Sotomayor Overturned 9-0, Ricci Overturned 5-4

The Supreme Court's predictable 5-4 vote to reverse the decision... does not by itself prove that the Sotomayor position was unreasonable... What's more striking is that the court was unanimous in rejecting the Sotomayor panel's specific holding. Her holding was that New Haven's decision to spurn the test results must be upheld based solely on the fact that highly disproportionate numbers of blacks had done badly on the exam and might file a "disparate-impact" lawsuit -- regardless of whether the exam was valid or the lawsuit could succeed.