti-discrimination law. Id. at *3.

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