Answering the Call to Eradicate Racism — Progress in Washington and Beyond
***Since the original publication of this post, the Kennebec County Commissioners voted unanimously on February 16, 2021 to relocate the statue of U.S. Chief Justice Melville Fuller that sits outside the county courthouse in Augusta, Maine.***
On June 4, 2020, compelled by acts of racist violence that sparked nationwide protests, all nine members of the Washington State Supreme Court signed an open letter calling on the legal community “to reflect on this moment and ask ourselves how we may work together to eradicate racism.” Since then, steps have been made to answer this call.
In July the Supreme Court revisited the 1916 Native American fishing rights case, State v. Towessnute, 89 Wash. 478. The court repudiated the racially unjust opinion, writing that “it fundamentally misunderstood the nature of treaties and their guarantees, as well as the concept of tribal sovereignty.” This was followed in October by footnote 1 to Garfield County Transportation Authority v. State, 196 Wn.2d 378, overruling the court’s 1960 decision in Price v. Evergreen Cemetery Co. of Seattle, 57 Wn.2d 352. Price v. Evergreen Cemetery ruled that a statute prohibiting racial discrimination by cemeteries violated the provision in the Washington State Constitution requiring bills to contain one subject. In Garfield the court contended “[t]his was a strained and incorrect way to divide the subjects in the bill” and condemned the harmful concurrence by Justice Joseph A. Mallery.
Others in the legal community have answered the call too. In June the deans of all three law schools in the state announced their intention to re-launch the Task Force on Race and the Criminal Justice System. This effort will continue the work of the Task Force 1.0 working groups that researched and produced the 2011 Preliminary Report on Race and Washington’s Criminal Justice System and the 2012 report Juvenile Justice and Racial Disproportionality. The Task Force was recently briefed on juvenile justice efforts in the state and formed teams to look at policing and alternatives to policing.
Our state’s supreme court is not alone in its call for action. Nearly half of U.S. states have a state court that released a statement on racial justice after the May 25th killing of George Floyd at the hands of police officers. North Carolina’s former Chief Justice Cheri Beasley acted within days, holding a press conference acknowledging disparities in the justice system. Soon after, the North Carolina Supreme Court handed down two momentous decisions allowing review of racial discrimination in death penalty cases. In the following months additional decisions were handed down removing inmates from death row who had proven discrimination under the state’s repealed Racial Justice Act.
Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court issued a statement on June 8th stating, “Freedom from disparate treatment based upon race is not only a constitutional right — it is a basic human right.” Since then Acting Chief Justice Andrew Mead has requested a community-wide review of the presence of a statue of U.S. Chief Justice Melville Fuller, a Maine native, outside the Kennebec County courthouse. Chief Justice Fuller presided over the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson case and sided with the majority in that opinion. The community is currently considering the matter. New York State’s Unified Court System was also quick to act. Chief Judge Janet DiFiore announced on June 9th the appointment of a Special Adviser on Equal Justice in the Courts. Attorney Jeh Johnson led a review of the court system’s response to institutional racism and issued his report in October. Johnson’s recommendations included bias training for the judiciary and judicial branch employees and measures to reduce juror bias.
We are dedicated to ongoing coverage of racial justice initiatives as courts and the legal community continue this difficult but important work.
Today we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The day became a national holiday in 1983 and is observed annually on the third Monday of January. In 1994 late U.S Representative John Lewis sponsored legislation making the holiday a national day of service. Every year many honor the legacy of King by volunteering in their communities. This year, celebrants are being encouraged to make it a “day on, not a day off” in safe ways due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (SC)
