NYT: New Scrutiny of Judge Sotomayor's Most Controversial Case

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New Scrutiny of Judge Sotomayor's Most Controversial Case
Brad Horrigan/New Haven Register, via Associated Press
Firefighter plaintiffs in Ricci v. DeStefano, including Frank Ricci, third from right on front step, in January at court in New Haven.
By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: June 06, 2009
WASHINGTON - Near the end of a long and heated appeals court argument over whether New Haven was entitled to throw out a promotional exam because black firefighters had performed poorly on it, a lawyer for white firefighters challenging that decision made a point that bothered Judge Sonia Sotomayor.
"Firefighters die every week in this country," the lawyer, Karen Lee Torre said. Using the test, she said, could save lives.
"Counsel," Judge Sotomayor responded, "we're not suggesting that unqualified people be hired. The city's not suggesting that. All right?"
The exchange was unusually charged. Almost everything about the case of Ricci v. DeStefano - from the number and length of the briefs to the size of the appellate record to the exceptionally long oral argument - suggested that it would produce an important appeals court decision about how the government may use race in decisions concerning hiring and promotion.
But in the end the decision from Judge Sotomayor and two other judges was an unsigned summary order that contained a single paragraph of reasoning that simply affirmed a lower court's decision dismissing the race discrimination claim brought by Frank Ricci and 17 other white firefighters, one of them Hispanic, who had done well on the test.




http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/06/us/politics/06ricci.html