 Sotomayor was involved in the high @-@ profile case Ricci v. DeStefano that initially upheld the right of the City of New Haven to throw out its test for firefighters and start over with a new test , because the City believed the test had a " disparate impact " on minority firefighters . ( No black firefighters qualified for promotion under the test , whereas some had qualified under tests used in previous years . ) The City was concerned that minority firefighters might sue under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . The City chose not to certify the test results and a lower court had previously upheld the City 's right to do this . Several white firefighters and one Hispanic firefighter who had passed the test , including the lead plaintiff who has dyslexia and had put much extra effort into studying , sued the City of New Haven , claiming that their rights were violated . A Second Circuit panel that included Sotomayor first issued a brief , unsigned summary order ( not written by Sotomayor ) affirming the lower court 's ruling . Sotomayor 's former mentor José A. Cabranes , by now a fellow judge on the court , objected to this handling and requested that the court hear it en banc . Sotomayor voted with a 7 – 6 majority not to rehear it and a slightly expanded ruling was issued , but a strong dissent by Cabranes led to the case reaching the Supreme Court in 2009 . There it was overruled in a 5 – 4 decision that found the white firefighters had been victims of racial discrimination when they were denied promotion . 
