From the Washington Post. “The Supreme Court ruled Monday that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge”
Justice Kennedy gave the Courts opinion saying that the “Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer’s reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions.”
On the other side of the spectrum Justice Ginsburg gave the dissenting opinion saying that the white firefighters “understandably attract this court’s sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them.” What about the fact that they scored highest on the promotion test? And that no reason other than fear of litigation from minority groups was given for throwing out the results? This is clearly a case of reverse discrimination and another case of Sonia Sotomayor that has been reversed by the Supreme Court. It will be interesting to see how this affects her confirmation. It will also be interesting to see Obama’s response since this obviously was a case of her favoring empathy over the law. Something that Obama believes in himself.
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And my answer. The Obama administration has spun this decision in a way that I no longer know what direction I am facing.
“There’s little political significance to whatever the court decided today in terms of Judge Sotomayor except to render a fairly definitive opinion that she follows judicial precedent and that she doesn’t legislate from the bench,” - Gibbs
Its like they are watching a different show.