This is breaking news from the Washington Post.
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.
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.
More information will be forthcoming. But I think that we all know that the most painful part of this is how the media will quickly spin this as a major repudiation for Sotomayor and everything she stands for, rather than a reflection of the fact that Sotomayor's ruling on this case followed precedent, and by reviewing and reversing the decision, the SCOTUS was fulfilling its role.
I'm anxious to see how the justices voted and on what basis they ruled.
Your thoughts? Updates will be posted below the fold.
UPDATE 1 (10:26 EDT):
The Washington Post is now reporting more details. Justice Kennedy was, once again, the swing vote, and according to the WaPo, he wrote in the majority opinion that "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."
I'll wait for our SCOTUS experts and observers here to weigh in on the merits of this.
UPDATE 2 (10:34 EDT):
The ruling in RICCI ET AL. v. DESTEFANO ET AL, is here (PDF).
UPDATE 3 (10:55 EDT): For just one (unsurprising) example of how this is being spun, if you go to Foxnews.com right now you'll see that the headline they've placed on this, currently their top story, is "Reversal of Fortune?"