In late June, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of white New Haven firefighters and their claims of racial discrimination. The SCOTUS decision in Ricci v. DeStefano overturned an earlier decision by then-2nd Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Given the SCOTUS decision, I should have seen the lawsuit by a black New Haven firefighter coming. It’s such an obvious reaction to SCOTUS that I’m surprised it took this long. Here’s the introduction to the complaint:

The 2003 New Haven fire lieutenant examination had two parts: a multiple-choice written test and an oral exam. Ranking on the eligibility list depended on how the City chose to weight the scores on the two components. The oral exam was a better way to assess candidates’ skills and abilities than the written test and had less disparate impact on African-Americans. Yet the City chose to weight the written test 60 percent and the oral exam 40 percent. This weighting reduced the validity of the overall selection process; it was arbitrarily chosen, without any pretense that it was job related; it was contrary to standard practice among similar public safety agencies, where the norm is to weight the oral component 70 percent; it had a disparate impact on African-American candidates; and it will prevent the plaintiff from being promoted to the rank of lieutenant, even though he is one of the most highly qualified candidates.

Apparently, this plaintiff had the highest score on the oral exam. But once the written exam was factored in, the plaintiff was ranked 24th and not eligible for promotion.

The disparate impact of “cramming,” after the jump.

Just last week SCOTUS Justice Sonia Sotomayor was spotted cutting a rug at the Irish Channel Pub in Washington, D.C.’s Chinatown. This week, she’s on the dance floor again, but this time the location is a bit more upscale.

From the Reliable Source at the Washington Post:

The annual gala of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts is known for drawing the stars — but a D.C. luminary outshone the Hollywood kind Tuesday night. Justice Sonia Sotomayor would have been the belle of the ball even if she had never left her table, so the room exploded when actor Esai Morales pulled the Supreme Court’s first Latino member onto the dance floor for an impressively confident salsa.

See the dance video, and the other legal stars at the party, after the jump.

Sometimes stereotypes are true. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Supreme Court’s first Latina justice, loves to dance — and she’s pretty darn good at it, too.

Consider this comment — posted back in May 2005, about then-Judge Sotomayor — from Underneath Their Robes:

In October [2004], attended the wedding of two law school classmate, one of whom (the bride) clerked for Judge Sotomayor. Judge Sotomayor was delightful and gracious — she took the time to introduce herself to the bride’s mother (and invited her to lunch when she was next in NYC to see her daughter). But the best was yet to come.

The Judge is a dancing machine. She danced it up with the groom, the bride, and the bride’s district court judge (Judge Underhill of Connecticut, who is no slouch on the dance floor either). She has mad rhythm. Don’t be fooled by the robes that she’s got!

Indeed. Residents of Washington who were out on the town Monday night were treated to the sight — and sound — of Justice Sotomayor celebrating her Supreme Court appointment, dancing and singing karaoke with family and friends.

An eyewitness (and earwitness) account, plus some grainy video, after the jump.

* Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor officially took her seat at One First Street yesterday. [Caucus Blog/New York Times]

* Jennifer Lopez is not Sotomayor’s only music industry friend. Ricky Martin was among the attendees at the ceremony yesterday. [Washington Post]

* Maybe you can start billing that Facebook time. [Bloomberg]

* Could GPS bracelets solve the prison overcrowding problem? Philadelphia DA candidate Michael Untermeyer thinks so, and will be wearing one for the next month. [True/Slant]

* An Atlanta law firm got scammed. Isn’t anyone afraid of lawyers anymore? [CBS Atlanta]

When Justice Sonia Sotomayor needs to stock up on her beloved rice, beans and pork, where does she go? One might peg the Supreme Court’s newest member — a liberal, a lawyer, a Greenwich Village resident — as a typical Whole Foods customer.

But perhaps Justice Sotomayor, in a show of support to the president who appointed her to the Supreme Court, is participating in the Whole Foods boycott? Her Honor was spotted shopping for groceries last Thursday at Whole Foods archrival Trader Joe’s, in the Foggy Bottom section of Washington, DC.

The Sotomayor sighting was noted briefly in the Washington Post. But an ATL tipster, who actually met and chatted with Justice Sotomayor at Trader Joe’s, has more details.

The complete, official list of Supreme Court clerks for October Term 2009 — i.e., the clerks who recently arrived at One First Street — will be released by the Public Information Office shortly, perhaps by the end of this week. We’ve previously listed many of the Court’s OT 2009 law clerks in these pages.

But we didn’t name all of them. Our list didn’t include the hires of newly confirmed Justice Sonia Sotomayor. We understand that Justice Sotomayor has hired all of her clerks for OT 2009 — which makes sense, since she has a lot of work to tackle before the official start of the Term — but no clerks yet for OT 2010. Her OT 2009 clerks started working at the Court yesterday.

We think we know three out of four of them — but we’re not sure. We also have some info about Justice Clarence Thomas’s clerk hiring, but we need to fill in some blanks.

Can you help us?

UPDATE: We think we have all four Sotomayor clerks now. ¡Gracias!

