"In his own accepting remarks, the judge stated: “People must be confident that a judge’s decisions are determined by the law and only the law.”
Academic studies show us that the idea of an impartial justice system is less simple. This study goes one step further: it does not just highlight the subjectivity of judges’ decisions, it also points to the seeming existence of racism within the justice system.
According to the study, which was authored by Harvard political science professor Maya Sen, “implicit bias” appears to be at least partly responsible for the difference in overturning rates. The possibility that black judges are more likely to be liberal, or perceived as more liberal, is also positively entertained as part of the disparity explanation...
Paul Butler, a law professor at Georgetown University, says the study’s findings come as no surprise: he has witnessed these kinds of biases in federal courts firsthand.
In the 1980s, Butler clerked for Mary Johnson Lowe, a black federal district judge in the southern district of New York, he explains. He distinctly recalls her cases, as well as those of other black colleagues, seeming to be picked significantly more often by the appellate court for review...
“These are African Americans who are doing everything right. These are people who have overcome a lot of adversity,” Butler says poignantly of black federal district judges.
Butler ponders it is a reflection of a democracy in a post-Obama era that is still being confronted with tangible manifestations of active and institutional racism."
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