The Supreme Court ruled this morning that firefighters in the controversial court case about reverse racism were unfairly denied promotions because of their race. The judgment reversed Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s ruling that race wasn’t a factor, according to MSNBC.

New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the [Supreme] court said Monday in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities.

“Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer’s reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions,” Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his opinion for the court. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

A statement by Sotomayor in a 2001speech became controversial after the media interpreted the statement as racist , she said:

I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.

In combination with Sotomayor’s controversal statement, does this ruling further reinforce the idea that Sotomayor has a racial bias?  In light of the recent ruling do you think Sotomayor is likely to be in the minority opinion, if accepted?