When Justice Sonia Sotomayor needs to work off all the rice, beans and pork she’s consumed, she hits the gym.

Alas, it appears that Her Honor’s Equinox gym membership was canceled, after she apparently refused to show identification when trying to enter the premises. We’re with Justice Sotomayor on this: she’s a frickin’ federal judge, the closest thing this nation has to an aristocracy. Showing ID is for little people!

Sure, Barack Obama showed his birth certificate identification when he visited Equinox health clubs during the campaign. But he’s Article II — ick, having to run for election, how déclassé — and Justice Sotomayor is Article III, fabulous and life-tenured.

Luckily, the SCOTUS has its own gym — replete with a basketball court, aka “the highest court in the land.” And Justice Sotomayor won’t have to worry about being recognized at One First Street (where even the law clerks are recognized on sight by the Supreme Court police).

Sotomayor v. Equinox Fitness: The Case of the Canceled Membership [New York magazine]

(Gavel bang: commenter.)

If an institution as stodgy as Harvard University can give rise to a fashion line, why can’t the Supreme Court of the United States?

What we’re wearing today, after the jump.

It’s official. Earlier today, everyone’s favorite Wise Latina was sworn in as the nation’s 111th Supreme Court justice.

Justice Sotomayor will be the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the SCOTUS. Justice Ginsburg once again has company for her trips to the ladies’ room at One First Street. Justice Scalia now has competition for being the most aggressive questioner on the high court bench.

Does anyone know what Justice Sotomayor has done — or is planning to do — on the law clerk front? If you know, please email us (subject line: “Sotomayor clerks”). ¡Gracias!

Sotomayor Sworn In as Supreme Court Justice [New York Times]

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Sonia Sotomayor

The U.S. Senate is now voting on the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor (2d Cir.) to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Senator Al Franken presiding. It’s interesting and weird to see him in this role. Are we watching an SNL skit?

The normally empty Senate chamber is full. The senators are sitting at attention, looking like dutiful students.

The clerk is calling the roll. She refers to Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) as “Mrs. Boxer,” and she does the same for several other married female senators (e.g., “Mrs. Gillibrand,” “Mrs. Hutchison,” etc.). It’s kinda cool, in an old-school sort of way.

Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) doesn’t vote — he’s absent from the Senate, due to illness — but he has expressed his support for Judge Sotomayor.

Senator Franken asks if any senator who has not already voted wishes to vote, or if any senator who has voted wishes to change her vote. Going once, going twice….

FINAL VOTE TALLY: 68-31, in favor of the nomination. Nine Republicans joined 59 Democrats to vote in favor of confirmation.

CONGRATULATIONS, JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR!!!

P.S. Okay, she’s not technically a justice yet — but she will be soon, once Chief Justice Roberts administers the oath of office. Hopefully JGR will do it better this time.

Update: Clerquette has more discussion over at Underneath Their Robes.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the Second Circuit won approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee just now.

The vote was 13 - 6. All 12 Democrats, plus Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, voted for her.

She’ll now move on to the Senate floor for a vote of the full chamber.

Congratulations, Judge Sotomayor.

Senate Judiciary Committee votes to confirm Sotomayor [CNN]

Earlier: Prior coverage of Sonia Sotomayor

Is it sexist to dissect the fashion choices of Judge Sonia Sotomayor during last week’s confirmation hearings? Probably. I don’t remember anybody asking what Sam Alito was trying to convey with his confirmation tie choices.

But Sotomayor was trying to convey something with her choices. We might as well take a look at what message she was trying to get across.

Click the link below for the full Fashionista analysis, by editor Abby Gardner, and reader comments (which you’re free supplement with your own two cents).

Dressing the Part [Fashionista]

The confirmation hearings of Judge Sonia Sotomayor (2d Cir.) took place this past week. Here’s a special weekend linkwrap dedicated to the next Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

* “Wise Latina Woman. Bronx Housing Project. Wise Latina Woman. We’re counting cards. Counting cards. Gotta watch Jeopardy at five!” [Underneath Their Robes]

* Senator Tom Coburn, “you got some ‘splainin’ to do.” [True / Slant]

* Is Judge Sotomayor a bully on the bench? Let’s go to the (audio)tape. [Politico]

* Or maybe a bad actress? [Althouse]

* At least her hearings went better than those of Robert Bork — whose nomination President Reagan made a last-ditch effort to save. [Concurring Opinions]

* Gibson Dunn partner Tom Dupree, who served in the Bush II Justice Department and argued before Judge Sotomayor five times, offers his take on the recently completed confirmation hearings. [WSJ Law Blog]

At least that’s what it’s looking like, according to the New York Times and the Washington Post. Today Justice Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee drew to a close, and no major bombshells were dropped. A Senate vote is expected in early August.

Update: Gibson Dunn partner Tom Dupree, who served in the Bush II Justice Department and argued before Judge Sotomayor five times, has a nice recap over at the WSJ Law Blog.

We’ll soon learn what the senators think of the prospect of Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. In the meantime, what do you think?

