Yesterday the Supreme Court overturned the Ricci case 5-4, which is one that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor ruled on while sitting on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The Ricci case has been a hot topic since her nomination, and if you’re not familiar with it, you should read this.
SO. Now that we’re all up to speed, here’s what’s been swirling in that thing all the cool kids like to call the blogosphere. I also put a coupla “traditional” news sources in there for good measure.
OK. This blog was posted by Tom Goldstein on the Plank at The New Republic. This one’s really worth a read because the guy obsessively follows the SCOTUS, he’s argued in front of it more than 20 times and he is the founder of SCOTUSblog. The title alone tells you why this is a juicy must-read. The post is called, “What Ricci Says About The Court’s View Of Sotomayor.”
Mark Thompson at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen thinks that the decision disproves the notion that the court is pro-business and pro-government because…
“The effects of this decision are going to be to increase, rather than decrease, litigation against employers, while also making it harder for employers to comply with anti-discrimination laws.” link
Freddie, another one of the Ordinary Gentlemen, is afraid of what this will do for advancing minorities in our culture.
“But my question is open, and I apply it to the most thoughtful opponents of affirmative action and the most rabid and unthinking alike: what are the effects, for our country, of a permanent racial achievement divide? And can we reasonably expect to maintain a peaceful and just society with such a gap between the races?” link
This article at Slate is a thoughtful, if a bit long, look at race in the United States and puts the Ricci case in historical perspective. It’s part of a five part series. I recommend it.
The Editors at the National Review wrote a piece that argued that the SCOTUS was unanimous on one point, even though the vote was close.
“The only consensus the nine justices found was that the handling of case by Sotomayor’s three-judge appeals-court panel was shoddy. Even the four dissenting justices agreed that the Second Circuit applied the wrong legal standard.” link
Linda Greenhouse wrote an op-ed for the New York Times that delves into both the majority and minority decisions. I recommend it if you’re interested in the legal aspect of the whole issue, as opposed to solely Ricci’s impact on Sotomayor.
