By Colleen Murphy
nj.com
A New Jersey appeals court has thrown out a 2019 police promotion exam, ruling that the state’s attempt to help minority candidates by changing the scoring method was unjustified and unfair to those who followed the test instructions.
The issue began when the Civil Service Commission removed the last 10 questions from the sergeant exam, saying those questions unfairly lowered scores for Black and Hispanic officers.
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In a ruling issued Aug. 22 , the Appellate Division stated that the scoring change lacked evidence to support it and unfairly penalized candidates who followed instructions by answering every question.
The case was filed by 15 municipal police officers who took the exam, 13 of whom identified as racial minorities.
They argued the Civil Service Commission’s scoring change was arbitrary and punished candidates who followed instructions, managed their time properly, and completed the exam.
“Petitioners were wrongfully penalized for following the instructions,” a two-judge panel for the appeals court wrote.
The court noted that the commission’s testing division found unusually high skip rates on the final 10 questions — up to 28% — especially among minority candidates.
After dropping those questions, the commission said scores improved overall, and more Black and Hispanic candidates passed.
“In effect, the commission took the easy road, but not the fairest way to address the problem,” the opinion said.
The judges said the scoring change went against the test’s own instructions, which told candidates to answer every question and manage their time to finish the entire exam.
“That decision should be made before the exam is administered, not after-the-fact,” the court said.
The ruling also cited a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court case, Ricci v. DeStefano, which requires race-based changes to test results be backed by strong evidence.
The court found that the commission’s data demonstrated only a partial improvement in racial disparities, not a comprehensive solution.
The court also rejected the commission’s claim that the skipped questions were flawed just because many people left them blank.
“There is no logical basis for this reasoning,” the judges wrote. “The commission’s decision to remove the final ten questions on this basis was arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.”
The court ordered the commission to throw out the results and give a new exam.
The Civil Service Commission was represented by the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General , which declined to comment on the ruling.
The police officers were represented by attorney Albert J. Seibert , who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Colleen Murphy may be reached at cmurphy@njadvancemedia.com.
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