Why won't the US Supreme Court do anything about racism?

[Newest Reality]

Tanja Jacobi is professor of law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago.

Ross Berlin is a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Kevin G Ross of the Minnesota Court of Appeals and a graduate of the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago.

The Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke fired 16 shots, killing the African-American teenager Laquan McDonald; 14 of those shots were apparently fired while McDonald lay on the ground. It took four years and the expulsion of the state attorney general before the trial against Van Dyke for first-degree murder resulted in convictions for the lesser crimes of second-degree murder and aggravated battery this October. Before the shooting, Van Dyke ranked among the worst 3 per cent of officers in excessive force allegations, making him identifiable as a ‘problem officer’ even before he killed McDonald. This case is remarkable not for the violence committed by a white police officer against an unarmed African American, but because it involved a rare instance of the United States’ legal system scrutinising a police shooting. The courts in the US have done little to intervene more generally in the mass surveillance, mass violence and mass incarceration affecting people of colour.

Racial division has always been the transcendent theme of American society. But with the proliferation of recording devices on every phone, there has been an explosion of videos showing police committing various acts of violence against minorities. Now the US is being forced to face the reality of police beatings, shootings, and police officers taunting people of colour whom they have stopped on the street with little justification. Yet the US Supreme Court has refused to weigh in on these obvious racial discrepancies in the criminal justice system. Instead, it emphasises constitutional colourblindness, which allows it to avoid confronting the judiciary’s role in perpetuating racial discrimination in the US.

The Supreme Court has historically been viewed as a model for functioning constitutional democracies because of its power of judicial review, which enables it to act as an independent check on government. But even though the Court now expends roughly one-third of its docket on criminal justice cases, it consistently ducks the key challenges of discriminatory police stops and frisks, fatal police shootings, unconscionable plea deals, mass incarceration, racially disproportionate sentencing and disproportionate execution of racial minorities. For these reasons, we argue in a recent article in the UC Davis Law Review that the Supreme Court has made itself supremely irrelevant in several important ways.

<snip>

These issues are tearing at the fabric of US society, with protests blooming in response to videos of police shootings and evidence emerging of police and prosecutors targeting traditionally disadvantaged minorities. Yet the Supreme Court has little to say in the face of readily apparent racial disparities in the criminal justice system that it is meant to oversee. The Court is abdicating its responsibility to regulate the US criminal justice system, hiding behind newly created ‘colourblind’ conservative doctrines that limit its own review of these undeniable social ills. And with the recent appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to secure a five-vote conservative majority, it might be decades before the Court’s criminal justice rulings offer meaningful protections to the people most impacted by that system. Meanwhile, people of colour are paying the price.

https://aeon.co/ideas/why-wont-the-us-supreme-court-do-anything-about-racism

[guillaumeb]

1. Racism is foundational to the creation of this country.

And foundational to the appeal of the GOP since 1968.

And denial that racism exists is another aspect of the issue.

Recommended.

[TwilightZone]

2. John Roberts seems to think we're a post-racial society.

That was essentially his argument for gutting the Voting Rights Act.

[SamKnause]

3. Because they don't believe in equality.

Last edited Wed Feb 12, 2020, 08:19 PM - Edit history (1)

They don't believe in Democracy.

They don't believe in freedom.

They don't believe in voting rights.

They don't believe in a living wage.

They don't believe health care is a human right.



They do believe that corporations are people and should have more rights

then 'We the People'.

They do believe that money equals speech.

[Newest Reality]

4. Which reminds me...

All we have left that is really a champion for democracy is the House. We are dangling by a string, now. If we didn't have the house, you could say it was pretty much over, in essence.

We simply have not choice but to change that in a big way in the coming election, across the board, if possible. We may not be able to change the Judiciary, but we can change the balance, at least.

[SamKnause]

6. We are hanging by a thread.

As fast as Trump and his accomplices are moving, it may already be too late.

He has caused permanent damage that can not be undone.

190 unqualified right wing wacko judges.

Deregulation that is destroying National Treasures.

Nuzzling up to every horrible leader around the world.

We don't know what he is doing because there is zero transparency.

[Newest Reality]

7. Shudder! Yes.

[jr1118x]

5. unfortunately

Racism is a core principle of America, as they say its as American as hotdogs at a ballgame and Apple Pie. I was honestly shocked at how the past view years the racism has become so open, they don't even try to hide it. I really thought as a people were were moving passed that. It's built into the system, I don't know how we can ever get rid of that cancer. I really don't understand how so many people can be ok with fellow humans being abused, imprisoned and murder by our own country solely because of differences is pigmentation. How they give shit to black people about being raised in fatherless homes when we are killing, and unfairly incarcerating them furthering the cycle. Its like the hamster wheel of hate.

[Liberalhammer]

8. The majority

Are white supremacist.

[rownesheck]

9. Sadly,

in this country, we have a very broad view of what constitutes free speech. People are free to be racist without any worry of consequences. I often wonder how the stupid ass "sons" and "daughters" and other inbred family members of the confederacy are still allowed to exist without being absolutely shunned and ridiculed constantly. Everyone who participated in the confederacy should have been exterminated, or at least been neutered or had their tubes tied.