‘You’ve Got African- Americans, You’ve Got Hispanics’ – Sotomayor Fires Back

By Lincoln Caplan, New York Times

The Supreme Court almost never says why it refuses to take a case. On Monday, however, when the court denied a petition from the man convicted in Calhoun v. United States, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Stephen Breyer, issued a rare explanatory statement.

One part of the trial record was so ugly that they wanted to make clear what the rejection did not mean. Justice Sotomayor began, “I write to dispel any doubt whether the court’s denial of certiorari should be understood to signal our tolerance of a federal prosecutor’s racially charged remark. It should not.”

Click on picture to read full story.