Frank Ricci, the New Haven firefighter to testify at Sotomayor hearing

The Borking of Frank Ricci

By Aaron Goldstein
Wednesday, July 15, 2009

If I were a betting man I would wager that the person who will face the toughest scrutiny at Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court nomination hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee won’t be the nominee but rather a private citizen.

Frank Ricci, the New Haven firefighter whose discrimination lawsuit Sotomayor ruled against and whose ruling was subsequently overturned by the Supreme Court, is due to testify in front of the Committee either Thursday or Friday. Ever since Senate Republicans announced last week they had called Ricci to testify liberal activists have been chomping at the bit. If the appetites of liberal activists are any indication then Senate Democrats will be chewing Ricci’s flesh to the bone.

One might ask why Senate Republicans would put Ricci in such a position. Let us remember that President Obama appointed Sotomayor to the nation’s highest court as much for her supposed empathy than whatever judicial qualifications she might possess. Upon the announcement of David Souter’s retirement on May 1st, President Obama said:

I will seek someone who understands that justice isn’t about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a casebook; it is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people’s lives, whether they can make a living and care for their families, whether they feel safe in their homes and welcome in their own nation. I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people’s hopes and struggles, as an essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes. (Foxnews.com)

Well, Sotomayor’s ruling against Ricci certainly affects the daily realities of Ricci and the other New Haven firefighters. Her ruling certainly affects whether Ricci and the other New Haven firefighters can make a living. When it came to the struggles of Ricci and company where was the quality of empathy from Sotomayor about which President Obama waxed so eloquently? Ricci’s presence before the Senate Judiciary Committee puts the empathy question to the test.

Clearly Ricci’s presence perturbs liberal activists who see him as a threat to Sotomayor’s coronation. Leading the charge against Ricci is the liberal activist group People for the American Way (PFAW). Co-founded in 1981 by television producer Norman Lear, PFAW proudly boasts that it “helped lead the coalition that kept Robert Bork off of the U.S. Supreme Courtâ€