Source: United States Attorneys General
This week, the Justice Department announced that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted its motion to terminate a 1978 consent decree governing police and firefighter employment in Norfolk, Virginia.
The consent decree settled the Department’s lawsuit, filed the same year, that alleged the City’s Police and Fire Departments unlawfully discriminated against blacks and females in its employment practices, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The City did not oppose the Justice Department’s motion.
“Local communities must be able to choose firefighters and police officers based on skill and dedication to public safety – not to meet DEI quotas imposed by federal courts and the federal government,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Thanks to this Department of Justice, the City of Norfolk’s first responder hiring will finally be free from federal micromanagement for the first time in almost 50 years.”
“Nearly half a century after it was entered, the Decree is no longer necessary or legally justifiable as a temporary measure to remedy employment discrimination that may have occurred long ago,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The City fully complied with the decree in its hiring, recruitment, and other employment matters, and the federal government should release supervision and return control to local authorities.”
The full and fair enforcement of Title VII is a top priority of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Additional information about the Civil Rights Division is available on its website at www.justice.gov/crt/.