Washington state high court urged to ‘reflect on this moment,’ address racial justice
Washington state Supreme Court justices called on the legal community Thursday to work together to end racism.
“We continue to see racialized policing and the overrepresentation of black Americans in every stage of our criminal and juvenile justice systems,” the court wrote in an open letter to the state’s judiciary and legal community. “Our institutions remain affected by the vestiges of slavery: Jim Crow laws that were never dismantled and racist court decisions that were never disavowed.”
All nine justices signed the letter: Chief Justice Debra Stephens and justices Susan Owens, Mary Yu, Charles Johnson, Steven González, Raquel Montoya-Lewis, Barbara Madsen, Sheryl Gordon McCloud, and G. Helen Whitener.
The legal community needs to recognize its responsibility for ongoing injustice, and that it can take steps to address it, the court wrote. The letter landed in the wake of protests throughout the state and nation over the death of George Floyd, who lost his life May 25 in Minneapolis as a police officer knelt on his neck.
“As judges, we must recognize the role we have played in devaluing black lives,” the letter said. “This very court once held that a cemetery could lawfully deny grieving black parents the right to bury their infant.”
Judges can increase awareness of their own biases, “and we can administer justice and support court rules in a way that brings greater racial justice to our system as a whole,” the court wrote.
Members of the bar, they said: “must recognize the harms that are caused when meritorious claims go unaddressed due to systemic inequities or the lack of financial, personal, or systemic support.”
As for precedent, the letter said: “Too often in the legal profession, we feel bound by tradition and the way things have ‘always’ been. We must remember that even the most venerable precedent must be struck down when it is incorrect and harmful. The systemic oppression of black Americans is not merely incorrect and harmful; it is shameful and deadly.”
The letter goes on to say that: “It is only by carefully reflecting on our actions, taking individual responsibility for them, and constantly striving for better that we can address the shameful legacy we inherit. We call on every member of our legal community to reflect on this moment and ask ourselves how we may work together to eradicate racism.”
In the process, the court wrote: “may we also remember to support our black colleagues by lifting their voices. Listening to and acknowledging their experiences will enrich and inform our shared cause of dismantling systemic racism.”
