“And in the 2008 Ricci v. DeStefano case of white firefighters fighting the city of New Haven’s decision to toss out a promotion test upon which blacks and Hispanics disproportionately scored lower than whites, Sotomayor joined the opinion rejecting the firefighters case. The Supreme Court will decide that case this summer, before she would join the Court, and most analyses point to the justices being skeptical of the city’s case.”
The Court in fact was skeptical – or at least five of the nine justices were – as the Court announced today that is was reversing the decision that Sotomayor joined.
The Associated Press reported:
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.
New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said Monday in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities.
The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide and make it harder to prove discrimination when there is no evidence it was intentional.
"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," Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his opinion for the court. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
Raymond J. Keating
Chief Economist
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
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