We’ve asked you before for your views on whether Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the Second Circuit should be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In our earlier poll, which received more than 8,000 votes, over 70 percent of you voiced support for a Justice Sotomayor.

Did anything that we learned in the confirmation hearings change your mind? Take our new poll:

We are not live blogging the Senate confirmation hearings of Judge Sonia Sotomayor today; we’ve already weighed in on what we’ve learned from this process. But we are keeping an eye on the proceedings just in case somebody says something stupid.

Today they are finishing up with the questions from the senators. Then they will move to the witnesses. They are just getting to that now. SCOTUSblog reports that there are 31 people on the witness list. The witness list is surprisingly light on attorneys or judges. But the stars include Frank Ricci (of Ricci v. DeStefano fame), former Mets pitcher David Cone (he played for some other baseball teams too), and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

But before they get into the witnesses, let’s check out the highlights from the Senate’s last round of questions.

More after the jump.

We’re going to finish off this live blog of the Sotomayor confirmation hearings with a bang. The last two Senators to ask questions of Sotomayor will be the very experienced Arlen Specter, and the Senator in his first week on the job, Al Franken.

This morning we learned that 70% of Above the Law readers believe that the Senators should be focusing on Sotomayor’s judicial record instead of her previous speeches. But many commenters thought that was a false dichotomy, and that Senators should take into account all of the available evidence and statements.

We also learned that Sotomayor really, really likes Perry Mason.

Check after the jump for the last round of updates from the first round of the Senate confirmation hearing of Sonia Sotomayor.

It’s the third day of the Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings and we’re still here. We will be liveblogging until all the Senators on the Judiciary Committee have been given a chance to ask one round of questions. We’re hoping that will be accomplished by lunchtime.

Yesterday, Sotomayor found a bunch of different ways to backtrack from the “wise Latina” comment.

But the real difference between the Republicans and the Democrats during this hearing has been the Republican focus on Sotomayor’s speeches, against the Democratic focus on Sotomayor’s 17 year record on the bench.

Which aspect of Sotomayor’s history should be the focus of the Senators’ questions? On the one hand, focusing on her judicial record seems appropriate when confirming somebody to be a Justice. On the other hand, we’re talking about a person who is asking to be appointed for life to a job from which there is no further promotion. Could her personal views be more indicative of her future judicial philosophy than her past history of moderate jurisprudence? Remember, this is the person that will be replacing David Souter.

Take our reader poll below. After the jump, check out our live blog updates for the rest of the first round of questioning. Highlights will include Arlen Specter (who is used to speaking a lot earlier at these confirmation hearings) and the newest U.S. Senator, Al Franken.

We hope you’ve been enjoying our liveblogging of Day 2 of the Sotomayor confirmation hearings. If you missed the morning session, you can check it out here.

To bring you up to speed. The “wise Latina” comment has indeed been the big ticket item of the day. Sotomayor has backtracked from it all morning. She stated clearly that she didn’t mean to imply that Latina’s were better at judging than other ethnic groups. She then doubled down and said of the comment: “It was bad.”

Pretty high rhetoric from a potential SCOTUS Justice, don’t you think.

Sotomayor hasn’t apologized for the remark, so there’s still something for Lindsey Graham to do when he gets his turn.

Meanwhile, on the Ricci front, Sotomayor has been sticking to the point that she was simply applying the law and that SCOTUS changed the law when it reversed the Second Circuit’s opinion on that front. So far, the Republican Senators seem massively underwhelmed by that proposition. I don’t recall a Senator asking her flat out if she thought that the test administered to the New Haven firefighters was racist. She probably wouldn’t answer, but isn’t that really the heart of what people want to know about her opinion here?

Coming back from lunch at 2:00 p.m., Chuck Grassley is up first. He should provide the first serious discussion of a woman’s right to choose. But let’s hope he suggests that somebody should hang themselves again.

Check after the jump for live updates of the hearing.

Now it gets fun. Yesterday, we liveblogged the opening statements from the Senate Judiciary Committee and Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Today, it’s time to get real with questions, answers, and more questions.

And we’ll be liveblogging it all for you again.

I’ve done a full preview for non-lawyers over on True/Slant. But regular Above the Law readers should be already prepared for all of the hard hitting substantive questions about constitutional interpretation.

To the extent that our U.S. Senators actually care about constitutional interpretation. It’s much more likely that we are in for a full day of “wise Latina” quips and a whole bunch of talking about one case (Ricci v. DeStefano) from Sotomayor’s 18 year judicial record.

Which is totally fair of course. This is the Senate’s one chance to ask questions of a person who is appointed for life and won’t ever need another promotion.

It should be fun. Check back throughout the day for updates, after the jump.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor and Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, who was covering Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, both sported electric blue blazers over black blouses today. Kelly — who is, by the way, also a lawyer (Albany Law / Jones Day) — joked on air that she called up President Obama and got advance word of Sotomayor’s outfit, so they could coordinate.

A reader poll, inspired by the regular US Weekly feature, “Who wore it better?” — after the jump.