Supreme Court Reverses Sotomayor Decision
By Don | June 29, 2009
The Supreme Court reversed an appeals court ruling that Judge Sonia Sotomayor particpated in last year less than two weeks before her confirmation hearings are scheduled to begin.
From the Politico
The Supreme Court handed a victory Monday to a group of white firefighters charging racial discrimination, while also giving some fodder to critics of President Barack Obama’s pending nominee for the high court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for a court split 5-4 along ideological lines, reversed an appeals court ruling Sotomayor joined last year that rejected a claim that the City of New Haven, Conn. discriminated against white firefighters by throwing out a promotional exam after all the African-American firefighters who took it scored too poorly to be promoted.
“Whatever the City’s ultimate aim—however well intentioned or benevolent it might have seemed—the City made its employment decision because of race. The City rejected the test results solely because the higher scoring candidates were white,” Kennedy wrote on behalf of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
“Courts often confront cases in which statutes and principles point in different directions,” the Kennedy opinion noted.
However, Kennedy said that allowing the city’s conduct would establish “a de facto quota system” where test results could be discarded whenever a particular racial group didn’t achieve the average score.
1 Comment | Post a Comment
July 1 at 4:20 pm | #1 | Link
Very happy to see it!
And, I hope the plaintiffs are able to get plenty of compensation from the City of New Haven!
This likely won’t affect Sotomayor’s confirmation - but even if she does replace Souter - nothing much will change - and Kennedy will still remain the swing vote and, according to many, Kennedy and Roberts are on the same page some 85% of the time.