Following the Supreme Court's decision in Ricci v. DeStefano -- which reversed by a 5-4 margin a decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals -- several conservative media figures have claimed that the Supreme Court decided “against” Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor “9-0.” In fact, while Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in her dissent that "[o]rdinarily, a remand for fresh consideration would be in order" and that “I would not oppose a remand for further proceedings fair to both sides,” she concluded, consistent with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision, which Sotomayor joined: "[W]hat this case does not present is race-based discrimination in violation of Title VII."

In her dissent, joined by Justices David Souter, John Paul Stevens, and Stephen Breyer, Ginsburg also wrote:

Applying what I view as the proper standard to the record thus far made, I would hold that New Haven had ample cause to believe its selection process was flawed and not justified by business necessity. Judged by that standard, petitioners have not shown that New Haven's failure to certify the exam results violated Title VII's disparate treatment provision.

Less than an hour after the Ricci decision was announced on June 29, conservative Ed Whelan wrote a post for National Review Online's Bench Memos blog headlined "9-0 Against Sotomayor." Whelan noted that Ginsburg did say "if final adjudication by this Court is indeed appropriate, New Haven should be the prevailing party." Linking to Whelan's post, NRO's Kathryn Lopez tweeted: “9-0 Against Sotomayor.”

Similarly, Laura Ingraham tweeted: “Re. the SCOTUS Ricci opinion...ignore spin that case not impt bc 5-4...it was 9-0 on Soto's summary judgment of firefighters claims!”

Shortly after noon, Rush Limbaugh claimed on his radio show: “If you read Ruth Bader Ginsburg, you'll find out it's a nine-zip decision because even those in the minority found that the 2nd Circuit botched this totally by not even having a trial. They just found for New Haven in summary judgment.”