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.

Obama Administration Sides With Saudis Over 9/11 Families

The Obama Administration filed a brief with the Supreme Court to shield Saudi terrorist financiers from a U.S. lawsuit more than two weeks ago. Almost 600 family members of 9/11 victims filed the suit in 2004 alleging that five Saudi princes financed the attacks that killed almost 3,000 civilians.

The lower courts rejected the case arguing that the U.S. has no jurisdiction over the Saudi princes because they were not “primary wrongdoers” but a recent federal case against an Islamic charity that financed Hamas has established a precedent whereby financiers are considered primary wrongdoers alongside the terrorists themselves and thus can be sued under U.S. law.

The 9/11 families are relying on this precedent as well as that established by the families and victims who sued the Libyan government for the terror attacks on UTA 772, Pan Am 73 and Pan Am 103.

But the Obama Administration is ignoring these precedents in an assertion that the national interest of the United States is best served by maintaining a cordial relationship with Saudi princes rather than holding autocratic royals accountable for their ties to terrorists.

This assertion is emotionally and intellectually offensive and should be brought to the attention of the American people but beyond a report filed by CBS, the case has received little national attention.

The Bush Administration demonstrated a similar preference to protect the sensibilities of Saudi royals over the interests of American citizens but Obama was supposed to be different. Instead, American policy toward Saudi Arabia continues to be dominated by a misguided real politik that has not yet adjusted to the post 9/11 environment.

The last eight years of the War on Terror have proved what an important factor finances play in terrorist activity. For this reason, the federal government has pursued cases against charities funneling money to terrorists and frozen the bank accounts of prominent terrorist financiers.

This lawsuit brought by 9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism is suing five Saudi princes who directly financed al Qaeda and operated charities fronting for them. But they shouldn’t even have to go after these individuals. The U.S. government should have already acted to freeze their accounts and confiscate their U.S. property.

As important as the U.S.-Saudi relationship is, the Saudis need to understand that they no longer have carte blanche to facilitate the spread of terrorism and the radical Islam that justifies it. Eradicating terrorism and holding both its perpetrators and their benefactors accountable both financially and criminally should be considered our foremost national interest.

It’s time to stop coddling Saudi Arabia’s outmoded royal family and hold them to the same standards as the rest of the Muslim World. This lawsuit is a good start and, even if the Obama Administration doesn’t reverse its position, I hope that the Supreme Court hears the case.