June 30 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court pumped fuel into the fight over Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s high court nomination with its divided ruling in favor of white firefighters denied promotions by New Haven, Connecticut.

The justices, voting 5-4 yesterday, reversed an appeals court decision by Sotomayor and two other judges and said New Haven violated the firefighters’ rights by canceling promotions because no blacks scored well enough on tests to qualify.

Republicans seized on the decision yesterday as evidence that Sotomayor may let her personal views influence her rulings, particularly in civil rights disputes.

“This case will only raise more questions in the minds of the American people concerning Judge Sotomayor’s commitment to treat each individual fairly and not as a member of a group,” said Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, which will consider Sotomayor’s nomination in hearings that start July 13.

President Barack Obama selected Sotomayor, 55, to replace retiring Justice David Souter. Her confirmation is likely, given the Democrats’ 59-40 margin in the Senate and the political difficulties Republicans would face in opposing the court’s first Latina nominee.

More than six in 10 Americans favor the confirmation of Sotomayor, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted June 18-21. The poll of 1,001 adults found that 62 percent supported her for confirmation and 25 percent were opposed with a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

Issue for Republicans

The firefighter ruling highlighted the gulf that often separates the high court’s liberal and conservative wings on race and other social issues. The majority faulted the city -- and implicitly Sotomayor -- for relying on “raw racial results” to justify cancellation of the promotions.

The justices divided along lines that have become familiar in race cases, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy forming the majority. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens, Stephen Breyer and David Souter dissented.

Democrats said the division on the court showed that Sotomayor’s position was within the mainstream of legal thought.

The 5-4 breakdown “is a confirmation that the ruling could have gone either way,” said Democratic Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, a former Republican. Sotomayor “has plenty of company with the four dissenting justices.”

Ginsburg Dissent

Still, Ginsburg’s dissenting opinion disagreed with the reasoning that was used by the trial judge -- and then adopted by Sotomayor and her appeals court colleagues.

Ginsburg said the lower courts should have asked whether New Haven had an objective basis, backed by evidence, for fearing it would be successfully sued by minority firefighters under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

She said the trial and appellate courts improperly focused on the city’s “intent.” New Haven argued that it had a “good faith” belief that cancellation was necessary to avoid liability under Title VII.

“All nine justices were critical of the trial court opinion that Judge Sotomayor endorsed,” said Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican on the Judiciary Committee.

Ginsburg ultimately reached the same result as Sotomayor - -concluding that New Haven didn’t violate the rights of the white firefighters -- though she said her analysis normally would have prompted her to call for more hearings at the lower court level.

Precedent Cited

Sotomayor’s supporters say the trial judge’s rationale, and by extension the appeals court decision, leaned heavily on past rulings by the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Judge Sotomayor and the lower court panel did what judges are supposed to do: They followed precedent,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat.

In focusing on supposed reverse discrimination, Republicans are aiming to take advantage of public skepticism toward race-based employment practices. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released yesterday showed 65 percent supporting the white firefighters. The survey had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

The Supreme Court decision “will have widespread public support,” said Karlyn Bowman, a public opinion expert at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

“Republicans will certainly use this,” said Julian Zelizer, a history and public affairs professor at Princeton University in New Jersey. The question for the Republicans is whether “fighting affirmative action is their winning ticket.”

Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York rejected the suggestion that the decision will create confirmation problems for Sotomayor.

“The results in this case won’t change things one whit,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 30, 2009 00:01 EDT