The founding Fathers of our nation created the judicial system that is still implemented today – and with it came their biases and expectation of races. All of our country’s leaders owned slaves – and this is prominent in their lawmaking. For example, African American slaves were considered three-fifths of a person until 1868 (nearly 100 years after our country’s founding), and long after the original policymaker’s deaths. There are several more laws with similar racist undertones that set a precedent, and standard for future legislatures and law-enforcers to follow.
We can see racial disparities in our system in a trickle effect. It starts with our lawmakers or legislators at both a national/federal and state level. These are the people who are supposed to be proportionally representative of the population they are serving. For example, according to the United States Census, Pennsylvania consists of 80% Caucasians. However, the Caucasians in legislatures account for about 91% of the total number of lawmakers in the state. This is not strictly a Pennsylvania thing; this disparity is seen in several other states. Like in California 62% of legislatures are Caucasian, and in Massachusetts, 92% of legislatures are Caucasians (United States Census, 2020). Without adequate representation of our legislators, we cannot expect to have laws that will be enforced with equality.
With that said, we as a public cannot expect to have the law enforced and interpreted by judges who follow the same criteria stated above on a general level. This same trend is consistent in our Supreme Court bench. Out of the current nine justices, only one justice, Justice Clarence Thomas, is not Caucasian. Justice Thomas is one of only two African American justices, the other being Justice Thurgood Marshall (CNN, 2020). This same concept applies to other minority groups. For example, of the 115 supreme court Justices, only five have been women, and Justice Sonia Sotomayer is the first and only Hispanic Justice. None of the justices identify as being in the LGBTQIA+ community, and nor being Asian, Native American, or Pacific Islander (CNN. 2020) To sum everything up, 108 of the 115 Supreme Court Justices have been White, Protestant, cisgender, straight, men. This is not reflective of the population of the United States. The 2020 Census displayed that just under 60% of the total United States population identified as White, 13% identified as Black, 18% Hispanic, 6% Asian, and about 3% are of mixed races or did not answer (Race and Ethnicity in the United States: 2010 Census and 2020 Census, 2021). Considering that the Supreme Court has been about 94% white, we cannot expect rulings made by this court to be fairly applied to all due to the lack of representation. Judges make their decisions based on set laws created by the legislatures (like the constitution) or by case precedence. Case precedence often reflects the same mindset as the constitution, which only kept those who were white descendants in mind as people of color were not even considered people at that time. How can someone interpret a case where law underrepresents people of color when they were even people at the time. It is worthy to note that race or ethnicity are not the only factors here; gender, economic status, and access to education are a few examples. Those who become judges are usually attorneys first, especially when looking at the higher-level courts like the United States Supreme Court, circuit, or district courts.
Attorneys tend to follow the same trend as the categories above. Of the licensed and practicing attorneys in the United States in the year 2019, 85% of lawyers were White, and only 5% of lawyers were African American, 5% were Hispanic, and 3% were Asian according to the American Bar Association (Black, 2019).
Law school is cutthroat, with several students dropping out before the first semester ends. However, at the beginning of law school, more minorities are present. In 2018, the census bureau collected data about students in ABA-accredit law schools and their racial makeup. It found that 60% of students were white, 12.8% were Hispanic, 8.1% were African American, nearly 6.17% were Asian, 0.56% were Native American, 0.17% were Native Hawaiian or other, and the remaining 3.49% were for people of mixed races (Law School Enrollment by Race). The 2019 data above shows there is a drastic decline of minority attorneys, like a 3% difference in African American law students not becoming attorneys, and nearly half of Asian descendants from one year to the next. This decline could be due to a few reasons, like systemic racism in our education institutions. Minority law students “…end up in lower-ranked law schools, which they pay more to attend than white students, resulting in higher debt burdens…. have lower bar exam passage rates, employment rates, and income levels. Given the intense competition for paid social justice positions, few of them will end up in careers where they can support themselves while fighting for the ideals that brought them to law school in the first place” (Defender News Services, 2018). Although this is not a definitive answer, it can help bring an explanation as to why the racial disparity in our law enforcers continues.
We can see how racial disparity in our criminal justice system is a trickle effect. Lawmakers, specfically those who wrote the constitution, did not have the same view on the world. It was perfectly legal to own another human being, and their laws reflect that behavior. Judges use these laws with constrained views of the world to attempt to regulate our world today, which looks very different as it did back then. Attorneys are then tasked with defending these laws. As well as minority groups not being apart of the conversation from most angles, like being apart of the Supreme Court (or other higher up courts), judges, and attorneys. Minority groups are often hindered by this systemic racism that creates this gap in our system.
Works Cited
Black (2019). “ABA Report 2019: Lawyer Demographics, Earnings, Tech Choices, and More.” My Case. https://www.mycase.com/blog/aba-2019-report-lawyer-demographics-earnings-tech-choices-and-more/#:~:text=64%25%20of%20lawyers%20are%20men,%2C%20and%203%25%20are%20Asian.
CNN. (2020, September 20). “Of the 114 Supreme Court Justices in United States History, all but 6 have been white men.” 7 News Boston. https://whdh.com/news/politics/of-the-114-supreme-court-justices-in-us-history-all-but-6-have-been-white-men/
Defender News Services (2018, June 8). “How Law Schools Are Failing Minority Students.” https://defendernetwork.com/news/national/how-law-schools-are-failing-minority-students/
“Law School Enrollment By Race.” Enjuries. https://www.enjuris.com/students/law-school-race-2018.html
“Race and Ethnicity in the United States: 2010 Census and 2020 Census.” (2021, August 12) The United
States Census. https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/race-and-ethnicity-in-the-united-state-2010-and-2020-census.html
United States Census (2020). “Quick Facts: Pennsylvania.”
I always love reading your posts, they’re so informative. I also like that you pointed out the racial disparities from the beginning of our country with the founding fathers all being slave owners.
This was a very interesting post about race in regards to our justice system. While our history has certainly held that traditionally white men are involved in our judicial and legislative processes, there is a promise for the future. For example, President Biden recently nominated Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson to the US Supreme Court who is both a woman and a person of color. In the coming decades, I expect that we will see more underrepresented groups taking positions of power in America. I’d like to think that the future is bright.
Lawyers are important in the makeup of the criminal justice system as they serve as prosecutors, public defenders, defense lawyers, judges. However, I feel as if you missed one part, the jury. While lawyers are a big part, racism as a whole needs to be dealt with to make the entire system fair for people of color.