New Jersey trooper files reverse discrimination lawsuit

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Federal and state laws shield employees from being discriminated against for color, sex, national origin, religion and disabilities. The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination Act extends protection for additional reasons including marital and civil union status, gender identity and sexual orientation. Employers may not hold any of these characteristics against you during the recruitment and hiring process, employment or termination. You also can't be denied compensation or promotions for any of these reasons. When you think of employment laws, you may not consider race discrimination as something that can happen to Caucasians. That's because these laws, in part, were created to protect employee rights for people often discriminated against by Caucasians. A new lawsuit is set to test these laws' limits. A New Jersey state trooper is suing his employer and the New Jersey Attorney General's Office for denying him promotions and "desirable" job transfers because he's white. The complaint filed late last month alleges that the Monroe trooper was as qualified or better qualified for job promotions than non-Caucasian colleagues. The 33-year-old plaintiff claims the only reason he was bypassed was due to his skin color. The lawsuit presents a real catch-22 situation. Thirteen years ago, the New Jersey State Police settled a discrimination lawsuit with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP argued that the state agency did not hire enough minorities. The law enforcement agency was under a decade of federal scrutiny for charges of racial profiling. The effort to add minorities to the State Police rosters has been positive. Troopers recently accepted 132 minorities into their ranks during a cadet graduation. Forty-four percent of the graduates were either Latino or African-American. The Caucasian trooper stated that he was denied opportunities to advance twice during the last year. The plaintiff has asked for compensation to make up for wage losses and emotional suffering. Legal observers are anxious to see how the court responds.   Source:  mycentraljersey.com, "White trooper says State Police discriminated against him in favor of minorities" Sergio Bichao, Nov. 10, 2013