Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor may have a more difficult path ahead on her way toward confirmation, after the Supreme Court yesterday overturned a key “reverse discrimination” ruling she took part in.
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled 5-4 in Ricci v. DeStefano that the city of New Haven, CT, wrongly discarded the results of promotional exams for their firefighters after too few minorities qualified. A group of 20 mostly white firefighters sued for reverse discrimination. Sotomayor and two other federal appeals court judges last year sided with the city. The decision is notable because some conservative Republicans have criticized Sotomayor’s views on racial preferences, some even calling her “racist.” They say the Bronx-raised Latina judge may place race ahead of other issues in some of her decisions, and that she could be a liberal judicial activist.
Now, those on the left and right are weighing in as to what this means for Sotomayor’s confirmation, which is supposed to begin July 13. Her supporters, of course, say this won’t derail the process, and point out that four Supreme Court justices, two appellate judges and a lower-court judge agreed with her interpretation of the law, while those who oppose her, as well as some conservatives, say this is yet another reason to take things slow. But even some of her detractors say this isn’t enough to kill her nomination altogether.
Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to “carefully examine Sotomayor’s role in the 2nd Circuit’s opinion on this case. Discrimination and racial preferences have no place in our courts, let alone on the highest court in the land.” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, a senior Judiciary Committee member, said the ruling “in no way undercut” her prospect for confirmation, while the White House also rushed to her defense.
“The issue from the Sotomayor perspective is, does this call into question anything about her judgment? And it doesn’t,” one senior White House official told The Washington Post. “The majority made it clear they are making a new rule. No one has really questioned that she did what she was supposed to do.’’
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