Sotomayor Rebuked By Supreme Court

The Supreme Court today “invalidated a Connecticut city's decision to scrap the results of a firefighter promotion exam in which the white candidates scored better than their black peers,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

The ruling in the case of Ricci v. DeStafano is a blow against Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor and, more importantly, a national victory for merit and competence over racial sensitivity.

For too long, affirmative action has denied the most qualified people the positions they’ve won through hard work and knowledge. The Ricci case is no different but the fact that it was emergency services being tampered with by affirmative action rather than education put it in a different emotional and political light.

I don’t care whether a firefighter is black, white, brown or red as long as he is competent. But the city of New Haven and Judge Sotomayor both placed more value on the race of the individuals up for promotion than they did on their qualifications.

The Supreme Court’s rebuttal to Sotomayor should invigorate Senate opposition to her nomination. Her thinking is an outmoded product of the 1970s when identity politics and multiculturalism were just gaining prominence in American political and intellectual life.

The American Left can’t have it both ways. Either Obama’s election transcended identity politics and ushered in a new post-racial age or racial minorities still need to be protected by the federal government.