March 2004 - Plain Text Version

[Guest guest]

Race, Racism and the Law

March 2004 Speaking Truth to Power!!

Volume 6 Number 3

Dear Friends,

Welcome to my sixth year of doing this update! My website is a labor of

love, hope and persistence. As you may have notice I have a new format (Thank

you technology!). This is plain text version of the newsletter to see the

html version go to:

I also plan to " focus " the updates and to have guest editorials. If you

have an issue you would like a " legal " update on or please let me know.

This month the update focuses on discrimination in legal education.

We struggle against institutional and systemic racism. And it seems that

the majority always find a way to maintain power and privilege.

For instance, after winning a battle in the Supreme Court in Grutter,

reaffirming the importance of diversity, many law schools have admission

policies and practices that will make the legal profession even more white

than it is. What is particularly frustating is that even " well meaning

liberals " , " people of goodwill " , are justifying these practices.

Whatever, your occupation or issue you should find the resegregation of

the legal profession particularly disturbing.

Power in this country is centered in money and law. Lawyers not only make

law and interpert law; they are the gatekeepers to access to justice.

Furthermore, lawyers are over represented in the center of power: congress

and in corporations.

In our struggle for social justice, we must have proportional

representation of people of color as lawyers and judges. That can't happen as

long as law schools use policies and practices that discriminate against

Blacks, Latino(a)s, Asians and Indians.

Read Listen up! and demand accountability of your local, state law school

or alma mater!

Vernellia Randall

Professor of Law

The University of Dayton

___________________________________________________

What's New!!

http://academic.udayton.edu/race/whatsnew.htm

The Struggle for Access to Law Schools

Defending the Use of Quotas in Law Schools

Does the LSAT Magnify Racial Differences?

The American Bar Association Academic Racism

Selected Bibliography on LSAT and Minority Admissions

Law School Admission Factors

Law School Admission Council

http://academic.udayton.edu/race/03justice/Legaled06.htm

LSAC Statement of Good Admission and Financial Aid Practices

LSAC National Longitutional Bar Passage Study

LSAC Cautionary Policies re Use of LSAT

Law School Admission Practices and Use of the LSAT

LSAT - Good - But not That Good

LSAC Scorebands

Encore

http://academic.udayton.edu/race/whatsnew.htm

Why Race Matters?: A Call to Disaggregate Health Status and Health Care

Data by Race

Racial Profiling in Health Care

Institutional Racism in US Health Care

US Violations of Human Rights Related to Race and Health Care

___________________________________________________

Listen Up!!

If you are a Black, Hispanic, Asian or Indian law school applicant who has

been denied admission - Listen up! You may have been discriminated against

based on your race.

It is not intentional, in your face, " we don’t want Blacks " in our law

school, kind of discrimination. No, it is that hard to understand and even

harder to eliminate institutional racism. Institutional racism occurs where

an institution adopts a policy, practice, or procedure that appears neutral

on its face but has a disproportionately negative impact on a racial or

ethnic minority group.

In the case of law schools, the discriminatory practice is the misuse of

the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) in the admission process. Specifically,

its estimated that at least 90% of law schools, have admission practices that

presumptively deny applicants based on how they fall on a grid formulated

around LSAT and Undergraduate Grade Point average (UGPA). It is this misuse

of the LSAT that has a discriminatory impact.

For example, based on a LSAT cut-off of 145, over 60% of black applicants

will be presumptively denied, but only 20% of white applicants will be

" presumptively denied. " While " presumptive " denial need not be absolute, for

some schools less than .5 % of the applicants in the " presumptive deny "

category are subsequently admitted.

This misuse of LSAT is devastating to all minorities, particularly Blacks

and Latinos. For instance, using LSAT cuts in half the number of Black and

Puerto Rican students who would be admitted based on their performance in

college, such as their Undergraduate Grade Point Average (UGPA).

Disturbingly, law schools know that the LSAT is not capable of making fine

distinctions among candidates. According to, Philip Shelton, the president of

Law School Admission Council (LSAC), the LSAT is " Good but not that good. "

Mr. Shelton has said that if students with an LSAT of 145 and 144 " took the

test a dozen more times [LSAC would ] . . .have no idea which student would

end up with the higher average score " .

According to LSAC, to be 95% certain that a single score is the true

representation of an applicant’s skills, you would need a 14 point spread.

In plain English, an applicant who gets a score of 144 could have skills

somewhere in the range of 137 to 151. FN

It is important to note that this is not an issue of ability to perform

successfully in law school. Students at all range of the LSAT continuum are

successful law students, law graduates and attorneys. In fact, in my own

school, before we changed our admission grid, over 48% of our African

American graduates in the last five years have had LSAT below 145.

Why then are law schools using presumptive grids?

According to some law school deans, it is the pressure to increase ranking

in the US News & World Report. If so, it is an ineffective method since LSAT

scores only account for 12% of a law school’s ranking score.

Another asserted reason is increasing first time bar passage. Studies

show that over 70-90% of all graduates pass the bar within 2-3 retakes.

