To recap the case of Ricci v. DeStefano:

Eighteen white employees and one Hispanic passed a firefighter promotion test. No black employees passed the test. The whites later sued the city after officials nixed the test results — and in fact dropped the test altogether — when the officials feared they’d be sued by black test-takers claiming that the test discriminated against and had a disparate impact on blacks.

The white employees took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court and won. The Supremes, in a 5-4 vote, said the city had to go by the test results. (Of no small significance — publicity-wise — was the fact that the  High Court overruled the judgment of Supreme Court nominee Sandra Sotomayor.)

Countless employment-law attorneys are now dissecting what the ruling means to you and your particular organization. Our guess is that, for most HR managers, the impact amounts to a big, fat zero.

First of all, the test in question was a promotions test, not a hiring test. Second, it was administered by a unit of government. Third, no one really has been able to nail the overall impact of the ruling.

Most employment tests these days are what are called “assessments,” meaning they test particular skills needed for the job in question. In fact, the City of New Haven officials  have mentioned they they’re moving to such tests, which are supposed to measure relevant factors instead of general knowledge or intelligence. So the ruling on the firefighters’ case has a further “who cares?” factor — unless you happen to be one of the eighteen who got denied a promotion. (And if you are, we suggest you look elsewhere for relevant post mortems of the ruling.)

Now, maybe you use Wonderlic or personality testing as a tool for hiring, but it’s doubtful that you rest your entire hiring decision on the results. If you do, we humbly suggest you consider changing your ways.

Be assured that the Supreme Court ruling has nothing to do with Wonderlic. In fact, we doubt it has much to do with anything of interest to you.

Unless, of course, you happen to be an employment-law attorney who’s looking to drum up a little more business.

The case involves white firefighters in New Haven, CT, who say they passed an exam for a job promotion only to have the test results thrown out because no African-American candidate received a high enough score to also be considered for promotion.

The test reportedly was specially designed to eliminate bias and do away with advantages for white applicants. Still, when no blacks and only two Hispanic applicants qualified for promotion — compared with 17 whites and one Hispanic –  the city decided to scrap the entire test.

The 18 who passed the test then sued, charging they were denied consideration for promotion just because they weren’t black.

A federal district judge threw the case out, but the High Court agreed to take it on, probably some time in April.

The court’s decision of course could have far-reaching effects on diversity programs in the public and private sector.