Cobb County’s plan to fix race bias in its firefighter hiring practices is itself racially discriminatory, according to a federal judge who refused to approve the plan unless the county admits its past practices were problematic.
The county’s former method of hiring firefighters was biased against Black candidates, according to the federal government. In May, the county and the federal government filed an agreement to settle the allegations, asking for a federal judge’s approval.
As part of the settlement, Cobb County promised to ensure its hiring practices comply with federal law, provide $750,000 to be shared among eligible Black candidates and prioritize the hiring of up to 16 qualified Black applicants.
On Jan. 16, U.S. District Judge William Ray shut down the proposal.
“At the outset, the court notes that the relief proposed by the parties is arguably a form of intentional discrimination based on race — only those claimants who are African American are entitled to seek relief,” Ray wrote in his order. “Further, the proposed relief would allow for disparate treatment because it provides for priority hiring of the affected African American claimants over other applicants, as well as retroactive seniority and possible promotions over other employees who may have been hired before the African American claimants.”
Ray said federal law allows an employer to engage in intentional discrimination to remedy allegations of race bias, but only if the employer believes it will otherwise be held liable. He said Cobb County has “steadfastly denied that its hiring or selection process had any impermissible disparate impact based on race or that it has violated the law in any way.”
“The court will not approve of an agreement which may violate the rights of others without a sufficient evidentiary basis to show that such race-based action is warranted,” Ray wrote.
A county representative did not immediately comment on the judge’s order.
Until 2020, the county’s hiring of firefighters included credit checks and rankings based on a written examination.
The U.S. Department of Justice questioned the need for those steps in hiring firefighters, alleging the county had a pattern or practice that deprived Black candidates of their rights under federal law. It said there was no link between credit history and job performance.
In April, the county said in a news release that any discrimination was unintentional.
In his order, Ray said the case hasn’t developed enough for him to decide whether the written exams or credit checks were helpful or necessary to some degree.
The federal government’s case against the county revealed that between 2016 and 2020, the county received 4,049 applications for firefighter positions, of which 48.8% were from Black applicants. In that time frame, the county hired 225 white firefighters and 61 Black firefighters.
The federal government said that 319 white applicants and 249 Black applicants passed the exam in 2020, but none of the 21 candidates ultimately selected were Black.
In 2021, when the county stopped ranking applicants based on their exam scores and instead randomly selected candidates who passed both the written exam and a physical agility test to move forward, the number of Black applicants chosen was proportional to the number who had applied, the federal government said.
Ray’s decision to block the proposed settlement comes as President Donald Trump rolls out a series of executive orders aimed at dismantling corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and as the legality of the programs is called into question in court.
On his first day in office, Trump signed orders unwinding prior directives to government agencies and contractors to hire more women and people of color, and on Wednesday, the administration said federal employees would be punished for failing to report colleagues who attempted to enact “illegal” DEI efforts.
Those moves follow a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in June 2023 that struck down race-based affirmative action programs in higher education. That decision prompted more lawsuits aimed at applying the ruling to similar programs run by private companies and government contractors.
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