San Diego

An appeals court has reversed a federal judge’s ruling that two San Diego County workers were denied promotions because of their ethnicity.

The three-judge U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded Jan. 16 that U.S. District Judge Myron L. Gordon used the wrong legal test in determining that county employees Sal Bua and Jorge Rios were denied advancement because they are Latino.

The two had contended they were denied promotions because of their ethnicity. They also claimed that the county’s practice of promoting temporary employees, all of whom were white, to the positions they sought instead of using the normal civil service merit system constituted a training program not open to them and other Latinos.

The appeals court sent the case back to the federal court with instructions to apply the correct legal standard and clarify findings on certain facts in the case.