More than likely. — Ed.
Three of the Supreme Court justices who votedagainst New Haven in Monday’s landmark firefighters case ruling zeroedin on one character they saw playing a nefarious role: the Rev. BoiseKimber (pictured right).
In fact, Kimber’s role as a New Haven politico, felon, and FOJ(Friend of John, Mayor DeStefano) ended up sparking a lively debatebetween the Supreme Court’s conservative and liberal wings.
This is the latest in a two-decade-long saga of how Kimber(pictured) has caused political headaches for DeStefano while receivingrepeated political plums from the mayor, including a controversial“consulting” housing contract that figured prominently in a 1998 CityHall corruption scandal.
DeStefano in turn has relied on the Newhallville preacher to carryhis banner in the black community in pivotal Democratic mayoralprimaries dating back to his 1989 contest against John Daniels and his2001 race against Martin Looney.
At issue in Monday’s Supreme Court decision waswhether Kimber is Exhibit A for how crude racial politics trumped meritand fairness in the case of the “New Haven 20.”
Kimber clearly made an impression on the court.
Justices Samuel Alito singled out Kimber in a concurring opinion to Ricci v. DeStefano,the case in which a 5-4 majority ruled that New Haven can’t ignore theresults of a fire department promotional exam just because noAfrican-Americans scored high enough. (Read about that here.)
From the start, the New Haven 20 — the one Hispanic and 19 whitefirefighters who sued to have the exams’ results honored — argued thatNew Haven’s DeStefano administration scuttled the test because ofpolitical pressure. And they specifically mentioned Kimber in theirlawsuit. Rev. Kimber, a prominent vote-puller for Mayor DeStefano inpast elections, sits on the Board of Fire Commissioners. He played avocal role at the Civil Service Commission in arguing to have the testresults ignored.