"A Federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a man who was barred from the New London police force because he scored too high on an intelligence test.
In a ruling made public on Tuesday, Judge Peter C. Dorsey of the United States District Court in New Haven agreed that the plaintiff, Robert Jordan, was denied an opportunity to interview for a police job because of his high test scores. But he said that that did not mean Mr. Jordan was a victim of discrimination.
Judge Dorsey ruled that Mr. Jordan was not denied equal protection because the city of New London applied the same standard to everyone: anyone who scored too high was rejected."
The article is from the New York Times, is several years old, but may well still be applicable. Comments on Reddit this morning include the observation "if you're smart and you want to be a cop, just intentionally get wrong enough questions on the IQ test to put you in the candidate pool," a thought that some professions exclude high IQ people because they don't think they would fit in or continue with the job, an allegation that lower IQs are chosen because they are more likely to follow rather than question orders. Other considerations may apply, but the report certainly offers food for thought...
now that make no sense at all.
ReplyDeleteUnless the government showed a rational connection between the testing criteria and the job, I would disagree with the decision. This seems like the very definition of arbitrary.