Supreme Dissent on Sotomayor

Yesterday the Supreme Court over-ruled Obama nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

In a 5-4 vote, the High Court overturned a ruling by Sotomayor which upheld a decision by the city of New Haven, CT to throw out test results taken by firefighters because there wasn't enough "racial balance" in those results.

That's the main story. But the real news is in the dissenting opinion of the SCOTUS.

Justice Ginsberg, while saying the firefighters were not entitled to receive promotions for their success, scolded Sotomayor for issuing a summary judgment for the New Haven case.

Why is this important? Because it's saying Sotomayor didn't give the case the respect it deserved. This concurs with Jose Cabranes, one of Sotomayor's colleagues on the circuit court which was overturned today.

Cabranes said as much when the circuit court made this ill-concieved ruling because, in his opinion, they never considered the constitutional issues before them.

So in essence, even those on the SCOTUS who ruled in favor of Justice Sotomayor, said she didn't give the New Haven case the constitutional respect it deserved.

As Ed Whelan of NRO points out, that makes the opinion of the high court 9-0 against the president's choice. That's quite an endorsement for the potential addition.