By: Stephen Schumacher
February 2, 2025
With recent plane crashes in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, PA, it makes sense to provide an update on Brigida v. Buttigieg, the class action lawsuit alleging that air traffic controllers were hired primarily based on race and similar biographical factors, resulting in the disqualification of the most highly qualified applicants.
Air traffic control is one of the most demanding and critical jobs in the country. Controllers are responsible for ensuring the safety of millions of air travelers, making split-second decisions that require exceptional intelligence, skill, and focus. Every passenger who boards a flight trusts that the person managing air traffic is the best for the job—regardless of their background.
For decades, the FAA relied on the Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI), a specialized program in partnership with universities, to train and evaluate air traffic control candidates. Those who completed the CTI program and passed the rigorous Air Traffic Selection and Training (AT-SAT) exam were eligible for employment. This system ensured that only the most capable individuals earned these high-responsibility roles.
However, in 2013, the FAA abruptly discarded this process. Instead of hiring based on proven ability, the agency introduced a biographical questionnaire—a subjective screening tool designed to prioritize certain demographic groups over others. This decision disproportionately affected thousands of highly trained CTI graduates, many of whom had invested years of education and significant financial resources into preparing for an ATC career.
Rather than selecting the most qualified applicants, the FAA’s new process allowed “off-the-street” candidates with no specialized training to gain priority over experienced CTI graduates—solely based on their responses to the biographical questionnaire.
The Legal Challenge
This lawsuit, Brigida v. Buttigieg, was filed in response to the FAA’s 2013 hiring changes. Lead plaintiff Andrew Brigida was among the thousands of CTI graduates who were unfairly excluded, despite having excelled in his training and testing.
More recently, Matthew Douglas-Cook, an American Indian and highly qualified CTI graduate, joined the case as a class representative. Like Brigida, Douglas-Cook was denied employment—not due to his skills, but because he did not score high enough on the arbitrary and unvalidated biographical questionnaire. The new system harmed all applicants who were rejected for reasons unrelated to their ability, including highly qualified minority candidates who should have been considered based on merit.
The lawsuit argues that the FAA’s actions were illegal and unconstitutional, violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. By prioritizing race over skill, the FAA endangered public safety, imposed unjust barriers to employment, and discriminated against qualified individuals.
President Trump is right. Discriminatory DEI policies at the FAA result in air travel that is less safe.
