A lawsuit claiming racial bias against the state of Iowa gets underway today in Polk County. The class action lawsuit includes as many as 6,000 people from across the state who claim the state used racial bias in its hiring and promotion process for state jobs beginning on July first of 2003.
The suit includes over 20,000 applications for state jobs. One of the lawyers in the case told Radio Iowa in the past that the case is about the stereotyping of African Americans and how they may or may not appear to be more qualified than a white individual under the process used by the state.
The trial is expected to take three weeks to complete.