Filed Date: Oct. 2, 2024
Closed Date: March 3, 2025
Clearinghouse coding complete
On October 2, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed this lawsuit against the Maryland Department of State Police (MDSP) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, alleging that MDSP’s employment screening process violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by systematically excluding Black and female applicants from hiring for the entry-level Trooper jobs. Specifically, the DOJ alleged that since at least 2017, the MDSP had engaged in a pattern or practice of unintentional discrimination through its use of a written hiring test, which had an adverse impact on Black applicants, and its use of a physical fitness test, which an adverse impact on female applicants, neither of which had been shown to be job related for the MDSP’s entry-level Trooper position and consistent with business necessity.
On the same day, the parties filed a joint motion to enter a consent decree to resolve the DOJ’s claims. The case was assigned to District Judge Richard D. Bennett, who approved and entered the consent decree on November 8, 2024. Under the terms of the decree, the MDSP agreed to pay $2.75M to Black and female officer candidates disqualified by the hiring tests DOJ found unlawful and to offer priority hiring opportunities to 25 previously disqualified candidates who satisfy MDSP’s lawful hiring requirements. The MDSP also agreed to adopt and use, with DOJ oversight, new lawful selection devices in its hiring process in lieu of the written test and physical fitness test at issue in this case. The decree was set to be dissolved three years after the date it was entered by the court, or, if later, upon completion of the process for adopting new selection devices, the issuance of monetary award checks; and the passage of thirty days after the MDSP provides the last of the reports regarding priority hiring relief.
Under the terms of the consent decree, the MDSP agreed to prepare a work plan for the development of each new selection device, with the work plans due to the United States no later than 135 days after the parties tendered the consent decree.
Before MDSP could prepare its work plan, a change of administration occurred as Donald Trump was inaugurated as President in January 2025. Just weeks thereafter, on February 25, 2025, the DOJ filed a motion seeking to delay the fairness hearing on the consent decree in order to allow additional time to assess how Executive Order No. 14151, an “Executive Order on Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” issued January 20, 2025, and a February 5, 2025, memorandum from Attorney General Bondi to DOJ employees on “Eliminating Internal Discriminatory Practices” may impact the provisions of the proposed consent decree. The next day, the DOJ filed a notice of voluntary dismissal, indicating the government would no longer seek relief requiring MDSP to "prioritize candidates for police officers based in any way on race.”
Judge Bennett approved the government’s motion to dismiss the case on March 3, 2025.
Summary Authors
Logan Moore (3/21/2025)
For PACER's information on parties and their attorneys, see: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69218414/parties/united-states-v-maryland-department-of-state-police/
Bennett, Richard D. (Maryland)
Chambers, Cheyenne N. (Maryland)
Given, Emily (Maryland)
Phillips, Kimberly (Maryland)
Hott, Amy E (Maryland)
See docket on RECAP: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69218414/united-states-v-maryland-department-of-state-police/
Last updated June 11, 2025, 6:40 p.m.