High court firefighter ruling draws cheers, jeers

— -- Almost quicker than a fire engine rushes to its next call, special-interest groups and politicians weighed in on the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling that New Haven, Conn., violated white firefighters' rights in a promotional exam.

Those with views leaning toward the right commended the court decision; those with liberal views decried the ruling.

On the conservative side, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the court made the right decision. "In the 21st century, race discrimination requires more justification than the fear of being sued," Hatch said.

Ilya Shapiro, senior fellow at the Center for Constitutional Studies and editor in chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review, called the decision a blockbuster. "The court reached the correct result: The government can't make employment decisions based on race. While the city's desire to get more blacks into leadership positions at the fire department is commendable, it cannot pursue this goal by denying promotions simply because those who earned them happen to have an inconvenient skin color."

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, another member of the Judiciary Committee, said, "Today's decision is a victory for evenhanded application of the law. … The Supreme Court saw the case for what it is: a 'race-based decision' that violates federal law. And while the justices divided on the outcome, all nine justices were critical of the trial court opinion that Judge Sotomayor endorsed."

The Supreme Court's decision reverses a lower court decision that had been joined by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

On the other side, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said the decision interprets the 40-year-old law barring workplace discrimination in a way never intended by Congress.

"Today's narrow decision is likely to result in cutbacks on important protections for American families. It is less likely now that employers will conscientiously try to fulfill their obligations under this time-honored civil rights law. This is a cramped decision that threatens to erode these protections and to harm the efforts of state and local governments that want to build the most qualified workforces."

The liberal group People for the American Way agreed: "The court's ruling severely limits the ability of governments and private corporations to create a diverse workforce."

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, a senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the high court's ruling should not hurt Sotomayor's chances for confirmation.

Schumer noted that the majority set new standards for finding employment discrimination and did not suggest that the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, on which Sotomayor sits, was outside the mainstream. "Judge Sotomayor followed the rules that were in place at the time she heard the case," Schumer said.

Later in the day, the White House also presented that view of the case.

"One thing is clear, that the ruling by Judge Sotomayor was based on the precedent of the Second Circuit. ... The Supreme Court clearly had a new interpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act," said presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs.

"Some of the very concerns that members of the Senate have expressed about judicial activism seem to be, at the very least, upside down in this case. Her ruling on the Second Circuit denotes that she's a follower of precedent," Gibbs said.

He said he was not concerned that the reversal would cause her trouble in Senate confirmation hearings, and he doesn't see anything in the decision that would prevent her from assuming her Supreme Court seat.

"There's little political significance to whatever the court decided today in terms of Judge Sotomayor except to render a fairly definitive opinion that she follows judicial precedent and that she doesn't legislate from the bench," Gibbs said.

Gibbs said the White House wants Sotomayor to be sworn in and seated by Sept. 9, when the new court will hear a First Amendment case.

"We want her to be an active participant" to avoid the possibility of a divided court, Gibbs said.