CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Judge Sonia Sotomayor said Tuesday that her ruling in the hotly contested 2008 case Ricci v. DeStefano, where she backed the city of New Haven's decision to throw out the results of a firefighter promotion exam because almost no minorities qualified for promotions, was based strictly on well-established legal precedent.

Sotomayor, speaking on the second day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearings, said the case was decided on the basis of "a very thorough, 78-page decision by the district court" and followed an "established precedent."

"This was not quota case or (an) affirmative action case," she said. The case was a challenge to a firefighter test that had a wide range of difference between the pass and failure rate of different groups. The city of New Haven, she noted, was at risk of being sued by employees who could show they were "disparately impacted" by the test.

New Haven city officials, after a number of days of hearings, decided they wouldn't certify the test, but would instead attempt to develop a test of equal value in measuring a candidate's qualifications without having a disparate impact, she noted.

The question before the 2nd Circuit, Sotomayor argued, was whether the city's decision was based on race or its understanding of what the law required it to do. The court ruled that it was based on the latter.

Based on established legal precedent, the 2nd Circuit decided that the city's decision was proper under established law. The Supreme Court, however, applied a new standard, she said, based on a different area of law. If she were ruling on that case today, she said, she would be bound by the new standards set by the Supreme Court.