US top court rules against city on race, overturns Sonia Sotomayor decision

US top court rules against city on race, overturns Sonia Sotomayor decision

www.reuters.com

WASHINGTON, June 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that New Haven, Connecticut, discriminated against a mostly white group of firefighters who were denied promotions, overturning a decision by high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

By a 5-4 vote and splitting along conservative and liberal lines, the justices overturned a ruling for the city by a U.S. appeals court panel that included Sotomayor, who is President Barack Obama's nominee to replace retiring Justice David Souter

(visit the link for the full news article)

Thats goign to make for some interesting water cooler talk around the SC when she get in. I at one time had asperations to be a firefighter, but it became apparent in both action and outright being told, I did not have a chance unless I was a female or a minority. Its good to see that ability should be the qualifier these days for positions.

www.reuters.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Common sense prevails. People should not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

reply to post by Jacob08


to bad no one followed that advice when we elected our current pres a dent

Sodamoocher is going to be the biggest embarrassment since Clinton's Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders! A complete feminine racist with stunted legal mind and an education that surely didn't give grades for excellence!

ZIndo

This should wake some people up. Rulings like this will be history when " Legislate from the Bench" Sotomayor gets on the Supreme Court. She has even admitted in her own words that she has an agenda. She is not Supreme Court Justice material.


Maybe she should be on the Venezuelan Supreme Court?

Edited to add that CommonGood has one top notch avatar.

[edit on 6-29-2009 by groingrinder]

Well folks, there you have it. The cry of reverse-discrimination is finally heard. This is what happens when you push the race card too far, now people might actually be able to get jobs without being overlooked simply because they are white, or any other color for that matter. This will probably weigh heavy on the future job markets, and schooling scholarships perhaps if this case pertains to any of it. No man should be more beneficial for one thing over the next simple because of a historical indifference. I dont say this often, but kudos to the Sureme Court.

It's good to see the Court finally rule in favor of something RIGHT.

Here's a novel idea - let's hire people based on their skill and qualification rather than their skin color or what gender they are.

I wonder if this will play a role in her confirmation, clearly the case was decided correctly by the Supreme Court. As of right now, no news outlets are really following this on-air, they are all covering Madoff, so...we'll have to wait and see how BSNBC and the likes react and spin.

reply to post by yellowcard

no news outlets are really following this on-

I have had FOX on *gasp* all morning, and they have repeatedly covered this.

[edit on 6/29/2009 by greeneyedleo]

I agree with the court decision.

Legally, you can't use race to determine a hiring outcome.

The city had hired a consulting firm to develop a test that was race neutral. It had question on it like, the nearest water source is 520 feet away. How many 50 foot hoses will it take to bring water to the site?

The city decided to throw out the test results, after reviewing them, because not enough under represented minorities had passed. Clearly, that decision by the city was race based and therefore not legal.

The simple fact here is that whites are the one group who are most discriminated against. Especially if you are a WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), and male!

I've seen many, many examples of it in my life, and I'm sure it will continue for a few years yet.

The problem is that there aren't enough people being affected by this discrimination against whites for it to be an issue... as soon as there are a critical mass of whites being affected then we'll see riots akin to those of the Blacks that rioted in the US and other place several decades ago.

Although, when the whites riot they wont be as civilised as people think them to be. They'll have been pushed so far into a corner that they will have little choice but to snap and go for the proverbial juggular.

The revolution is coming, and it isn't going to be pretty.

[edit on 29-6-2009 by dampnickers]

It should be the right person for the right job. The police force and firefighters in Canada are the exact same thing. It would be easy for me to get a job, but for a more qualified white person it would be much more difficult. I never really understood this.

The simple fact here is that whites are the one group who are most discriminated against. Especially if you are a WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), and male!

I've seen many, many examples of it in my life, and I'm sure it will continue for a few years yet.

The problem is that there aren't enough people being affected by this discrimination against whites for it to be an issue... as soon as there are a critical mass of whites being affected then we'll see riots akin to those of the Blacks that rioted in the US and other place several decades ago.

Agreed totally, the double standard on racism is sickening. Actually, I don't even think we have seen the worst of it ... just wait another year or so when Obama is in full speed and Sotomayor is legislating her personal opinions from the court. I shudder to think what will happen.

And it would be interesting if there was a large scale riot/revolt by Whites ... im curious as to what Obama would do; ignore us because he's a coward or crush us ala Warsaw 1944 or Budapest 1956.

And so the Supreme Court makes its last ruling based on sanity and what is right and just.

When Sotomayor takes up her position, the split will switch to 5:4 in favor of the deranged liberal members of the court.

Anyone got a hammer, we need to nail our coffin shut.

Originally posted by greeneyedleo

And this poor excuse of a Judge is the reason for this mess. And our [sarcasm] wonderful president [/sarcasm] wants her to sit on the high seat making fair judgments based on law.

She has already proven she is unable to do that.

Should the 4 people who voted against the reversal be kicked off the Supreme Court as well? People make bad calls, and you can be sure as hell I will be reading the in's and outs of the original case to see if the media is flipping this to make her look bad. I have yet to see any cases in which she has been unfair, but again I haven't read too much about her.

reply to post by WinoBot

People make bad calls

Yes, people make bad calls. But judges should not. Do they? Yes! Should they? NO! They are judges with people's lives in their hands. They should make fair honest legal calls. Period. Is this a utopian world idea I have? Maybe, but we are not talking about regular people like you and me........but......JUDGES. Though I study criminal law, not civil - I just do not see how any judge could have said the City was right in this decision.

[edit on 6/29/2009 by greeneyedleo]

This is what the city said:

New Haven argued that if it had gone ahead with the promotions based on the test results, it would have risked a lawsuit claiming the exam hurt minorities in violation of federal civil rights law

And Ms Sotomayor ruled in thier favor.

Seems pretty clear cut to me.

Sounds like federal civil rights laws need to be looked at again and possibly rewritten.


[edit on 6/29/2009 by greeneyedleo]

reply to post by FredT


Ladies and gentlemen, what is rarely discussed in these frivolous cases is the actual monetary cost for reviewing and trialing over and over. Consider for a moment that the U.S. Supreme Court is being called upon to adjudicate the hiring of firefighters. Not that firefighters are not important, this case is simply a no-brainer. (Insert your own joke regarding Sotomayor here!) Mindboggling!

We pay, we pay and justice is further weakened by this onslaught of nonsense. Our legal system is over burdened. Wow has that ever become cliché? Every issue crippling the economy (i.e. the country) can be traced at least partially to frivolous lawsuits and/or regulators/judges that are if not entirely negligent of their duties are injecting opinion where law should be the determinant. And so we pay and hard working citizens like these firefighters are kept in personal limbo. There are pressures to conserve all our resources but this huge waste is rarely, seriously questioned.

What is a criminal lawyer?

A redundancy.

My apologies to criminals.