To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

Just a couple of rows behind Judge Sonia Sotomayor sat some of her fiercest critic, firefighters from the New Haven Fire Department.

"What was done to us was wrong and we feel everyone should know our story and why it was wrong," said Lieutenant Benjamin Vargas of the New Haven Fire Department.

Vargas will have the chance to share his views with the entire country, when he testifies against Sotomayor Thursday.

Vargas was a plaintiff in Ricci versus Destefano, a case brought by 18 New Haven firefighters, 17 whites and one hispanic. On the Court of Appeals, Sotomayor agreed with a lower court decision that ruled the city was allowed to throw out a promotions test that no black firefighters passed.

But the 18 firefighters cried racial discrimination, and just recently the Supreme Court sided with them and overturned the ruling.

Republicans have tried to seize on Sotomayor's decision, claiming that she basically dismissed the arguments of the firefighters.

"I just don't think she took the case as seriously as I think most people would want her to take it," said Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas.

But Democrats argue she was adhering to legal precedent.

"The Supreme Court in a very sharply-divided 5-4 decision changed the rules that they had before," said Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The emotion from the controversial case has spilled into the hearing room.

Sotomayor's supporters, like Yvette Melendez, are angry Vargas, who is Hispanic, is testifying on behalf of Sotomayor's critics.

"I do think it's unfortunate that one individual chose to address his own personal ambitions rather than what is good for the larger community," said Melendez.

Vargas says he's proud of Sotomayor, but insists he needs to speak out.