Supreme Court Overturns Ricci v. DeStefano

The Supreme Court has overturned the ruling upheld by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in the case of Ricci v. DeStefano. The court case had several white firefighters filing suit against the city of New Haven over a promotional test that was given that several white firefighters and one hispanic firefighter passed, but the results were thrown out and no firefighters were promoted because no black firefighters passed the test. The case revealed the bias created by affirmative action. Several lower courts ruled against the firefighters until the case was finally heard by the Supreme Court. The close 5-4 ruling reveals the bias and racism of the Supreme Court. The fact that four justices could not see past the color of people's skin to look at character and test results is an atrocity and pulls away the blindfold that is over Lady Justice's eyes.

The city of New Haven argued that it threw out test results to avoid litigation from minorities groups. Anthony Kennedy was the deciding vote and wrote that "fear of litigation alone cannot justify the city's reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotion." The ruling reverses an earlier unsigned opinion on the case in which Sonia Sotomayor concurred when she sat on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Sotomayor's opinion on the case is a black mark that conservatives and moderates alike find hard to swallow and could be an area of contention in her upcoming confirmation hearings.

The Supreme Court ruled on the side of justice in this case, but the close vote reveals how far our country has fallen from principles, particularly Constitutional principles.