Buck v Davis and what is wrong with the courts
African Americans make up about 14% of the American population, so here are some basic facts about African Americans and crime.
It may be impossible to overestimate the impact race has on the American experience. An important aspect of history is lynching in America, about half of which were "inspired" by accusations of criminality or the rape of a white woman. The lynchings were not cruel, or not just cruel; they were an effective way to keep the white supremacist society as the ruling class. No one dared complain; often they were lynched before they could complain.
Cognitive dissonance is probably the best way to explain how a minority group terrorized by the majority could be labeled the aggressors. And this labeling was very successful and continues in smaller ways to this day. For instance, women clutching their purses when they see a young African American male approaching on the sidewalk. Or a prosecutor arguing that an African American male must be sentenced to death because he is more violent than his white peers.
Of course, the case Buck v. Davis was not argued in such a bombastic way, but it did imply that being black meant there was a higher probability of violence, and therefore was a factoring in meeting the threshold for the death penalty. Today's ruling overturned this injustice.
But the Supreme Court got this one right and in a 6-2 majority, they found for the defendant.
Chief Justice John Roberts, the author of this opinion, has a tortured relation with race in the cases before the court. "The way to stop discriminating on race, is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." Sounds nice, and it would have been nice if this was the logic to uphold Affirmative Action or Voting Rights rather than upend each.
My real problem with today's ruling was that it was 6-2, not unanimous. Thomas and Alito seemed OK bending over backward to uphold the right to use race as a factor in deciding who goes to the electric chair.
Justice Thomas gets very technical in the decision, much more so than Roberts. His basis for the dissent is that the Supreme Court is overreaching because they prefer to side with the victim and not because of constitutional law.
Here's the actual ruling. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/15-8049_f2ah.pdf
Justice Thomas uses convoluted logic to bring us these judicial gems.
"In any event, after chastising the Court of Appeals for making an end run around the COA standard to reach the merits of petitioner’s Rule 60(b) claim, the Court does precisely that."
...
"Astonishingly, the Court also decides the merits of petitioner’s Sixth Amendment claim—an issue that was not even “addressed by the Fifth Circuit."
An end run? Whether you agree with cases Citizens United, Bush v Gore, Heller, or any number of recent Supreme Court decisions the conservatives have undertaken, it is just astonishing that Justice Thomas is shocked at a ruling making an "end run" or ruling on constitutional claims not presented in the lower courts or in briefings.
- African Americans are about 25% of all sex trafficking victims in the US, including territories
- African American adults between 20-24 have a 6% chance of being the victim of rape & sexual assaults, compared to 1% of whites in the same age group
It may be impossible to overestimate the impact race has on the American experience. An important aspect of history is lynching in America, about half of which were "inspired" by accusations of criminality or the rape of a white woman. The lynchings were not cruel, or not just cruel; they were an effective way to keep the white supremacist society as the ruling class. No one dared complain; often they were lynched before they could complain.
Chief Justice John Roberts, the author of this opinion, has a tortured relation with race in the cases before the court. "The way to stop discriminating on race, is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." Sounds nice, and it would have been nice if this was the logic to uphold Affirmative Action or Voting Rights rather than upend each.
My real problem with today's ruling was that it was 6-2, not unanimous. Thomas and Alito seemed OK bending over backward to uphold the right to use race as a factor in deciding who goes to the electric chair.
Justice Thomas gets very technical in the decision, much more so than Roberts. His basis for the dissent is that the Supreme Court is overreaching because they prefer to side with the victim and not because of constitutional law.
Here's the actual ruling. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/15-8049_f2ah.pdf
Justice Thomas uses convoluted logic to bring us these judicial gems.
"In any event, after chastising the Court of Appeals for making an end run around the COA standard to reach the merits of petitioner’s Rule 60(b) claim, the Court does precisely that."
...
"Astonishingly, the Court also decides the merits of petitioner’s Sixth Amendment claim—an issue that was not even “addressed by the Fifth Circuit."
An end run? Whether you agree with cases Citizens United, Bush v Gore, Heller, or any number of recent Supreme Court decisions the conservatives have undertaken, it is just astonishing that Justice Thomas is shocked at a ruling making an "end run" or ruling on constitutional claims not presented in the lower courts or in briefings.
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