In one corner of the law, minorities and women are often valued less.
Re: The practice of using race and gender when determining personal injury damages.
Issue: Did the trial court error when it gave the jury access only to calculations of damages that included ethnicity as a component? Should these types of formulas exist when determining future loss of wages for an injured child?
The trial court judge did not allow testimony in court directly addressing the demographics of G.M.M.; however, it only allowed the jury access to calculate damages that used ethnicity as a component when determining future loss of wages. Although, the court initially shut down the ethnic discrimination, it was ultimately endorsed when the court allowed this
In a Georgia Court, Timothy Foster was convicted of capital murder and penalized to death. During his trial, the State Court use peremptory challenges to strike all four black prospective jurors qualified to serve on the Jury. However, Foster argued that the use of these strikes was racially motivated, in violation of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U. S.79. That led his claim to be rejected by the trial court, and the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed. The state courts rejected relief, and the Foster’s Batson claim had been adjudicated on direct appeal. Finally, his Batson claim had been failed by the court because it failed to show “any change in the facts sufficient to overcome”.
Title VII of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, gender, or religion. Race, color, national origin, gender, and religion are known as protected classes. The Supreme Court later established “several theories of discrimination that plaintiffs may purses based on the type of discrimination alleged.” (Melvin & Katz, 2015) The three most common theories are disparate treatment, mixed motives, and disparate impact. Aquino v. Honda is an example of disparate treatment as Aquino believe his was terminated, thus discriminated against, because of his race. Disparate Treatment is defined as “overt and intentional discrimination.” (Melvin & Katz, 2015)The burden of proof was on Honda to prove it had legitimate reason to terminate Aquino. The court ruled that Honda had met the burden of proof; the firing was not discriminatory as the accusations were not baseless nor did they amount to pretext. When the burned shifted back to Aquino to prove his firing was discriminatory in nature, he could not provide any
The case Meacham v. Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory did in fact uphold the jury's findings that employees who are on the older side had lost their jobs through a layoff plan. This discrimination was unintentional. However, the policy did have an impact that was deemed discriminatory and the firm could have reached its goals through a different method that would not effectively discriminate. The reason for the suit had to do with the fact that thirty of thirty-one people who were laid off were over the age of forty. There were 26 plaintiffs who did go to trial while some of the others settled with the company on their own. In the end, the jury awarded plaintiffs a total award of $4.2. The case was appealed and at the time, Knolls argued that the law really does not allow disparate impact claims, citing Hazen Paper Co. v. Biggins, 507 U.S. 604 (1993), where a claim involved disparate treatment and what was needed was proof of intentional discrimination. The Court claims that the Hazen Paper Court had not resolved the appropriate use of ADEA in terms of disparate impact. It was further stated that the decisions to come from other circuits do not necessarily overrule prior cases. The idea that disparate impact claims may not be allowed under ADEA is therefore rejected.
Based on the pronouncements of the court on May 17, 1954, everyone in the courtroom was shocked after it became clear that Marshall was right in his claim about the unconstitutionality of legal segregation in American public schools. Essentially, this court’s decision became a most important turning point in U.S. history because the desegregation case had been won by an African American attorney. Additionally, this became a landmark decision in the sense that it played a big role in the crumbling of the discriminatory laws against African Americans and people of color in major socioeconomic areas, such as employment, education, and housing (Stinson, 2008). Ultimately, Marshall’s legal achievements contributed significantly to the criminal justice field.
“A report by the United States General Accounting Office in 1990 concluded that 82 percent of the empirically valid studies on the subject show that the race of the victim has an impact on capital charging decisions or sentencing verdicts or both” (86).
Stewart, David (1986) “Court rules against jury selection based on race” ABA Journal, July 1: 72 ABAJ 68.
Retrieved April 12, 2005, from Civilrights.org Web site: http://www.civilrights.org/publications/reports/cj/. Kansal, T. (2005). The 'Secondary'. In M. Mauer (Ed. Racial disparity in sentencing: A review of the literature.
A study of race and jury trials in Florida published last year in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, found that “conviction rates for black and white defendants are similar when there is at least some representation of blacks in the jury pool.” But all-white juries are a very different story—they convict blacks 16% more often than they convict whites (2).
Justice Roger Taney, the speaker, writes for a 7-2 majority and argues that Dred Scott’s race denied him standing to sue, a right reserved for US citizens. The Court voided not only Scott’s
In several cases and studies, there is a substantial amount of racial bias in the criminal justice system. In fact, the 1978 McClesky conviction has proven to support Baldus’s study in 1998. Warren McClesky, an African American male, was found guilty of killing a Georgia police officer. The legal team who represented McClesky exposed a study that showed how biased racial inequality is in the death penalty, but the court contended the argument because “disparities in sentencing are an inevitable part of our criminal justice system” (Touré). Furthermore, race has always been a serious matter in the Supreme Court and other government administrations, but they fail to recognize the
Turner, Billy. 1986. “Race and Peremptory Challenges During Voir Dire: Do Prosecution and Defense Agree?” Journal of Criminal Justice 14: 61-69.
Stevenson, Bryan A. Illegal Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection. Rep. Montgomery, Alabama: Equal Justice Initiative, 2010. Print.
In class, we read the official Supreme Court documents associated with the case Gratz v. Bollinger, including the consenting and dissenting opinions of the court. The case explores the role of Affirmative Action in college admission at the University of Michigan. Essentially, the University of Michigan was awarding a certain number of points to each applicant to their school. During their admissions processes, they would add a certain amount of points to an applicant if the applicant was from an underrepresented ethnic group. The Center for Individual Rights contacted two white students who had been denied from the college and brought their case to court, where they sued the University for racial discrimination. Ultimately, because of a technicality, the plaintiff lacked standing.
I think the court was biased in this case and one of the examples that impressed me and brought me to this opinion was the note by one of the lawyers that was later seen by Mr. Foster. In the note he numbered each black juror (B#1, B#2, B#3, and so
In any culture, groups and individuals develop preconceived notions about other groups and individuals based on their experiences and exposures. Things such as prejudices, stereotype, and discrimination are developed through these preconceived notions. Prejudices are “biased evolutions of a group, based on real or imagined characteristics of the group members” (Nelson 24). These biases are learned through the process of socialization and social learning throughout a person’s lifetime, mostly within a child’s development when they are shaped by their environments. Stereotypes are “a set of beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of people” (Nelson 24). These stereotypes are based upon the generalizations that are made about specific groups or individuals within certain groups. Prejudices help form these beliefs and attributes that are associated within these stereotypes. Some stereotypes can be considered cultural, where there are shared beliefs about a particular group, usually more widely known. Prejudices and stereotypes fuel behaviors, most negative, toward the group or individual of the group they hold stereotypes and prejudices toward; this is known as discrimination (Nelson 24). When someone meets a new individual, they use many different aspects of their physical features along with information they procure from the individual to make inferences. The stereotypes and prejudices that fuel discriminatory behaviors are usually shaped and formed based on the environment in which an individual was brought up. A child is influenced greatly by the actions and beliefs of their parents and close family members. These prejudices and stereotypes that develop through social learning and exposure by parents and families shape th...