The Nation - News from Sept. 22, 1989

The FBI said it will not appeal a sweeping court order that sets in place mechanisms to end what a judge found was systematic discrimination against Latino agents. The decision against appealing the May 5 decision by a federal judge in Texas was made by Solicitor General Kenneth Starr, the bureau said. FBI Director William S. Sessions said in a statement that after weighing “the myriad legal, operational and institutional considerations,” he recommended to the Justice Department that no appeal be pursued in the case. The court order in the class-action suit by 311 of the bureau’s approximately 400 Latino agents directed the FBI to adopt changes to end the “unsystematic, excessively subjective” method of promoting agents.