Both this, and Dahlia's original post, are great correctives to the shrill denigration of empathy being shamelessly performed by right-wingers. Judges should be empathetic, and being so is not inconsistent with being committed to the rule of law, intelligent, and careful in one's reasoning. A judge should be always aware of the effect his or her decision will have on others, and craft such decisions with humility and humanity.

There is a throw-away line that because no one from a particular group was selected by the test it obviously was unfair. I can see that as a reason to have a second look at the test, but if all of the elelmets are valid at identifying fire-fighting skills, why would it be unfair? Maybe in this particular case the eight best applicants were white.