The most attention-grabbing case of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's began when a Connecticut city rejected the results of a firefighter-promotion test because whites outscored blacks and Hispanics.
In the case, likely to be a hot-button issue at her confirmation hearings, city officials said they tossed the 2003 test results fearing bias lawsuits from minorities who did not qualify for elevation. Sotomayor endorsed New Haven's action. The terse opinion she joined appeared to minimize the significance of the "reverse discrimination" claim from white firefighters denied promotions.
The case offers a test of overlapping anti-discrimination laws, as well as of how judges handle incendiary disputes over racial policies. Federal law bars both intentional discrimination and indirect bias from seemingly neutral exams that disproportionately hurt women or minorities.
Six of Sotomayor's appeals court colleagues who urged further review of the dispute said the Sotomayor majority was failing "to grapple with ... questions of exceptional importance." READ FULL STORY
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