Today, the Supreme Court announced their decision on the Ricci case involving the white firefighters that were denied a promotion entirely because of race. In effect, this decision was a referendum on Sonia Sotomayor because she was one of the judges that denied the firefighters their day in court at the appeals court level. She did not think that the case was important enough to even give it the time of day. The Supreme Court thought otherwise and took the case. They made a decision and unlike most Supreme Court decisions, this one was not even close. The vote was 9-0. The Supreme Court said that the white and Hispanic firefighters were denied the promotions because of race and race alone.

Barack Obama and the Sonia Sotomayor supporters have to be blown away by the decision. In recent years we have been accustomed to decisions that were 5-4. A decision that was not close was 6-3. This one was 9-0, which rarely happens in the high profile cases that get reported on the news. In effect, the Supreme Court was saying that Sonia Sotomayor was outside of the judicial mainstream. How the decision will play out in the final analysis is yet to be written. That is because Democrats are so good at spinning bad news as good news. But, any way you cut it, this is bad news for Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.

For those that wonder what the Ricci case was about, I will give a short report. This short report will get the basic ideas right, but may contain an error or two. The city that started this whole affair wanted to promote some firefighters to Captain and Lieutenant. They contracted with a firm that specialized in producing racial neutral tests. The test was determined to be racial neutral before it was given. When the results were announced, 20 white and 4 Hispanic firefighters had passed the test out of the pool of just under 40 who took the test for Captain. The results were similar for Lieutenant. After announcing the results, the city did not certify them as they decided that not enough black firefighters had made the list. In the city’s decision, the test was racially biased because not enough black firefighters made the list. After throwing out the results of the test, 19 white firefighters and one Hispanic firefighter sued the city. The case became known as the Ricci case after one of the firefighters.

At the appeals court, Sonia Sotomayor and the majority decided that the case did not deserve a decision. They tried to bury it with a non-decision. They were forced to make a decision, so they just rubberstamped the lower court’s decision by attaching the lower court’s report to their report. The judges on the appeals court that disagreed wrote scathing reports. The case was selected as one of the about 300 cases that the Supreme Court heard this year. It was decided that they would hear this case, prior to Sonia Sotomayor being nominated to sit on the Supreme Court.

How is Sonia Sotomayor going to sit on the Supreme Court when they just gave her a trip to the proverbial woodshed? She should have known better. This case was so obvious that a second grader without any legal training could have gotten it right. The only way you could have gotten this case wrong is if you had your mind set in the wrong direction in the first place. Anyone with an ounce of fairness and objectivity could have seen that the city was obviously wrong. Sonia Sotomayor was so racially charged that she was unable to see the case for what it was. She could only see the case for what she wanted it to be. How many other cases are there that she decided on what she wanted them to be?

The 9-0 decision brings into question the ability of Sonia Sotomayor to even see clearly the difference between right and wrong. If she has a mindset in one direction, she would be unable to see the truth if it hit her square in the jaw. Any Senator who votes to confirm her today would be an obvious racist or someone who is so tied to racial politics that the difference is like that between a 6 and the sum of 3+3. I believe that if the vote to confirm were today, she would not be confirmed. The Democrats have to hold off for a time to let the waters calm down on this one.

Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation is on thin ice at this time. More information is needed on what she believes is right and wrong. I know that sounds stupid for a question, but she could not tell the difference in an obvious case. She has some difficult questions to answer now. I was for letting her be confirmed and fight the next one. Now, I see that she is so far out of the judicial mainstream as to be in the mountains, not the water at all. Until I am satisfied that this case was a case of brain freeze (highly unlikely), I will be against supporting Sonia Sotomayor. I will urge all I know, including my Senators and my Congressman to urge her defeat as well. I know my Congressman does not vote to confirm, but he still needs to know my position. I feel that strongly about it right now.