Supreme Court ruling against New Haven fair  Freedom New Mexico
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Ricci v. DeStefano that the
city of New Haven, Conn., violated the 1964 civil rights law
when it threw out the results of a firefighter promotional test
after no blacks scored high enough to qualify for promotion.  In
an opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the
quintessential swing vote, the court ruled this constituted
discrimination on the basis of race against those who had
received higher marks on the test.  The case itself was
important, but it is of special interest given that President
Barack Obama’s nominee to the court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor,
while sitting on the 2nd Circuit appellate court, ruled the
other way. She ruled in favor of the city in a one-paragraph
decision that declined to engage the sticky legal questions
involved.  The story behind the case is pretty well known by
now. New Haven devised a test for firefighters who wanted to be
promoted. Frank Ricci, a dyslexic white firefighter,