Breaking: SCOTUS Rules In Favor of New Haven Firefighters


The U.S. Supreme Court decided Ricci v. DeStefano today.
The breaking news coming off of the television is that the Court reversed the Second Circuit and ruled in favor of the New Haven firefighters. Judge Sonia Sotomayor was on that panel, so her reversal rate just went up.
Here’s the opinion from the Court via SCOTUSblog. The vote was 5-4, with Kennedy writing for the majority and Ginsburg dissenting.
Right now I’m watching Eliot Spitzer trying to explain it to an amped up Dylan Ratigan. I always wondered what it would like to feed a person coffee mixed with Red Bull while being electro-shocked.
Would this case have been more interesting if New Haven had certified the results of the exam, and then minorities sued the city under Title VII? Random minorities v. City of New Haven would seem more on point about whether or not the firefighter test was discriminatory.
Ricci v. DeStefano.pdf [PDF]

Sponsored