Two firefighters whose reverse discrimination claim was rejected by Sonia Sotomayor criticized her handling of the sensitive case on Thursday.

“Americans have the right to go into our federal courts and have their cases judged based on the Constitution and our laws, not on politics and personal feelings,” said Frank Ricci, the lead plaintiff in the case, Ricci v. DeStefano, at Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

Ricci was joined at the Senate Judiciary Committee witness table by Ben Vargas, both whom scored high on a New Haven, Conn., firefighters’ promotion exam that was later rejected out of concern it might prompt lawsuits by lower-scoring minorities.

The three-judge appellate court ruling in which Sotomayor took part upheld the city’s action, but in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court said the city was wrong to have thrown out the exam results.

Vargas echoed concerns raised by Republican senators about why Sotomayor’s panel issued a short, unsigned opinion rather than explaining its reasoning more fully.

“I expected Lady Justice with the blindfolds on and a reasoned opinion from a federal court of appeals, telling me, my fellow plaintiffs and the public what the court’s view on the law was and do it in an open and transparent way,” Vargas said. “Instead, we were devastated to see a one-paragraph unpublished order summarily dismissing our case and indeed even the notion that we had presented important legal issues to that court of appeals.”

Sotomayor said Wednesday she and her fellow panelists of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals believed the 78-page decision issued by a federal trial court in the case “adequately explained the questions that the Supreme Court addressed and reviewed.”

“Not every case requires a long opinion if a district court opinion has been clear and thorough on an issue,” Sotomayor said.

That answer didn’t satisfy Orrin G. Hatch , R-Utah, who said just before the firefighters’ testimony that the Ricci case was “the one thing that really bothered me” about Sotomayor’s record.

“They wanted to sweep it under the rug,” Hatch said.

Ricci did not mention Sotomayor by name while Vargas prefaced his comments about the case by saying, ““I am Hispanic and proud of the heritage and background that Judge Sotomayor and I share, and I congratulate Judge Sotomayor on her nomination.”

Bar Association Rating

Ricci and Vargas are among 31 outside witnesses who were schedule to testify during the final portion of the hearing, now in its fourth day. Two representatives of the American Bar Association led off with an explanation of the organization’s highest rating for Sotomayor.