The Supreme Court reversed the 2nd Circuit's ruling on Ricci v. DeStefano Monday, but that doesn't necessarily mean Sonia Sotomayor is ethically allowed to talk about the case in her upcoming confirmation hearings.
Tom Goldstein, Supreme Court litigator at Akin Gump and founder of SCOTUSblog, said that since the case is still technically "alive" -- the question of damages to the firefighters will require additional proceedings to determine -- Sotomayor is still prohibited by the Judicial Canons of Ethics from talking about this case.
"The Ninth Justice" explored this question earlier this month, and it seems that now, despite a ruling on the case, experts are still split on the technicality.
In a conference call Monday with reporters, Center for Equal Opportunity President and General Counsel Roger Clegg said that, had the case been remanded instead of reversed, Sotomayor "could have declined to answer questions about the case on the grounds that it was still in litigation.... That avenue is now shut off because, as I read it, the case is over."
Curt Levey, president of the Committee for Justice, said much the same thing in a statement issued Monday: "Now that the Supreme Court has reversed Sotomayor's Ricci decision, rather than remanding as many had predicted, her rationale for declining to discuss the case has vanished."
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