A new study by researchers at San Francisco State University finds evidence of skin tone memory bias. Student participants instructed to make a mental association between a picture of an African-American man and the word “educated” tended to misidentify the man on later memory tests as having a lighter skin tone. A recent article in the Atlantic article summarizes […]
From Our Editors
In the News: Undocumented Immigrants Admissible to California State Bar
Last fall, the California Legislature passed a law that permits the state supreme court “to admit to the practice of law an applicant who is not lawfully present in the United States . . . .” The law was prompted by the case of Sergio Garcia, an undocumented immigrant that had graduated from law school, […]
In the News: Warrantless Use of GPS
Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s warrantless placement of a GPS device on a vehicle was constitutional because probable cause existed to believe the car was being used for criminal purposes. A three judge panel for the Third Circuit had previously ruled that in […]
In the News: Life Without Parole
The American Civil Liberties Union just released an “extensive and astonishing report” describing the increasing frequency with which American judges are sentencing nonviolent offenders to life in prison without the possibility of parole. You can visit the ACLU’s interactive site here and read the full report here. –Emily Gilman, Editor-in-Chief, Volume 19
COMMENT: The Appearance of Impartiality in New York City’s Stop-and-Frisk Litigation
By Andrew Goddeeris, Associate Editor, Volume 19 This past August, U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin issued a ruling in Floyd v. City of New York that challenged the New York City Police Department’s (“NYPD”) controversial use of stop-and-frisk practices in the last decade.[1] From January 2004 to June 2012, the NYPD made 4.4 million stops […]
In the News: Building Local Economies
This article takes up the issue of creating local economies that are not driven by global capital but instead respond to community needs and are democratically controlled by residents. It highlights that local economies as currently constituted consistently marginalize people of color, and gives a blueprint for how the rules of the game need to […]
In the News: Minimum Wage
The ongoing labor movement to win a living wage for fast food workers implicates both race and law. A recent article in Salon speaks to the way in which the minimum wage level allows corporations to pass off the basic well-being of their employees–many of whom are racial and ethnic minorities–to federal and state government welfare […]
In the News: Voter ID Laws
Over the last couple of weeks, the social justice and voting rights communities have been abuzz with the news that Judge Richard A. Posner, who famously held in 2007 that an Indiana voter ID law did not impose an undue burden on voters, has changed his mind. Laws requiring voters to show a valid photo […]
Michigan Journal of Race & Law 