Saranna Morley
November 29, 2015
PAD4723
Journal Article Critique
The article “Race and Gender and Bias in Three Administrative Context: Impact on Work Assignments in State Supreme Courts”, by Christensen, Szmer, and Stritch seeks to address if certain types of administration processes better inhibit race and gender prejudices that may surface in the workplace. The authors compared the effects of three distinct administrative settings on race, gender, and other biases in the workload assignments of state Supreme Court justices—important public policy making settings that have been understudied in public administration.
It’s clear from the beginning that the article will be more on the complex side. The authors do not
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For example, the Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that all assignments of civil cases to trial judges be done in a random fashion. The Supreme Court states, "The purpose of this rule is to prevent 'judge shopping ' within a district or court. Although voluntary dismissal is allowed under Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure 41 at any time prior to service by the adverse party of an answer or summary judgment, when a civil case is so dismissed and then refiled immediately thereafter with no substantial change in the parties or claims, such practice, as an example, may be taken as a willful violation of this rule." Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Edwin L. Pittman felt the problem is a few members of the bar are trying to manipulate the system to get the judge that they want. By getting the judge of their choosing, prosecutors could possibly manipulate the system in order to have verdicts turn out in their favor because of a relationship or bond with a specific …show more content…
Overall, the article was fairly decent. It was not very easy to follow, as state before; I had to research outside of the article for more clarification on certain words and procedures. The information used was quite old as well. The article was written in 2012 and majority of the information was from the early to late 90’s. One chart that would have been very useful if it was up to date contained information from 1995. The author even stated in the article how some of the information was outdated.
References
Christensen, R., Szmer, J., & Stritch, J. (2012). Race and Gender Bias in Three Administrative Contexts: Impact on Work Assignments in State Supreme Courts. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 625-648.
Goodwin, Barbara. 1992. Justice by lottery. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hearing Office Case Rotation Among Administrative Law Judges. (2013, March 14). Retrieved November 29, 2015, from http://oig.ssa.gov/audits-and-investigations/audit-reports/A-12-12-1
Manjoo, F. (2014, September 24). Exposing Hidden Bias at Google. Retrieved November 26, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/technology/exposing-hidden-biases-at-google-to-improve-diversity.html
Supreme Court adopts rules for random assignment of civil cases. (2003, May 29). Retrieved November 28, 2015, from
While there is some merit to this argument, it’s actually just a reflection of institutionalization in the Court and also society as a whole. For a wide variety of jobs, the higher up roles rely heavily on secretaries and interns to do the dirty work, for lack of a better term. For example, when you “call your congressman,” you’re not actually talking to your Congressman on the phone. You are talking to an intern who relays your message to the Member of Congress’s staff, who reports the general feelings of the district to the Congressman. It would be impossible for a Member of Congress to answer every single phone call, read every email, and letter and still be able to get anything else done.
-The Missouri Supreme Court returned the case to the Circuit
As the climate in society has changed and new trends in lawmaking were established, the caseload for the federal court increased dramatically. The new concepts of President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” pushed Prohibition and the “New Deal” pushed for changes and additions to the federal judiciary. This forced the creation of specialized courts and the addition the appellate courts (paraphrase). In the metropolitan area is where the federal judges are seeing a huge increase. They have to set civil trials back months or sometimes years to make space for criminal cases.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys routinely use peremptory challenges to eliminate frim juries’ individuals who although they express no obvious bias, are thought to be capable of swaying the jury in an undesirable direction. The prosecution and the defense are also protected by the Equal Protection Clause
Alex Frost Values: Law & Society 9/23/2014 The Hollow Hope Introduction and Chapter 1 Gerald Rosenberg begins his book by posing the questions he will attempt to answer for the reader throughout the rest of the text: Under what conditions do courts produce political and social change? And how effective have the courts been in producing social change under such past decisions as Roe v. Wade and Brown v. Board of Education? He then works to define some of the principles and view points 'currently' held about the US Supreme court system.
