A federal judge has temporarily barred the North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue service from hiring firefighters as part of a class action lawsuit filed by black applicants.
The suit filed in 2007 by the NAACP claims a residency requirement discriminated against several hundred prospective black firefighters who took and passed a state-administered firefighters exam between 1999 and 2006.
North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue serves North Bergen, Union City, Weehawken, West New York and Guttenberg. Those towns merged their fire departments in 1998.
U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise's decision temporarily bars the agency from hiring firefighters until it widens its residency requirements to include Hudson, Essex and Union counties.
Judge OKs Class Action Suit Against Fire Agency
Copyright AP - Associated Press
