White firefighters in Connecticut were wrongly denied promotions because of their race, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday in its final session before summer recess. The 5-4 decision was deemed a major setback for minority advocates because it could affect places of employment across the nation. Adding to the profile of the case, the ruling nullified a decision that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor had endorsed as an appeals court judge. The high court’s conservative majority found that the city of New Haven and the courts that agreed with its nixing of an exam on which Blacks disproportionately scored poorly had acted unconstitutionally. The city had contended that it discarded the test, used to promote firefighters, to avoid a lawsuit from Blacks, but Justice Anthony Kennedy, who delivered the majority opinion, said that New Haven’s action amounted to racial discrimination. “No individual should face workplace discrimination based on race,” Kennedy said. Although it does not eliminate the employers’ ability to consider diversity in hiring decisions, it does limit recruitment and retention practices. The ruling also could make it harder for people of color to prove discrimination based solely on racial hiring or promotions, experts say. The high court decision could not have come at a worse time for Sotomayor, who along with two appeals court colleagues, had ruled the city did the right thing in tossing out the test. The nominees’ critics now have something recent to use against her in the impending Senate confirmation hearings.