League of United Latin American Citizens v. City of Santa Ana

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Mexican-American individuals comprise 25.8% of the general population of the City of Santa Ana but only 9.2% of the police officers employed by the Santa Ana Police Department and only 4.5% of the firefighters employed by the Santa Ana Fire Department. In an effort to rectify this disparity, plaintiffs Lawrence Felix and the League of United Latin American Citizens (“LULAC”) have filed a class action civil rights suit alleging discrimination by the City of Santa Ana and several named city officials in the process by which police officers and firefighters are selected for employment. Specifically the plaintiffs allege discrimination in the recruitment practices, the use of the California Short-Form Test of Mental Maturity, 1963 revision (“Short Form”), the use of the Fire Aptitude Test, Form 45 (“Form 45”), the imposition of a fixed height requirement, and the employment of a high school education or equivalency requirement.

The defendants concede the disparity between Mexican-Americans’ representation in the general population and their, representation in the police and fire departments, but deny that Santa Ana’s general population statistics are an…