The Supreme Court Strikes a Modest Blow for Common Sense

Good news for common sense.

Bad news, potentially, for Sonia Sotomayor.

The U.S. Supreme Court has reversed Sotomayor's appellate court decision in Ricci vs DeStafano, the New Haven firefighters exam case.

The Supreme Court today narrowly ruled in favor of white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who said they were denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision by Judge Sonia Sotomayor and others that had come to play a large role in the consideration of her nomination for the high court.

The city had thrown out the results of a promotion test because no African Americans and only two Hispanics would have qualified for promotions. It said it feared a lawsuit from minorities under federal laws that said such "disparate impacts" on test results could be used to show discrimination.

In effect, the court was deciding when avoiding potential discrimination against one group amounted to actual discrimination against another.

The court's conservative majority said in a 5 to 4 vote that is what happened in New Haven.

"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," wrote Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the liberals on the court and said the decision knocks the pegs from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

She read her dissent from the bench for emphasis. "Congress endeavored to promote equal opportunity in fact, and not simply in form," she said. "The damage today's decision does to that objective is untold."

Notice how Justice Ginsberg attempts to justify Congress from a political point of view, and not based on case law or the Constitution.

Martin Luther King Jr. said we needed to become a nation where people were not judged based upon skin color but upon the content of their character. In other words, on the merits of their actions and skills.

Do you want the best qualified firefighters coming to your rescue when your house is on fire and your family is threatened? Or would you rather that some arbitrary formula, based on race, means that you may have a would-be rescuer who does not have adequate skills? But at least you can feel good about equal opportunity as your life goes up in smoke, right?

It was a narrow decision, 5 to 4, but the Supreme Court says you can't use race to discriminate against those who otherwise would be better qualified.

As for Sotomayor's nomination, in a rationale universe the U.S. Senate would note that she has a very poor track record with her opinions getting tossed by the Supreme Court. The solution is not to promote her to her ultimate level of incompetence where there will be no one to undo her mistakes.

But as we have seen lately, this isn't a rationale universe at the moment. At least not in Washington, D.C.