Posted on 07/06/2009 10:11:37 AM PDT by Graybeard58
The foundation of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in favor of 19 white and Hispanic New Haven firefighters who claimed they were denied promotions because of their race were clearer than the 5-4 vote would indicate. This was a simple case of government depriving workers of what they had earned through their own merit.
Justices knew the story of lead plaintiff Frank Ricci, who went to extreme lengths and personal cost to overcome his dyslexia and make the cut. Lack of effort, not racism or any other -ism, separated the also-rans from the firefighters who earned promotions.
As columnist George Will points out in his column (available at http://blogs.rep-am.com/worth_reading/?p=3687), it's grating the court's four liberals indulged in arguments that seem to "reflect result-oriented rather than law-driven reasoning." But what is perhaps most troubling about the ruling is the role played by Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the high court.
It isn't just that Judge Sotomayor, who heard and rejected an appeal by the firefighters, almost certainly would have voted with the minority had she been on the Supreme Court. In a very real sense, this is a choice voters made when they elected a left-leaning president and Congress.
No, the deeper problem is Judge Sotomayor's participation, as an appellate judge, in a one-paragraph dismissal last year of the firefighters' claims. That the Supreme Court took up the case and produced more than 100 pages of thoughtful analysis and opinion shows the court's liberal and conservative wings agreed the firefighters' claims had substance. Earlier, Judge Jose Cabranes, Judge Sotomayor's colleague on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, had criticized the panel's ruling: "This perfunctory disposition rests uneasily with the weighty issues presented by this appeal."
Senators should question Judge Sotomayor sharply on this point: not because she took the minority position, but because she manifestly didn't realize it mattered.
Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.
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actually what ricci was saying was that under the system, if you’re white you have to be better than anybody in the room, but if you’re black, you only have to be better than the rest of the blacks.
actually what ricci was saying was that under the system, if you’re white you have to be better than anybody in the room, but if you’re black, you only have to be better than the rest of the blacks.
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Rather like outrunning a bear?
Scary and very sad for us.........
Not Yogi, though I wish it were, I am sure you have heard the old story but the gist is that if you are alone and chased by a bear your only chance is to outrun the bear and bears are much faster than humans. But if you have at least one person with you you only have to outrun that person.
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