Back in 2007, the Bush Administration sued the Fire Department of New York, which lost 343 men on 9/11, for disparate impact discriminating against blacks and Hispanics by using a firefighter hiring test that asked fairly hard questions about firefighting. Now, the FDNY has finally learned the lesson that La Griffe du Lion pointed out years ago: If you want to please the feds, you can minimize disparate impact (percentage point differential) of the hiring test by making it extremely easy, then hiring randomly. 

From the NY Daily News:

Scores for blacks and Hispanics soar on newly revamped FDNY test  

More than 42 percent of minority-group members earned grade of 97 or higher and likely to be hired by FDNY over next four years 

Blacks and Hispanics scored significantly better on the newly revamped FDNY exam, a shift that could lead to firefighter jobs for a many as 42% of the minority-group test-takers, city officials revealed Tuesday. 

The would-be minority-group firefighters far outscored those who sat for the previous three exams — the results of which were deemed discriminatory and tossed out by a judge. 

Bravest hopefuls who nail a grade of 97 or higher are considered likely to be hired by the FDNY over the next four years. 

Nearly half — 42.3% — of minority-group members who took the test cleared that hurdle, officials said. 

That’s much higher than top-scoring minorities who took the 1999 exam (14%), the 2002 exam (16%) and the 2007 exam (33%). 

The results of all three earlier tests were thrown out by Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis in response to a 2007 lawsuit from the Justice Department and the Vulcan Society of black firefighters. ... 

The exam’s pass rate was high. Of the 42,231 people who took the test, 40,426 passed with a score of 70 or above. 

FDNY Battalion Chief Paul Mannix, an outspoken critic of the judge’s decision who believes the original lawsuit was bogus, said he still has questions about how the experts scored the exam. 

“On the face of it, I have no confidence in the test and the list that will come of it,” Mannix said.

Now, you might think this could make a good GOP campaign issue, but, of course, it was the Bush Administration that filed the lawsuit against the FDNY in the first place.