Sunday, July 05, 2009
Editorial: Senate shouldn't dally on confirmation
Ricci ruling offers no reason not to confirm Sotomayor, and other court action, or lack thereof, argues for a swift confirmation vote.
From the RoundTable blog
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Last week's Supreme Court reversal of an appeals court decision joined by Judge Sonia Sotomayor will make thin gruel indeed if conservative Republicans hope to dish it up to argue against Senate approval of President Obama's high court nominee.
In fact, another of Monday's court actions makes it imperative that the Senate act quickly on her confirmation. If the hearings, set for two weeks from now, turn up no more serious objections than already have surfaced, the Senate should hold a confirmation vote.
The court's 5-4 decision Monday to overturn an employment discrimination suit filed by white firefighters against New Haven, Conn., hardly leaves Sotomayor alone among potential peers in her legal reasoning.
Rather, the court majority staked out new territory in ruling for 18 firefighters who were denied promotions despite having done well on tests that, as it turned out, had a disparate negative impact on black firefighters. None qualified for a promotion.
New Haven threw out the exam results, fearing minority firefighters would file a "disparate impact" suit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
As an appellate judge, Sotomayor joined a ruling to let stand a lower court decision that followed established precedent in finding that the city had acted reasonably -- leaving judicial activism to the conservative bloc on the Supreme Court.
Along with the New Haven ruling, the high court signaled Monday that it also is set to reverse longstanding precedents limiting corporate campaign spending in the weeks leading up to a presidential primary or general election.
On its final day before the summer recess, and retiring Justice David Souter's final day at work, the court decided not to decide -- just yet -- a case involving a political documentary about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, released last year while she was seeking the Democratic nomination for president.
The Federal Election Commission did not allow the highly critical film, produced by a conservative nonprofit corporation called Citizens United, to be shown on television.
The court heard arguments in March, but set a second round for Sept. 9, before the start of the next term. By that, observers say, the court appears to be considering a broad ruling that could overturn restrictions on corporate spending for or against political candidates. The impact on national governance would be enormous.
The court needs to be at full strength by then.
