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Class Action Discrimination Lawsuit brought against U.S. Census Bureau
by Joseph Ernest August 6, 2010
Newscast Media -- A group pf civil rights organizations filed an Amended Complaint in the U.S. District Court in New York, case number 10-cv-3105, in a class action lawsuit against the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau's parent agency.
The amended lawsuit was filed after new evidence surfaced that shows the U.S. Census Bureau ignored a detailed warning by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that its screening process for hiring more than one million temporary census workers could result in massive racial and ethnic discrimination.
The complaint cited the EEOC’s warning along with other newly uncovered evidence in a case which seeks compensation for more than 100,000 minorities who were not selected for census work because of unprosecuted arrests and old, minor, and minor convictions for offenses such as unlawful assembly and loitering. Story continues below...
The Census Bureau illegally screened out applicants with often decades-old arrest records for minor or un-convicted offenses that typically would not have deterred other employers including other federal agencies with high security concerns such as the Transportation Security Administration, says the Amended Complaint filed in U.S. District Court in New York.
"Under the discovery process resulting from the filing of the original lawsuit, we uncovered new evidence that clearly shows the Census Bureau designed and implemented a hiring review system they had every reason to know would result in massive discrimination," said Atty. Samuel R. Miller of the New York-based law firm Outten & Golden LLP.
"About 14 million people in the United States are arrested per year. That means about 70 million people, more than 20 percent of our adult population, have a criminal record,” Miller said. “The FBI retains virtually all arrest records in its database forever – even for juvenile offenses. However, the federal government recognizes that restrictions on hiring individuals on the basis of arrest records are discriminatory and illegal."
The suit charges the Census Bureau with being reckless, if not intentional, in eliminating from this public service a larger percent of minority applicants than white applicants. Add Comments>>
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