Cornyn ‘honored’ to meet New Haven firefighters

Senate Judiciary Committe member John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said that he was “honored” to meet Frank Ricci and the rest of the New Haven, CT firefighters who were the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case Ricci v. DeStefano . Judiciary Committee Republicans used to the Court’s reversal of the decision to question Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s position on affirmative action.

Cornyn tweeted:

Honored to meet Frank Ricci, Ben Vargas, and the othe courageous New Haven firefighters who testified at the Sotomayor hearing

On Thursday, Ricci told the Judiciary Committee that “We never asked for sympathy from the courts…We simply asked for serious consideration of our claims and an acknowledgement of our basic right to be treated fairly.”

Briefing Room reported last week that Republicans would call the firefighters to testify as witnesses at this week’s hearings:

As an Appeals Court judge, Sotomayor ruled the New Haven fire department acted constitutionally when it discounted the results of a qualifying test for promotions after too few black firefighters scored as high as their white counterparts.

Vargas, who is Hispanic, was the only non-white co-plaintiff in the racially charged case.