Five white male Philadelphia police officers have accused their city and department of denying them promotions due to their race and sex, a new lawsuit claims.
America First Legal, a group co-founded by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller that defends conservative causes in the courts, filed a federal class-action lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of the police officers who claim they were passed over for advancement in favor of cops who were either Black or women.
Lieutenants Christopher Bloom, Kollin Berg and Joseph Musumeci were denied a promotion to captain, and Sergeants Marc Monachello and Leroy Ziegler Jr. were passed over for advancement to lieutenant in November 2025, according to the lawsuit.
America First Legal claim that each cop had “high civil exam scores, strong service records, positive annual performance reviews, and significant law-enforcement experience” and that they were denied their promotions ”in favor of non-white male candidates with lower civil-service exam scores and lower rankings on the promotion-eligibility lists.”
The lawsuit challenges Philadelphia’s “Rule of Five” policy, which it says the city created in 2021 to increase the representation of minority and female candidates in supervisory positions. The “Rule of Five” policy, which America First Legal calls “illegal and discriminatory,” replaced the city’s “Rule of Two” policy.
In Philadelphia’s “Rule of Two” policy, only the top two candidates on the civil service eligibility list were allowed to be selected for promotion, according to the lawsuit.
When then-Councilwoman Cherelle Parker, who is now Philadelphia’s mayor, introduced legislation in 2021 to eliminate the “Rule of Two,” she said, “It is one thing for an employer to say, ‘Black Lives Matter,’ and an entirely different thing for an employer to make real, substantive changes that ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
“Our municipal government is one of the largest employers in the City of Philadelphia, and for too long, the Rule of Two has held back Black and Brown employees, either from obtaining that entry-level job or from getting that promotion,” Parker said. “This legislation is by no means a ‘silver bullet’ to making our City’s workforce, and particularly our City’s upper management, more reflective of Philadelphia’s demographics, but it is a necessary and important step.”
When reached out to by The Independent, the Philadelphia Police Department and the mayor’s office declined to comment on the case, citing the “active litigation.”
“Federal civil-rights law prohibits employers from making promotion decisions based on race or sex,” Nick Barry, Senior Counsel at America First Legal, said in a statement about the lawsuit. “Put simply, employers cannot use protected characteristics to override merit.
“Promotions must be based on excellence, experience, and performance, not on the race or sex of the candidate.”
