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Tuesday, May 21, 2013 | 2:36 p.m.

Jamie Dupree's Washington Insider

Posted: 9:10 a.m. Sunday, June 28, 2009

Supreme Court Finale 

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By Jamie Dupree

The U.S. Supreme Court will wrap up its term with three final rulings today, one of which could smack down Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

That case involves a firefighter promotion exam from Connecticut, which was tossed out by the city of New Haven because not enough minority candidates qualified for promotion.

A group of white firefighters sued for reverse discrimination, but federal courts rejected their efforts without even going forward with a trial. 

So that's what is at stake today, the question of whether they should be allowed to pursue their claims in a federal district court.

Sotomayor was part of a three judge panel that reviewed the original district court decision.  The three judges issued only a one paragraph unsigned opinion agreeing with the lower court, despite the difficult matters raised in this case.

The other two cases to be decided on are also interesting.  One involves campaign finance laws and a movie that was made about then Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and whether limits on when such movies can be shown before primary and general elections are unconstitutional.

It was basically an attack documentary, and the question here surrounds whether it violated rules on third party attack ads during an election campaign.

The last case involves the New York Attorney General's office, and whether efforts there to use state fair lending laws against nationally chartered banks is unfair, with the argument that such oversight can only be done by federal regulators.

While those two cases will garner some press, let's face it, the firefighter case - and anything that even sniffs of a slap in the face to the Sotomayor 2nd Circuit three judge panel that reviewed it - will be what the press corps will be sniffing for.

Those rulings are due at 10am EDT on Monday.

 

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