United States courts of appeals – Pilant's Business Ethics Blog

English: Sherlock Holmes (r) and Dr. John B. W... — English: Sherlock Holmes (r) and Dr. John B. Watson. Illustration by Sidney Paget from the Sherlock Holmes story The Greek Interpreter. Français : Sherlock Holmes (à droite) et le Docteur Watson (à gauche), illustration de Sidney Paget pour la nouvelle intitulée L’interprète grec. Русский: Шерлок Холмс (справа) и доктор Ватсон. Иллюстрация Сидни Паджет к рассказу “Случай с переводчиком”. עברית: שרלוק הולמס וד”ר ווטסון כפי שצוירו על ידי סידני פאגט (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From the web site, Fractured Paradigm.

http://fracturedparadigm.com/2013/05/01/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-for-cops/#axzz2ZpMN3iNJ

A man whose bid to become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld a lower court’s decision that the city did not discriminate against Robert Jordan because the same standards were applied to everyone who took the test.

“This kind of puts an official face on discrimination in America against people of a certain class,” Jordan said today from his Waterford home. “I maintain you have no more control over your basic intelligence than your eye color or your gender or anything else.”

(Jordan scored over 125 on the IQ portion of the test disqualifying him from being a police officer under that department’s rules. jp)

Below are my comments:

When I was fourteen, I read the complete Sherlock Holmes, all of the stories and all of the novels in four days. I have been reading about crimes and about solving crimes ever since. Here we are presented with a conundrum not about a crime but about police practice.It seems that every fictional sleuth from Sam Spade to Phillip Marlowe to Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot are unable to join a police department at any point during their lives because they are too smart. Apparently, every single policeman, detective etc. can never rise above Lestrade of Sherlock Holmes fame, a purely average member of law enforcement continually baffled by Holmes’ methods.

I disagree with the court. The law simply doesn’t make any sense. Where is the evidence that high IQ people find police work boring and unrewarding? I think the law fails the “rational basis” test and should be declared unconstitutional.

James Pilant

From around the web.

From the web site, 21st Century Theater

http://21stcenturytheater.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/us-oks-bar-on-high-iq-cops/

There
have always been rumors about police departments not hiring people who
were too smart. Not only does this story confirm the rumor, it shows
how low they set the bar – and how our courts uphold low standards in
sick system. The lame excuse the cops offer is that people who are too
intelligent would get bored and quit. This is obviously bullshit. They
want people they can easily indoctrinate and control who don’t ask
questions.

From the web site, Perez Hilton.

http://perezhilton.com/2012-01-02-man-rejected-from-police-academy-for-being-too-smart#.Ue3ll20SSHM

So get this!

A man in Connecticut had a simple dream — to become a cop. But unfortunately for him, he’s too smart! Sorry buddy, you’re just too—wait, what!?! Seriously?? Really??

According to Robert Jordan, he was rejected from the badge because he tested too high on his intelligence test. …huh?

He sued for discrimination, but he lost after the court ruled “the same standards were applied to him as everyone else.”

Quinnipiac University (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cheerleading is not a sport says the U.S. Court of Appeals, but is it?

Rachael Larimore: The court made the right decision. This was a cynical plan by Quinnipiac to keep the school within Title IX compliance while cutting women’s volleyball (and, incidentally, men’s golf and men’s track and field).

Competitive cheering might be an evolving sport—the Washington Post notes that the “activity” is growing more organized and has various outfits, such as the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association, working to make it a recognized sport. Cheerleading’s raison d’être is to root, root, root for the home team. If you take that element away, what’s all that yelling and cheering for, even during competitions?

Cheerleading is not a sport says the U.S. Court of Appeals, but is it?

This is pretty cynical. Title 9 says that colleges have to spend as much on women’s sports as on men’s. Quinnipiac is evading the rule by declaring Cheerleading a sport. Thus, they can count the money paid for it as money used for women’s sports and have more for the men.

I have no disagreement with the idea that it is tiring and a definite sign of social prestige but whether or not it’s a sport – well it seems it’s only considered a sport when you want to evade title 9 and that is not a good reason.

James Pilant