Among those examiners of color who eventually passed, between 94 and 97

percent passed after one or two attempts and 99 percent passed by the third

attempt. Evenso, there are other more effective ways to increase bar passage

without limiting opportunity to attend law school - such as teaching accepted

students what they need to know to pass the bar.

Some faculty assert that reading all the files is onerous and time

consuming - but we get paid good money to do a job that does not have many

demands. Should faculty limit access and opportunity for racial and ethnic

minorities because we are unwilling to spend time to do our job? Furthermore,

as long as we invite people to apply, shouldn’t they all get the same careful

consideration?

Whatever the reason law schools choose to implement LSAT “presumptive

deny” practices, it is completely unacceptable to have policies and practices

that effectively discriminate against Blacks, Latinos, Asian, and Indians.

For one reason, minorities are seriously underrepresented in the legal

profession. For instance, only 4% of the nation’s lawyers are Black even

though Blacks represent 13% of the population of the United States . This

lack of representation has far ranging effects including limited access to

power. Ever notice how many of the power brokers in the United States are

lawyers?. Perhaps a more significant effect is ever growing distrust of the

legal system by racial minorities, in significant part, because of the lack

of lawyers and judges that look like them.

The misuse of the LSAT is not just an example of institutional racism, it

is also an example of systemic racism because many different institutions

contribute to the misuse of the LSAT. A change in any one of the institutions

in the system could effect a positive change

(Continued http://academic.udayton.edu/race/03justice/legaled01.htm)

race.mail@...

http://academic.udayton.edu/race/

____________________________________________________

Law Reviews on Race and Racism

http://academic.udayton.edu/race/LReviews/0403.htm

Law Reviews on Race and Racism is a searchable database of law review

articles on race, health and other topics of interest to the anti-racism

activist. The database is updated weekly. The March update includes over 80

articles in the following areas:

Racial Group

African/ Black Americans

Native American / Eskimo

Topic (Generally applicable to all racial groups)

Adoption and Care

Children and Teenagers

Affirmative Action

Children and Teenagers

Church and Religion

Civil Justice: Generally

Civil Rights

Criminal Justice (Generally)

Criminal Justice: Racial Profiling

Economics: Economic

Economics: Generally

Economics: Taxation

EducationEducation: Legal

Employment and Labor

Environment and Environmental

JusticeHealth and Health Care

Human Rights

Immigration

Indian Law

International Issues

Internment of Japanese Americans

Justice: Generally

Law and Lawyers

Miscellaneous

Racism: Cultural and Institutional

Sexuality

Slavery

Sovereignty

Voting Rights and Political Power

_________________________________________________________

Race, Health Care and the Law

If you work in the area of health care, Health policy or health law and

would like to be a part of an online discussion/information group on " Race,

HealthCare and the Law, contact me.

_________________________________________________________

Vienna Declaration and Program of

Action

http://academic.udayton.edu/race/06hrights/VictimGroups/AfricanDescendants/vienn\

a.htm

A major development in the ability of Africans and African Descendants to

independently organize for the World Conference Againt Racism in Durban was

the international African and African Descendants Conference [( " AADC " )] held

in Vienna, Austria in April, 2001. This historic conference, attended by

representatives covering most of the Black World, was convened by Africans

and African Descendants in a concerted effort to refute the efforts at

Strasbourg and the attempts by the Western European countries to subvert the

work and unity of the Africans and African Descendants manifesting itself in

the international and regional preparatory meetings. The Vienna Conference

produced a groundbreaking declaration which eloquently articulated and

delineated many key positions which would be read and advocated by African

and African Descendants throughout the WCAR process. Without question the

Vienna Declaration's unique and unadulterated, sharpened, and keenly

intellectual expression of the key issues and programmes of action for

Africans and African Descendants was used as guidance by the Drafting

Committee of the AADC and would inform the content of many of the position

papers of the AADC.

The Declaration is available online. In addition the Declaration has been

published in 8 Washington and Lee Race and Ethnic Ancestry Law Journal 7

(Spring, 2002). If you would like a reprinted copy of the Washington & Lee

publication, please send $ 3.00 to Professor Vernellia Randall, The

University of Dayton School of Law, 300 College Park, Dayton, OH 45469-2772.

___________________________________________________________

Global Racism

WANTED: articles and reports about racism, racial discrimination and law.

Articles need to be in English and sent electronically. Articles must have

complete citations.

____________________________________________________________

Donation

Over the last six years, I have managed this website entirely by myself.

It has grown significantly, for instance I have over 1500 pages that need to

be reviewed and updated. I would like to hire a part time research assistant.

I need to raise approximately $5000. Can you help? If so you can make a

donation through Paypal, " Race, Racism and the Law " .

_________________________________________________________________________

If you do not wish to be contacted from this list in the future, reply

with " remove (code:

UlM/ZT1taWdyYW50X2hlYWx0aF9yZXNlYXJjaEB5YWhvb2dyb3Vwcy5jb20mbD03JnM9MTA3) " in

the subject.