Judge Sonia Sotomayor is the Supreme Court Nominee

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1. Affirmative Action: Ricci v. DeStefano 530 F.3d 87 (2008) - decision pending

2. Wrong on the environment: Riverkeeper, Inc. vs. EPA, 475 F.3d 83 (2007) - reversed 6-3

3. Wrong on taxes: Knight vs. Commissioner, 467 F.3d 149 (2006) - upheld but unanimously rejected the reasoning she adopted

4. Wrong on finance: Dabit vs. Merrill Lynch, 395 F.3d 25 (2005) - reversed

6-3

5. Wrong on Health Insurance: Empire Healthchoice Assurance, Inc. vs. McVeigh, 396 F.3d 136 (2005) - reversed 5-4

6. Wrong on Civil Rights: Malesko v. Correctional Services Corp., 299 F.3d 374 (2000) - reversed 5-4

7. Wrong on Intellectual Property: Tasini vs. New York Times, et al, 972 F. Supp. 804 (1997) - reversed 7-2

8. Affirmative Action: Ricci v. DeStefano 530 F.3d 87 (2008) - decision pending

9. Wrong on the environment: Riverkeeper, Inc. vs. EPA, 475 F.3d 83 (2007) - reversed 6-3

10. Wrong on taxes: Knight vs. Commissioner, 467 F.3d 149 (2006) - upheld but unanimously rejected the reasoning she adopted

11. Wrong on finance: Dabit vs. Merrill Lynch, 395 F.3d 25 (2005) - reversed 8-0

12. Wrong on Health Insurance: Empire Healthchoice Assurance, Inc. vs. McVeigh, 396 F.3d 136 (2005) - reversed 5-4

 Wrong on Civil Rights: Malesko v. Correctional Services Corp., 299 F.3d 374 (2000) - reversed 5-4

13. Wrong on Intellectual Property: Tasini vs. New York Times, et al, 972 F. Supp. 804 (1997) - reversed 7-2

April 10, 2009 Justices to Hear White Firefighters’ Bias Claims By ADAM LIPTAK

NEW HAVEN — Frank Ricci has been a firefighter here for 11 years, and he would do just about anything to advance to lieutenant.

The last time the city offered a promotional exam, he said in a sworn statement, he gave up a second job and studied up to 13 hours a day. Mr. Ricci, who is dyslexic, paid an acquaintance more than $1,000 to read textbooks onto audiotapes. He made flashcards, took practice tests, worked with a study group and participated in mock interviews.

Mr. Ricci did well, he said, coming in sixth among the 77 candidates who took the exam. But the city threw out the test, because none of the 19 African-American firefighters who took it qualified for promotion. That decision prompted Mr. Ricci and 17 other white firefighters, including one Hispanic, to sue the city, alleging racial discrimination.

Their case, which will be argued before the Supreme Court on April 22, is the Roberts court’s first major confrontation with claims of racial discrimination in employment and will require the justices to choose between conflicting conceptions of the government’s role in ensuring fair treatment regardless of race.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has repeatedly noted his hostility to what he has called the “sordid business” of “divvying us up by race.” In 2007, diverging from an important Rehnquist court decision that allowed public universities to consider race in admissions decisions, the Roberts court forbade public school systems to take race explicitly into account to achieve or maintain integration.

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote.

But those cases involved education, and it has been decades since the court last took an intensive look at the use of race in public hiring or promotion. Among the questions swirling around Mr. Ricci’s case are whether the law should treat diversity in the work force differently from diversity in the classroom and how it should handle hiring and promotion tests that have a severely disparate impact on candidates of one race.

The city says it was merely trying to comply with a federal law that views job requirements like promotional tests with great suspicion when they disproportionately disfavor minority applicants.

“The fact of the matter is it’s a flawed test,” said Victor A. Bolden, the city’s acting corporation counsel.