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The final day of the Supreme Court's term saw the Justices hand down what ABC's Jan Crawford Greenburg called a "sweeping ruling" on affirmative action, even though the vote was a close 5-4. CBS' Wyatt Andrews called the decision "groundbreaking" and NBC's Pete Williams judged that it "sets new rules for the nation's employers." The case concerned a firefighters' promotion test that turned out to exclude all the African-Americans who took it while including 19 whites and one Hispanic. The City of New Haven invalidated the test, CBS' Andrews explained, "obeying 38 years of civil rights law forbidding anything that caused a disparate impact against minorities." Now the Court "sets a new legal standard," NBC's Williams explained, insisting that the city provide evidence to demonstrate that it was the test itself--not those taking it--that was flawed.
Besides what ABC's Crawford Greenburg called the "far-ranging impact" of the decision in the workforce, the ruling was also newsworthy because it overturned the lower court judgment of Sonia Sotomayor, the federal judge who has been nominated to join the Justices next October. Did the reversal undermine Sotomayor's judicial credentials? Some say yes: "Critics say she ignored important issues"--ABC's Crawford Greenburg…"Opponents called the ruling a legal rebuke"--CBS' Andrews. On the other hand, no: "Supporters say she was on solid ground, following case law at the time"--CBS' Andrews…"Her supporters say she followed the law"--ABC's Crawford Greenburg.
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