The lawsuit alleges that the FAA changed its air traffic controller hiring process in 2014 in a way that disadvantaged some non-African American applicants. A federal judge allowed key claims to proceed in 2021, but did not decide that discrimination occurred. A class was certified in 2022 for applicants meeting specific criteria. A case summary last updated in February 2025 described the lawsuit as ongoing; its later status is not established here.
What the lawsuit alleges about the 2014 hiring changes
In Brigida v. United States Department of Transportation, the plaintiffs challenged changes to how the Federal Aviation Administration hired air traffic controllers. Their First Amended Complaint, filed April 18, 2016, describes an earlier route for graduates of FAA-associated Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) schools: graduates who passed the Air Traffic Control Selection and Training examination (AT-SAT) could enter a Qualified Applicant Register and receive hiring preference.
The complaint alleges that the FAA stopped maintaining that register and, in 2014, announced a nationwide competitive vacancy process that included a biographical assessment. The plaintiffs allege that the change was intended to increase racial diversity and disadvantaged certain applicants who were not African American. Those claims describe the plaintiffs’ account and allegations; they are not established findings about the FAA’s motive or the reason for any individual rejection.
What the plaintiffs asked the court to do
The complaint requested declaratory and injunctive relief, restoration of the register, and remedies that could include back pay, front pay, or hiring. These were requests, not relief shown by the cited case materials to have been awarded.
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What the court decided—and what it did not
On May 12, 2021, the district court denied the government’s motion to dismiss. The court concluded that the complaint plausibly alleged that the plaintiffs qualified as employment applicants and experienced an adverse employment action. That procedural ruling meant the claims could proceed under the applicable standard; it was not a trial verdict and did not establish that the FAA discriminated or acted for the reason alleged.
On February 1, 2022, the court certified a narrower class. Class certification allows a case to proceed on behalf of qualifying people as a group; it does not decide the underlying claims in their favor.
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Who the certified class covers
The Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse’s February 2025 case summary describes the class as certain non-African American CTI graduates who:
- graduated from 2009 through 2013;
- passed the AT-SAT;
- applied through the 2014 announcement;
- failed the biographical questionnaire and were not hired; and
- had never since been offered FAA air traffic controller employment.
The certification order also set eligibility conditions and exclusions. The class is therefore not every person whose FAA application was rejected, nor every applicant affected by a hiring-process change.
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What is known about the lawsuit’s status
The Clearinghouse summary says fact discovery was scheduled through September 2024, expert discovery through May 2025, and summary-judgment motions were due in June 2025. Its update says the case was ongoing as of February 2025. Those dates are a procedural schedule, not proof that each stage occurred as planned. The available case summary does not establish whether the case later settled, reached judgment, or remains pending, so its present disposition should not be stated as confirmed without a current docket check.
How the later FAA hiring process differs
GAO-26-107320, published in 2026, describes two later hiring tracks. They provide context about FAA hiring after the 2014 dispute, but they are not the process challenged in the lawsuit.
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| Track | Who it serves | Process described by GAO |
|---|---|---|
| Track 1 | Applicants with limited or no prior controller experience | Uses the Air Traffic Control Specialist Skills Assessment Battery (ATSA), which tests areas including mathematics, decision-making, spatial comprehension, memory, and planning. |
| Track 2 | Experienced controllers | Requires prior experience; GAO’s summary does not specify the full set of experience requirements. |
For candidates who receive tentative offers, GAO describes medical and security screening followed by training. GAO also says that for the spring 2025 Track 1 announcement, the FAA changed its process to move candidates through hiring continuously rather than processing the announcement cohort sequentially.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to interpret later applicant statistics
GAO reports that about 4 percent of the tracked Track 1 applicants who applied in fiscal years 2017–2022 completed all hiring steps and began training at the FAA Academy. GAO’s merged applicant and training dataset covered 106,533 applications from those fiscal years. These are statistics about a later hiring period and the population GAO analyzed; they do not establish the effect of the challenged 2014 process, identify applicants harmed by the lawsuit, or show why particular candidates did not advance.
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The cited material also does not establish that the alleged hiring policy caused an aviation safety incident. The hiring claims and any claim about safety outcomes are separate questions requiring separate evidence.
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