The plaintiff, a Hispanic man, was an applicant for a Diplomatic Security Foreign Service Special Agent. He took an assessment and was denied based on a score for the oral and written portions that was below the cutoff. The Agency said that they asked every candidate the same questions and ranked them based on pre-determined factors, but refused to say what the factors were. The Agency also refused to disclose the demographics of the people that passed the assessment. The Agency also refused to say how the plaintiff scored, why the plaintiff scored that way, or how he responded compared to other applicants. The EEOC found that the Agency’s answers were vague, conclusory, and insufficient, and therefore ordered the Agency to pass the plaintiff and treat his application the same as every other applicant who passed the exam.
Read the full opinion here.
Attorney Angel did not represent the client in this case, but he does represent clients in front of the EEOC.