The Supreme Court has overturned an appeals court decision made by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, ruling that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn. were unfairly denied promotions due to their race: Ricci Decision Provides Rallying Point for Opposition.

Conservatives are jumping all over today’s Supreme Court decision that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, using it to attack high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s earlier ruling against them.

But White House officials are fighting back, and they spent the morning reaching out to Senate Judiciary Committee members to make their case that the ruling should have little bearing on Sotomayor’s nomination.

“The issue from the Sotomayor perspective is, does this call into question anything about her judgement? And it doesn’t,” said one senior White House official. “The majority made it clear they are making a new rule. No one has really questioned that she did what she was supposed to do.’’

The real outrage, however, is in the other decision made by the Supreme Court today: Supreme Court Rules 9/11 Families Cannot Sue Saudi Royals.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that families of September 11th victims cannot file a lawsuit against the Saudi royal family.

The high court upheld an appeals court decision that victim’s families cannot pursue lawsuits since the Saudis are protected by sovereign immunity, which prevents foreign countries from being sued in U.S. courts.

Nearly 6,000 plaintiffs had planned to sue, claiming money from Saudi Arabia and four of its princes ended up in the hands of Al Qaida members.