Justice can see just fine

 

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I am not licensed to give legal advice. This is a commentary on basic theories put forth in legal education. Absolutely nothing in this post or this blog should be construed as legal advice.

Alrighty then, let’s get to it. As a black person, law school completely shatters any remaining notions you may have had that justice is blind and impartial. Bullshiggity. As my AP US History teacher told us, “The Constitution was written by and for rich white male property owners.” Despite amendments to the contrary, it remains that way in fact. The problem is not so much with the machinations of the legal system as with access. Except for cases of criminal defendants, lawyers ain’t free. You gotta pay to play in the court system.

Sometimes (okay, make that a lot of times), what’s legal isn’t always right or fair. For instance, unless you work for the government your boss can do just about anything short of harassment. Unpaid overtime? Consistently changing your hours at the last minute? Making you reschedule your vacation even though you put in for it six months ago and have someone to cover your work? All legal, and doubly so if you’re in an “at will” employment state (meaning you don’t sign a contract to work for them). So what if that baby isn’t yours…if you were married when she was born, you gotta take care of her (assumed paternity). If you promised your baby mama that you’d pay child support as long as she didn’t take you to court and later found out you weren’t the father…sorry, you’re a daddy now! Pay up.*

The latest legal issue to irk me is the Wal-Mart wage discrimination case. The Supreme Court denied class action certification** because the class, which was thousands of female employees, was unmanageably large. Having just finished my second semester of Civil Procedure, my legal mind gets it. We owe fairness to the defendant as well as the plaintiffs, and trying to decide how to provide relief in the form of money damages would be problematic. Trying to prove that Walmart had an overarching policy of discrimination that trickled down into the management of hundreds of thousands of stores, is problematic. However, Walmart is a multibillion dollar international corporation. In order to ensure efficiency and uniformity of management, common sense says that if you can find more than one store in more than one state that discriminates against women, they’re all doing it. At any case, that’t the crux of the issue to be tried! Courts are supposed to be efficient, but we live in a world of Big Business and the courts have a responsibility to adjudicate the big messes they create. And they shouldn’t get to brush off a case simply because it would be hard to prosecute.

 

*How in the world you can sleep with two men before getting pregnant and believe one to definitely be the father “in good faith” is patently ridiculous to me.

 

A break in the clouds

Today, registration for spring classes began. And you know what made me happy? As of December 16, 2012 I will be halfway done with my law degree!

You might remember me posting about hating law school. Well, that’s still pretty much true. The good news is, now that I’ve embraced the fact that I don’t really want to be a practicing lawyer and I don’t have to be, it’s not such a crushing issue.

I’m still not sure what I want to do after graduation, but I know the right opportunity will come to me. I’m still flirting with the idea of education. However, I think that I would be happiest working at a nonprofit organization. I would love to start my own, but I don’t know if I”ll have enough experience and resources to do that right after law school. We’ll see though. Alternatively, it would be cool to do a stint with Teach for America. I’m interested in teaching, but I would hate to formally get my certification and figure out once again, that something’s not right for me. I got through three years of law school; two years of getting paid to teach (even if it is low income students that nobody else wants) is no biggie. Finally, there’s the option of practicing law. I have no interest in commercial or criminal work. But family law and mediation is something that intrigues me; I’m signed up for Domestic Relations in the spring and am looking forward to taking dispute resolution, negotiations, and divorce mediation in my 3L year.

Family is something very important to me, and as the children of divorced parents I just wish more people took into consideration the practical matters before they decide to terminate their marriage. It’s unrealistic for both parents to expect to see their children on every major holiday after a divorce, especially if extended family lives out of town or out of state. Alimony doesn’t last forever, and if you were struggling to make ends meet together the court can’t magically get you several thousand dollars in child support a month now that you’re divorced. It just doesn’t work that way. Unscrupulous attorneys sometimes plant the idea for mothers to lie about domestic violence in order to get custody; jilted husbands attempt to use their ex-wife’s attempts to find a new love as evidence that she’s an unfit mother. This kind of scheming does nothing but waste the court’s time, and hurt the children. Divorce is an ugly situation, but I believe that an attorney who encourages civility with her client can go a long way in keeping families as whole as possible.

The bottom line is that I want to do something people-focused–the law can be so far removed from the experiences of real people.

 

And they wonder why I wasn’t interested in Harvard…

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2010/04/29/stephanie-grace-racist-harvard-emailer/#

If you don’t want to read the above article, here’s the highlights. I’ve lifted a good 2/3 of the email in its entirety, so don’t think that I’m taking things out of context:

“The fact is, some things are genetic. African Americans tend to have darker skin. Irish people are more likely to have red hair. (Now on to the more controversial:) Women tend to perform less well in math due at least in part to prenatal levels of testosterone, which also account for variations in mathematics performance within genders. This suggests to me that some part of intelligence is genetic, just like identical twins raised apart tend to have very similar IQs and just like I think my babies will be geniuses and beautiful individuals whether I raise them or give them to an orphanage in Nigeria. I don’t think it is that controversial of an opinion to say I think it is at least possible that African Americans are less intelligent on a genetic level, and I didn’t mean to shy away from that opinion at dinner.

