Updated at 10:59 a.m. on June 29.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 today that the city of New Haven, Conn., violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in denying promotions to white firefighters, reversing a 2nd Circuit panel decision that was joined by high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

In writing the majority opinion for Ricci v. DeStefano, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the city can't be sued for discarding the test results at issue in the case. New Haven threw out the results because no black applicants made the cut for promotions. "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," he wrote.

Joining Kennedy in the opinion were John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Scalia and Alito both also filed concurring opinions.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the dissenting opinion, which was joined by John Paul Stevens, Stephen Breyer and retiring David Souter. "The white firefighters who scored high on New Haven's promotional exams understandably attract this court's sympathy," she wrote. "But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them." Ginsburg went on to argue that it is through the "backdrop of entrenched inequality that the promotion process at issue in this litigation should be assessed."