Recently in an editorial captioned “Anti-Bias Proposals Don’t Go Far Enough”, we commented on one aspect of the Supreme Court’s multi-faceted July 16 Action Plan, aimed at eliminating barriers to equality that continue to contribute to disparate court experiences for people of color. In the editorial, we opined that a biannual two hour anti-bias CLE would not be sufficient to address problems as deep seated as racial inequality. Indeed as we pointed out, eliminating bias will require attitudinal change on the part of lawyers and judges, a difficult task at best.

Today we address other aspects of the action plan, which together present a holistic approach to achieving the court’s anti-bias goals with which we all agree. By way of example, its provisions seek to achieve greater juror impartiality through: (a) expanded juror orientation content regarding implicit and explicit bias; (b) model jury charges on impartiality and implicit bias; (c) new and revised mandatory model jury selection questions on recognizing and counteracting bias in the jury process; and (d) examining options for changes to the Court Rules relating to impartiality in the juror selection process. In the juvenile field, the plan proposes retroactive rescission and prospective elimination of punitive fines and penalties that have served to inhibit the rehabilitation of children, many of color. In addition, among other things, it proposes modernizing technology to ease the expungement process with concurrent benefits to recipients and broadening and reexamining access to misused court records that create hardships on the disadvantaged population.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]