Frank Beckwith, nosing about a bit in journalism archives, has come across a 1997 New Republic article by Ruth Shalit, discussing a district court ruling that year by Judge Sonia Sotomayor in the case of Bartlett v. New York State Board of Law Examiners. The case involved a suit under the Americans With Disabilities Act by a woman with a claimed learning disability who wanted extraordinary accommodations when attempting the state bar exam. Judge Sotomayor employed some, uh, creative reasoning to justify ruling in Bartlett’s favor. Very empathetic, you might say. But I’ll let Frank tell the rest of the story, and draw the pointed comparison to the Ricci case. Read the whole thing!