Rejected! Courtesy, the Economist
Right up Sotomayor’s behind, the current justices of the Supreme Court have over-ruled her. Ouch – what a rebuff! Nice start, Sonia – you haven’t even been promoted and you are already creating controversy within the High Court.
I just love it – her future colleagues sided with the firemen, including one Hispanic, in opposition to her, only today:
The city’s action in discarding the tests violated Title VII… the city’s fundamental arguments were “blatantly contradicted by the record.
Monday’s decision in Ricci v. DeStefano … was one of the most closely watched discrimination cases in years … because President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, had sided with the city and against the firefighters as a member of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The Economist writes:
The decision in Ricci provides some embarrassment for Mr Obama, so close to the start of Ms Sotomayor’s Senate confirmation hearings on July 13th. The White House’s view is that Ms Sotomayor is a centrist judge, a pragmatist with solid rulings in hundreds of cases during her time as a district judge and on the court of appeals. She would also be the first Hispanic on the Court, a fact noticed by a Republican Party that had once hoped to make great gains among that group at the polling booth. Democrats are confident that Ms Sotomayor will sail through.
Sotomayor is so centrist that even the current Supreme Court, with its mix of liberals and conservatives, finds her extreme. Kennedy, the only centrist justice, wrote the majority opinion, interestingly claiming:
…that the city faced a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation … if the city had allowed the promotional exam to stand, it would have faced a lawsuit from black firefighters.
But the city’s dilemma did not justify scrapping the exam results, Justice Kennedy wrote, in a conclusion also embraced by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
Souter, the justice she is replacing, sided with her – no surprises there. It is quite apparent already that Sotomayor will not be joining the Kennedy wing.
At least, she won’t cause too much for the conservatives on the bench. As long as Kennedy’s on there, we can expect more reasonable rulings, regardless of Sonia.