The article Broken Bench explains the controversy over having “tiny courts” in New York State. The author, William Glaberson argues that the idea of justice within the jurisdiction of these tiny courts is unfairly decided among the justices in charge. Due to the lack of experience of these justices, it is difficult for fair justice to be dealt out. One of the major causes explained by the author for unfair justice is that the justices of the court are very inexperienced. For example, William Glaberson states, “Nearly three-quarters of the judges are not lawyers, and many — truck drivers, sewer workers or laborers — have scant grasp of the most basic legal principles.
A study indicates that dark-skinned African Americans face a distinct disadvantage when applying for jobs. Matthew Harrison, a doctoral student at UGA undertook the first significant study of "colorism" in the workplace. He found that a light-skinned black male can have only a bachelor's degree and typical work experience and still be preferred over a dark-skinned black male with an M.B.A. and past managerial positions, simply because expectations of the light-skinned black male are much higher, and he doesn't appear as “menacing' as the darker-skinned male applicant.” This finding is possibly due to the common belief that fair-skinned blacks probably have more similarities with whites than do dark-skinned blacks, which in turn makes whites feel more comfortable around them. (Harrison
The amount of discrimination that is reported does not drop depending on whether you’re a high class or working class individual. Middle class African Americans are just as likely to face as much discrimination as a working class African American( Feagin and sikes 1994, Kessler et al. 1990). According to the article because of this racial inequality those that are victims of racial inequality are more likely to develop mental health problems like depression and anxiety, which can impact the individuals success in his education and work pursuits. Ways the scholars researched this issue was conducting employee surveys and asking them about their view on their fellow co-worker and in person interviews. They could see if hiring decisions were based on race or if the employers had any prejudices.
The Rhetorical Strategies of a Latina Judge's Speech To End the Lack of Representation Throughout the diversity in the United States, there is a multitude of factors that underestimate and terminate the presence or idea of women and minorities in government roles. In current times, awareness of gender equality and excluded minorities has rose to an all- time high. Many are advocating that the way our country sees and treats intersectionality needs to change for the better. Judge Sonia Sotomayor is an advocator by spreading this public announcement through a piece of a speech. She discusses the obstacles she and other minorities face to place higher on the social ladder and to be represented during a speech at the Judge Mario G. Olmos Memorial
(Kivel 1995) some "examples of institutional racism over the history of this country: exclusions from unions, organizations, social clubs, seniority systems (last hired, first fired), income differentials, predatory lending practices, inferior municipal services, admissions based on test scores, differential education based on preconceived potential or ability, monoculture school curricula. In each of these situations, people of color experience disadvantages that flow from one generation to another in reference to income, decision making, health status, knowledge and skill development, and quality of life. The greater loss is to the country as a whole of the talents and perspectives of a significant proportion of the population". (NASW,
It is exactly that mindset, she argues, that creates so many boundaries and limits for minorities. She believes that unconscious bias, or explicit prejudice, leads to a detrimental lack of diversity in the workforce. (Abdel-Magied, 1:37) The unconscious bias that we all have, she says, is harmful to society because there are people who are just as qualified to be in certain positions, but are sometimes held back merely because of race, religion, disability, class, or
When people think of a good judge they typically think of somebody who is fair, not bias and has some sort of experience. However, in today’s society, particularly in the United States, our judicial selection methods are not made to select judges on their ability to reason well and rule impartially (Carter and Burke, 6). On top of that, judges have no actual training before they become part of the judiciary. The only training they receive is in school when they are studying the law. Sometimes when they pursue an apprenticeship with a judge they also get a little bit more experience or insight into a judge’s job.
Coker gives great evidence that supports racial injustice in the criminal justice system. She discusses on the Supreme Court’s rulings and accusations of racial preference in the system. This article is helpful because it supports my thesis on race playing a role on the system of criminal justice. Hurwitz, J., & Peffley, M. (1997). Public perceptions of race and crime: The role of racial stereotypes.
Judicial selection is an intriguing topic as there are multiple ways that judges take their seat on the bench. The United States Constitution spells out how federal judges are selected and leaves it up to the individual states to establish their means for selecting judges. In federal courts, judges are appointed and it varies between appointment and election for state courts. The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences between appointments and elections (as well as the multiple types of elections) and to give an opinion as to which is the better alternative. Federal judges are appointed by the President of the United States and are confirmed on the advice and consent of the United States Senate.