Sunday, July 12, 2009

SOTOMAYOR AND THE RICCI CASE

Ricci v. DeStephano is the recent Supreme Court decision regarding the New Haven firefighters who took a test for promotions and had the test thrown out by the city when only white and Hispanic firefighters passed. When the guys who passed the test sued, the federal district court ruled (without a trial on the facts) that the city had acted properly. Judge Sonia Sotomayor, of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, summarily upheld the district court’s decision and adopted its reasoning.

I am writing this to clear up the misconception that, since the Supreme Court ruling was 5 – 4, there were four justices on the Supreme Court who agreed with Sonia Sotomayor. In fact, there were none. The dissent, written by Justice Ginsburg (joined by Stevens, Souter and Breyer), argued simply that a trial of the facts was necessary and that the case should be sent back to the district court for that trial. Thus, Sotomayor’s ruling that the firefighter tests could be rejected by the city as a matter of law (without a trial of the facts) was rejected by all nine members of the Supreme Court.

You can read the decision here.


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