A new class-action
lawsuit has been filed against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), representing over 1,000 qualified air traffic controller applicants who
were allegedly discriminated against based solely on their race.
Former Nevada
Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who is currently co-counsel for Colorado-based Mountain
States Legal Foundation, is leading the lawsuit efforts in this case. If it
succeeds, the suit could set a new precedent in forcing companies and
government agencies to hire staff based on merit, rather than to fulfill
diversity quotas.
Laxalt told Fox
Business that his firm has found a substantial number of documents that reveal
how the Obama-era FAA practiced discrimination in its hiring processes, rejecting
roughly 1,000 people who had trained to become air traffic controllers and
passed the standard test before they were disqualified and their tests thrown out for being “too
White”.
The FAA then
created a new test that included a biographical section, which was supposed to
help add more African
Americans into the air traffic applicant pool. These changes came about
because the FAA had been directed by the federal government to diversify an overwhelmingly white
workforce in this area.
The biographical
questionnaire is supposed to have asked many irrelevant questions, such as the
test-taker’s worst college subject and how many sports they played in high
school, awarding extra points for certain attributes that were unrelated to their status
as qualified air traffic controllers.
"Nevermind
how insulting it was that the government was concluding that this is a way to
pool up African Americans into the air traffic control ranks, but that’s all
there," Laxalt said. "They did change the test to change the
applicant pool."
Up to that point,
during the 20 years before the Obama-era FAA, the Collegiate Training
Initiative (CTI) program graduated 100 percent of those who went on to work in
their field. However, the aforementioned changes to the hiring process meant that many of
these graduates began to be passed over in favor of applicants who had only
graduated high school.
"That’s the
group of citizens we represent. Their careers were derailed. Their lives were
upended,” said Laxalt. “So, it’s important we get justice for them, but
obviously, it’s important that cases like this highlight that these practices
were going on in the federal government, and they can still be going on in any
agency in America."
The lawsuit is
based on Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it illegal to discriminate
against any person on the basis of race or gender amid the hiring process.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
