WP: Court Views Work Of Potential Picks: Most Contentious Cases Are Those From Sotomayor and Wardlaw

Two of the federal judges recommended to President Obama for the Supreme Court are having their work reviewed by the very justices they would join. And their opinions, in two of the term's most controversial cases, have been criticized by the Obama administration.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor of New York was part of a three-judge panel that upheld New Haven, Conn.'s, decision to scuttle a promotions test for firefighters after the results showed no African Americans qualified for advancement. The white firefighters who would have been promoted said the decision violated federal law and their constitutional rights.

Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw of California ruled that Arizona middle-school officials had violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old student by forcing her to strip to her underwear in an unsuccessful search for drugs -- in this case, ibuprofen.

Wardlaw has been recommended to the president by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and is one of a handful of Hispanic federal appeals court judges. Sotomayor is another and is considered by many to be one of those most closely considered by Obama because of her academic credentials and compelling life story.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/23/AR2009052301531.html

We're talking about firefighters here, whose job it is to save lives. Assuming that the test was properly composed with the sole aim of determining a firefighter's competence to hold an advanced position with more responsibility, it can only compromise the efficiency of fire departments and the safety of the people to consider such irrelevant issues as race when issuing promotions.

If the test itself was somehow discriminatory then I'm on your side, but I'm highly suspicious of that sort of claim when it's made only after the results are examined. I'd have to see the discriminatory questions and hear how they discriminated before I'd be convinced.

As it stands, I'm highly compelled by this post from "Honeycombe8":

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8403827#8404005