WashingtonPost.com - Supreme Court Decision Draws Comments from Conservatives on Judge Sotomayor

By Jerry Markon and Michael D. Shear, WashingtonPost.com

Conservatives are jumping all over todays Supreme Court decision that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, using it to attack high court nominee Sonia Sotomayors earlier ruling against them.

But White House officials are fighting back, and they spent the morning reaching out to Senate Judiciary Committee members to make their case that the ruling should have little bearing on Sotomayor's nomination.

"The issue from the Sotomayor perspective is, does this call into question anything about her judgement? And it doesn't," said one senior White House official. "The majority made it clear they are making a new rule. No one has really questioned that she did what she was supposed to do.

The court overturned an earlier order that Sotomayor had endorsed as an appellate court judge, that upheld New Havens decision to throw out a promotion test it had given the firefighters when no African Americans and two Hispanics qualified for advancement. The 134-word order has been the flash point of much of the legal debate over Sotomayors nomination.

With reaction from liberal groups and senators only starting to trickle in, it remains unclear what effect, if any, todays decision will have on Sotomayors ascension to the high court. Her confirmation hearings are scheduled to begin July 13.

At a minimum, however, the decision provides an unwelcome distraction from what had seemed like a relatively smooth confirmation process for Sotomayor, who would be the first Hispanic justice.

Conservatives wasted no time today in renewing their assaults on Sotomayor as a liberal judicial activist.

The Supreme Court decision repudiating Judge Sotomayors legal position in this discrimination case raises important questions about Judge Sotomayors judicial philosophy, said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice. He encouraged senators to explore the nominees views on judicial activism and her views of the Constitution at the confirmation hearings.

Wendy E. Long, counsel to the conservative Judicial Confirmation Network, issued a statement saying that the firefighters who protect the public safety and worked hard for their promotions did not deserve to become victims of racial quotas.

Casting the decision as a repudiation of Sotomayor, Long added: "Usually, poor performance in any profession is not rewarded with the highest job offer in the entire profession."