Sen. McConnell Falsely Claims Ricci Proves Sotomayor "Wrongly Deprived" Firefighters Of "Equal Justice"

Sen. McConnell: Judge Sotomayor Misapplied The Law

McConnell:  "The Supreme Court today recognized that Judge Sotomayor's panel wrongly deprived the New Haven firefighters of equal justice under the law. Not only did Judge Sotomayor misapply the law, but the perfunctory way in which she and her panel dismissed the firefighters' meritorious claims of unfair treatment is particularly troubling..." [McConnell.Senate.gov, 6/29/09]

 Actually, the court was split along ideological lines, with four members agreeing with the unanimous decision of the three-judge panel that issued the prior ruling in the case. 

The Court Ruled 5-4 Along Ideological Lines.  As reported by ABC News: "In a decision that could have sweeping impact on employers across the nation, the Supreme Court ruled today that white and Hispanic firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.  Splitting down ideological lines, the court ruled 5-4 that New Haven violated a landmark civil rights law when the city threw out the results of a promotions exam after it was determined that none of the black firefighters who took the test scored well enough to be promoted." [ABC News, 6/29/09; emphasis added]

Justices Ginsburg, Stevens, Souter, and Breyer Dissented From The Court's Ruling.  According to court documents, "Justice Ginsburg, with whom Justice Stevens, Justice Souter, and Justice Breyer join," wrote the dissenting opinion.  [SupremeCourtUS.gov, 6/29/09]

Judge Sotomayor Followed Binding Precedent

Second Circuit's Ricci Ruling Followed Precedent Set In Bushey v. New York State Civil Service Commission. According to the Wonk Room: "New Haven's decision to toss out test results after a promotion test was administered is not unprecedented. Indeed, in the 1984 case Bushey v. New York State Civil Service Commission-decided eight years before Sotomayor became a judge-the Second Circuit considered a nearly identical case. Just like in Ricci, in Bushey white applicants significantly outperformed minority applicants on a promotion test, and the employer in Bushey responded by adjusting minority scores upward to render more non-whites eligible for promotion. The court upheld this rescoring of minority applicants, explaining that employers are allowed to "voluntarily compl[y]" with civil rights law by reconsidering tests that have an adverse impact on minorities. Because Bushey has never been overruled, it is considered a binding precedent in the Second Circuit, and Judge Sotomayor was required to follow it when her panel was called upon to decide Ricci. To do otherwise would mean ignoring the law in order to benefit a sympathetic plaintiff." [The Wonk Room, 6/1/09; emphasis added]

"Applying The Law As It Stands Would Surely Have Meant That The City Of New Haven Was Well Within Its Rights." Sherrilyn Ifill of the University of Maryland School of Law explained, "this decision is revealing of the conservative majority's willingness to take unrestrained steps to fashion the results it seeks. Applying the law as it stands would surely have meant that the City of New Haven was well within its rights to refuse to certify the firefighters' promotions exam after finding stark racially disparate results. But guided, it seems, by a sense that denying white firefighters, including sympathetic lead plaintiff Frank Ricci, what they apparently believe is a right to certified results of a promotions exam, the Supreme Court in its own words "search[es] for a standard that strikes a more appropriate balance." In laymen's terms, this is known as "making it up as you go along." This is not in and of itself objectionable. It's in fact part of what judges do. But it does demonstrate that judicial activism is a two-way street, and undermines the argument that judges simply apply the existing law." [American Constitution Society, 6/29/09; emphasis added]