White House: Overturning of Ricci Doesn't Matter

Olivia Offner | June 29, 2009 4:23 PM

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs did his best to spin the Supreme Court's reversal of Sotomayor's ruling in Ricci vs. DeStefano today during his briefing. Gibbs said that the high court's decision that the white firefighters were, in fact, unfairly denied promotions because of their race will not delay Sotomayor's confirmation process. Gibbs said:

There's little political significance to whatever the court decided today in terms of Judge Sotomayor except to render a fairly definitive opinion that she follows judicial precedent and that she doesn't legislate from the bench.

Gibbs went so far as to suggest that today's ruling actually helped Sotomayor, and should halt any concerns that she is an activist judge, saying:

One thing is clear, that the ruling by Judge Sotomayor was based on the precedent of the Second Circuit. ... The Supreme Court clearly had a new interpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.