I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Karyn Risch was passed over multiple times for advancement within the Royal Oak Police Department over several years, always in favor of male candidates with lower evaluation scores under the department’s standards of performance. A federal district court granted summary judgment for the city in a gender discrimination suit brought by Risch, but now a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed that ruling (PDF) and allowed the case to go to trial by a 2-1 vote.
The district court said that Risch “had failed to raise a genuine issue of fact concerning whether the Department’s proffered reason for not promoting Risch was a pretext for gender discrimination,” but the appeals court overturned that reasoning, concluding that because Risch “had arguably superior qualifications than the two successful applicants and has produced other probative evidence of gender discrimination” the lower court should at least give the case a full hearing. The case is now remanded back to the lower court for trial on the merits.
The ruling details some of the instances of the plaintiff being passed over for promotion:
Risch is a uniformed patrol officer who has been employed by the Department for seventeen years. On several occasions between 2001 and 2005, Risch applied for a promotion within the Department and was passed over by Police Chief Theodore Quisenberry (“Quisenberry”) in favor of male candidates who had received lower scores under the civil-service-promotion system used by the Department…
In June 2002, Risch was ranked second on a promotion list for detective, but Quisenberry chose a male candidate who was ranked third, Donald Swiatkowski. In January 2003, Risch was again ranked second on a promotion list—this time for the position of sergeant. This list was effective from January 30, 2003, through January 30, 2004, and included four other candidates, all of whom were male. Quisenberry filled three vacancies during this period, again passing over Risch in favor of male candidates. In August 2003, Quisenberry promoted Gordon Young, the first-ranked candidate, and in January 2004, Quisenberry promoted Thomas Goad and David Clemens, the third and fourth-ranked candidates respectively, whose lower test scores and fewer years of service resulted in lower total scores than Risch.
Risch also testified to an atmosphere of hostility toward female officers, testimony that was backed up by other officers, including at least one male officer who swore under oath that he had heard other male command officers speak negatively about female officers during discussions of promotions.
The appeals court ruling does not mean Risch wins the case or has proven discrimination. It only means that she will have an opportunity to do so in a full trial on the merits of her case.
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