{"id":66,"date":"2009-06-30T11:22:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-30T11:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/the-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-reversals-and-reverse-discrimination.html"},"modified":"2009-06-30T11:22:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-30T11:22:00","slug":"the-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-reversals-and-reverse-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/the-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-reversals-and-reverse-discrimination.html","title":{"rendered":"The Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, Reversals and Reverse Discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoPlainText\"><span><font color=\"#000000\"><br \/>\n<span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" height=\"359\" alt=\"supremecourt.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/200\/import\/supremecourt.jpg\" width=\"360\" \/><\/span>It&#8217;s hard for someone like me, with no legal background, to understand the intricacies of yesterday&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.supremecourtus.gov\/opinions\/08pdf\/07-1428.pdf\">Supreme Court decision<\/a> <\/font><\/span><span><font color=\"#000000\">about the <a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/ap\/20090629\/ap_on_go_su_co\/us_supreme_court_firefighters_lawsuit\">New Haven, Conn. firefighters&#8217;<\/a> discrimination (or so-called <span>&nbsp;<\/span>&#8216;reverse discrimination&#8217;) lawsuit.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\"><span><font color=\"#000000\"><\/font><\/span>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\"><span><font color=\"#000000\">Obviously, there&#8217;s more going on here than just a test result that was tossed out in fear of a lawsuit. (Or is there?) But on the surface of it, the court&#8217;s decision seems fair to me&#8211;how could the fire department develop a test to determine who gets promoted, and then throw out the results when they didn&#8217;t like them? <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\"><span><font color=\"#000000\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\"><span><font color=\"#000000\">The argument in the case, I understand, has to do with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/06\/30\/opinion\/30Greenhouse.html?ref=opinion\">Title VII<\/a> of the Civil Rights Act and &#8220;disparate impacts,&#8221; <\/font><\/span><span><font color=\"#000000\">meaning the department could be open to lawsuits because it might be argued that non-whites were unfairly left behind. The court, as far as I can puzzle out, basically ruled that it&#8217;s illegal to avoid potential discrimination suits&nbsp;by committing actual discrimination. Somehow, this just makes a lot of sense to me.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\"><span><font color=\"#000000\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\"><span><font color=\"#000000\">Yet I&#8217;m uneasy, not least because I tend to be one of those liberals who side staunchly with the Bader Ginsburg&#8217;s of the world. And I&#8217;ve been reading that the ruling could make it harder for other types of discrimination lawsuits to go forward in future, which is troubling. Am I missing the point? (I probably am.) <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\"><span><font color=\"#000000\"><\/font><\/span>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\"><span><font color=\"#000000\"><strong>Can someone please explain this situation to me? Share an opposing opinion? I&#8217;d love to hear some thoughts on this controversial issue, not least because it&#8217;s sure to affect <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/time\/20090629\/us_time\/08599190776000\"><strong>Sonia Sotomayor&#8217;s upcoming Supreme Court nomination hearings<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\"><span><font color=\"#000000\"><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s hard for someone like me, with no legal background, to understand the intricacies of yesterday&#8217;s Supreme Court decision about the New Haven, Conn. firefighters&#8217; discrimination (or so-called &nbsp;&#8216;reverse discrimination&#8217;) lawsuit. &nbsp; Obviously, there&#8217;s more going on here than just a test result that was tossed out in fear of a lawsuit. (Or is there?)&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,16,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-hillary-fields","category-legal-ethics","category-social-ethics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, Reversals and Reverse Discrimination - Everyday Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/the-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-reversals-and-reverse-discrimination.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, Reversals and Reverse Discrimination - Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#8217;s hard for someone like me, with no legal background, to understand the intricacies of yesterday&#8217;s Supreme Court decision about the New Haven, Conn. firefighters&#8217; discrimination (or so-called &nbsp;&#8216;reverse discrimination&#8217;) lawsuit. &nbsp; Obviously, there&#8217;s more going on here than just a test result that was tossed out in fear of a lawsuit. (Or is there?)&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/the-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-reversals-and-reverse-discrimination.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-30T11:22:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/files\/import\/supremecourt.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hfields\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, Reversals and Reverse Discrimination - Everyday Ethics","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/the-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-reversals-and-reverse-discrimination.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, Reversals and Reverse Discrimination - Everyday Ethics","og_description":"It&#8217;s hard for someone like me, with no legal background, to understand the intricacies of yesterday&#8217;s Supreme Court decision about the New Haven, Conn. firefighters&#8217; discrimination (or so-called &nbsp;&#8216;reverse discrimination&#8217;) lawsuit. &nbsp; Obviously, there&#8217;s more going on here than just a test result that was tossed out in fear of a lawsuit. (Or is there?)&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/the-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-reversals-and-reverse-discrimination.html","og_site_name":"Everyday Ethics","article_published_time":"2009-06-30T11:22:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/files\/import\/supremecourt.jpg"}],"author":"hfields","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/the-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-reversals-and-reverse-discrimination.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/the-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-reversals-and-reverse-discrimination.html","name":"The Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, Reversals and Reverse Discrimination - Everyday Ethics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/the-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-reversals-and-reverse-discrimination.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/the-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-reversals-and-reverse-discrimination.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/files\/import\/supremecourt.jpg","datePublished":"2009-06-30T11:22:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-06-30T11:22:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#\/schema\/person\/0c57c1fc9d645425d6205fa4f058146f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/the-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-reversals-and-reverse-discrimination.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/the-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-reversals-and-reverse-discrimination.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/the-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-reversals-and-reverse-discrimination.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/files\/import\/supremecourt.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/files\/import\/supremecourt.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/06\/the-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-reversals-and-reverse-discrimination.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, Reversals and Reverse Discrimination"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/","name":"Everyday Ethics","description":"Moral Ethics Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#\/schema\/person\/0c57c1fc9d645425d6205fa4f058146f","name":"hfields","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/77b\/77bd98aa35acd21a3a7a209185ad8b6cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/77b\/77bd98aa35acd21a3a7a209185ad8b6cx96.jpg","caption":"hfields"},"description":"Hillary Fields is a born-and-bred New Yorker, brought up on the not-so-mean streets of Manhattan's Upper East Side. She attended St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she studied classics and philosophy, and then respectfully declined to spend the rest of her life in an ivory tower. Instead, she turned to the life of a writer and editor, penning three romance novels published by St. Martin's Press and contributing features to such periodicals as Cosmopolitan magazine. Her fascination with the moral dilemmas that crop up in everyday life--and the many intriguing ways people handle them--has always colored her writings. Now, that interest is leading her to take the discussion online; where, hopefully, the addition of reader feedback will bring these quotidian quandaries--and their potential solutions--vibrantly to life. When she's not plumbing the ethical mysteries of humanity, her passions include cooking (especially baking), origami, kittens, reading, watching really bad television and playing online scrabble. (And no, she doesn't cheat... much.)","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/hfields"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}