So-So by Name, So-so by Legal Acumen [UPDATED]
Sonia From The Bronx, wrong again:
The Supreme Court has ruled 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.
It’s a breaking story, so updates (such as vote count) to follow. But this should open up an interesting line of questions at her confirmation hearings.
From SCOTUSBlog: this nugget from Alito’s concurring opinion:
The Alito concurrence does have a harsher criticism of the District Court and Court of Appeals’ ruling. … Referring the plaintiffs, he says: “But ’sympathy’ is not what petitioners have a right to demand. What they have a right to demand is evenhanded enforcement of hte [sic] law . . . And that is what, until today’s decision, has been denied them.”
OH! Badda-bing, badda-boom, that’s going to leave a mark. The opinion was 5-4, by the way with Kennedy siding with the conservatives, and Ginsberg writing the dissent for the Usual Suspects.
If (when?) Sonia From The Bronx is confirmed, there will be some pretty interesting arguments in chambers.
Michelle jokes:
President Obama applauds the decision as a victory for equality under the law. Not.
UPPERDATE:
Nobody like So-So’s ruling. Even the dissenters think it stinks.
In footnote 10 of her dissent, Justice Ginsburg,
agreeing with the position that President Obama’s Department of Justice took,states: “Ordinarily, a remand for fresh consideration [whether the City of New Haven in fact had good cause to act] would be in order.” But because the majority saw no need to remand, Ginsburg explains “why, if final adjudication by this Court is indeed appropriate, New Haven should be the prevailing party.” (Emphasis added.)In other words, Ginsburg doesn’t believe that final disposition of the case is appropriate. She and her fellow dissenters therefore believe that Sotomayor and her Second Circuit colleagues and the district court were wrong to grant summary judgment to the City of New Haven.
[Update/clarification: Ginsburg believes that Sotomayor and the other judges below applied the wrong standard: “The lower courts focused on respondents’ ‘intent’ rather than on whether respondents in fact had good cause to act.”
Bloodthirsty Liberal said,
June 29, 2009 @ 10:28 am
I am very glad that they voted this way. One of the firefighters who passed and should have been promoted has dyslexia and spent $1000.00 hiring someone to help him study. He worked very hard for the promotion and clearly deserves it, earned it through his own efforts. I hope this forces the city to give them the promotions they all earned.
PS Expect intelligent decisions like this to go away in the future as Obama packs the Court with his picks.
- Aggie
Sotomayor Racist Decision Overturned by Supreme Court re: White Firefighters « VotingFemale Speaks! said,
June 29, 2009 @ 9:48 pm
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