Judge Sonia Sotomayor ruled in favor of the city of New Haven rejecting promotion examination results because black candidates did not score as high as whites and Hispanics.
The Supreme Court reversed the decision she and other appeal court judges made and ruled in favor of the white and Hispanic plaintiffs. Should this case be used to justify non-confirmation of Judge Sotomayor as a Supreme Court justice? We think not, at least not on the results of this single case.
We believe her (and the entire court of appeals’) biggest mistake was upholding a lower court decision in this case without going to the effort of writing an opinion explaining the reason. It was a classic case of reverse discrimination, and once it received national attention, there was little doubt that the Supreme Court would overturn the ruling.
By her lack of effort to write or agree to a written opinion at the appellate court level, we are left guessing exactly why she thought the original case was ruled correctly by a lower court. That is not good enough for us. She should, and probably will, be questioned at length during her confirmation hearings why she took such action. We will be very interested in her answers.
It has been 55 years since integration of schools began with Brown v. Board of Education. There is more than enough opportunity today for all races to gain access to good education.
Does Judge Sotomayor believe this, and has her long time on various courts demonstrated such colorblind justice? If yes, she should get past this confirmation hurdle. If no, her confirmation should be challenged on this broad issue, but not simply the New Haven case in isolation.
Opinion
In our view: Public left guessing
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