Supreme Court Rules in Favor of White Firefighters
Judge Sonia Sotomayor still looks headed for confirmation to the Supreme Court. But the 5-to-4 Supreme Court decision in a controversial reverse discrimination case could make the last few steps up to the nation's highest court just a little bit more slippery for the nominee.
The case of Ricci v. DeStefano pitted a group of firefighters from Connecticut against the city of New Haven. The firefighters, most of whom are white, argued that they had been discriminated against because of their race when the city threw out the results of a promotion exam. The city argued that its promotion process was aimed at avoiding litigation from minority candidates. Had the test results been accepted, 13 of the 15 promotions would have gone to whites and two to Hispanics. None of the black candidates would have been promoted, leading the city to scrap the test entirely.
Along ideological lines, the court ruled 5 to 4 in favor of the city, with frequent swing vote Anthony Kennedy siding with the court's conservative block. Retiring Justice David Souter, whom Sotomayor is nominated to replace, sided with the minority.
It was one of the most contentious and closely watched cases before the court this year. And it's likely to continue reverberating as Sotomayor and her senatorial inquisitors prepare for her confirmation hearings.
The ruling in the Ricci case reverses an earlier unsigned opinion on the case, with which Sotomayor concurred when she sat on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Of course, reversals from the Supreme Court are not unusual: About 60 percent of circuit court decisions have been reversed by the high court in the past five years. Moreover, the closeness of the decision also seems to undercut central conservative criticisms (and potential lines of attack during her hearings) that she is far outside of the mainstream of American legal thought.
Nor is a high-profile disagreement unprecedented. Justice Samuel Alito was reversed four times in abortion cases alone when he was a circuit court judge. Alito was confirmed by the Senate despite pointed questioning. That will very likely be the script for the Sotomayor hearings scheduled to begin in mid-July.
Reader Comments
White race thrive on welfare
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stereotyping and attitudes
Regarding comments by Diedra of IL and Mike of FL: I am white and agree with Diedra that there are many hard working blacks who are not looking for handouts and that stereotyping is the cause of too many problems. As for Mike's comments...it is true that there have been too many abuses to a system originally designed to allow some blacks to get on their feet. Unfortunately this has caused more resentment by many whites and made life more than miserable for the many blacks who would not accept any welfare. And as a result, many blacks stereotype all whites as racists, which is also far from true. The mayor of New Haven looking to secure votes from the black community,in consort with an unsavory black minister, decided that the testing system was unfair. The result of their stupidity is, of course, the further polarization of the two races. As far as government handouts...they have never really done any good in the long run. And now the biggest handouts in history have been given to white corporate leaders, who are taking their turn at abusing the system.
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