I also don’t think that there are no cultural differences or that cultural differences are not likely the most important sources of disparate test scores (statistically, the measurable ones like income do account for some raw differences). I would just like some scientific data to disprove the genetic position, and it is often hard given difficult to quantify cultural aspects. One example (courtesy of Randall Kennedy) is that some people, based on crime statistics, might think African Americans are genetically more likely to be violent, since income and other statistics cannot close the racial gap. In the slavery era, however, the stereotype was of a docile, childlike, African American, and they were, in fact, responsible for very little violence (which was why the handful of rebellions seriously shook white people up). Obviously group wide rates of violence could not fluctuate so dramatically in ten generations if the cause was genetic, and so although there are no quantifiable data currently available to “explain” away the racial discrepancy in violent crimes, it must be some nongenetic cultural shift. Of course, there are pro-genetic counterarguments, but if we assume we can control for all variables in the given time periods, the form of the argument is compelling.” – Stephanie Grace

I really don’t have the strength, nor the inclination, to refute her claims, especially since Jill of Feministe has done that thoroughly and eloquently at the above link. It just saddens me that there are still people today who believe this bullshit! The one thing I’ve hated my entire life is having my intelligence questioned. I know for a fact that I’m more mentally capable than our last President, but because of the color of my skin some people think that I’m not a force to be reckoned with.

This is exactly why I want to be a lawyer, so that I can help change our flawed system of justice from the inside. I’m not interested in the fat paychecks from corporate litigation work. In order for my soul to be at peace I need to be down in the trenches, doing labor law or health care law or some other public interest branch, working for the good of the masses. As the saying goes, “Let your haters be your motivators.” All the Stephanie Graces of the world need to watch out…because they’re not ready for me.

 

The Fair Tax

There’s a bill out that proposes to eliminate the IRS and impose a 23% sales tax on everything except used goods. Yep, the Fair Tax people are back! I took a look around on their website, and the proposal is actually sound. Poor and low income people would receive a “prebate” that insulates them from paying the entire tax. I’ve embedded the Fair Tax calculator widget below so you can check it out for yourself.

Do you buy it?

 

Lessons from the Spousal Support Hustle, Pt. 2

Yesterday I spoke on the unfairness of men shelling out exorbitant amounts for child support and alimony. I know some people may disagree with me and say I’m being too harsh. Maybe Kelis is going to spend that extra $30,000 a month on educational toys and videos for the baby, a top of the line crib and car seat, etc. (HA!)

My question today is, where is the equity? The women’s movement has established that women want to be considered equal to men in all aspects. We insist on splitting the dinner bill, opening our own doors, So it’s only a matter of time until the application of the law catches up. Now that many women are making just as much, or more money than their husbands, what happens when a man files for alimony? I’m sure that any woman asked to fork over a monthly check to her ex-husband would raise hell. If alimony was enforced equally across the board, women would protesting and petitioning in a hot minute! But the fairer sex can’t keep demanding egalitarianism and special treatment for too much longer….

Drop me a comment! I’d love to hear some opinions on this.

 

Lessons from the Spousal Support Hustle

Word got out early last week that rapper Nas will be paying about $40,000 a month to his wife Kelis. $9,000 of that is in child support, while the other $30k is alimony to maintain Kelis’s lifestyle, because according to her lawyer, “her income has dipped in recent months.” Read a summary from AverageBro here.

I have to say that sounds a little suspect. Sure, he should pay for her (and by extension, his son) to have a place to live. But $30,000 a month? For what? Groceries aren’t that expensive! And seeing as Kelis is capable of earning money (she’s put out 5 albums, where did that money go?), Nas shouldn’t be responsible for keeping her draped in expensive clothing. I realize that alimony laws are set up to protect the survival of a lower-earning spouse, but where are the limits? Since when did women become entitled to a lifetime of luxury cars, diamonds and name brand clothing simply because they married and had a child by a rich man?

I think you should have to deal with the choices you make in life. If you drop out of high school, spend your time chasing down athletes and choose to divorce the one who foolishly knocks you up, because he’s still sleeping with groupies, that’s your fault! I don’t condone cheating, but I don’t condone stupidity either. If he was hoeing around when you met him, don’t expect him to stop just because he did his duty by you and put a ring on your finger. Famous, rich and powerful men have the option to “possess” many women, and they very seldom relinquish that option. So many of these celebrity marriages come from extramarital affairs and the non-marriage equivalent, and ladies, how you get him is how you lose him. If he cheated on and dumped another woman to get with you, don’t get too comfortable!

Final piece of advice to the ladies–stop the madness. Don’t marry a man for his money, and stop thinking a pretty face and a tight body mean you have the right to collect a fat check for getting knocked up.

 

Affirmative Action

Remember the lawsuit filed by white firefighters in Connecticut? Well, this week the Supreme Court issued a ruling in the case of Ricci vs. DeStefano. If you want more detailed background here’s one viewpoint by attorney Sherrilyn Ifill, as well as The Washington Post article. The essential facts of the case are these:

The New Haven fire department issued a test in order to determine who was eligible for a promotion. When the results were in, only white men and two Hispanics (no blacks) were eligible for promotions. The fire department voided the test for fear that they would not be in compliance with discrimination laws if they moved forward with promotions based on that test.
Furthermore, the test seemed to be invalid in other respects- it had not undergone a review to determine whether or not the test material would be a good litmus test of knowledge required for senior positions, and there was no official cut off score to determine the pass rate. However, the firefighters who would have been promoted then sued the fire department for what they deemed reverse racism.

The Supreme Court narrowly ruled 5-4, in favor of the white firefighters. The Post declares that “the court was deciding when avoiding potential discrimination against one group amounted to actual discrimination against another.” But it’s never that simple. I’m proud of the fire department for throwing out that test when the results seem questionable, because many others in that same situation would have gone ahead without a second thought. I’m sure that had the lawsuit not taken place, they would have come up with a better test and proceeded with promotions from there.

Critics of affirmative action ask, where does evening the playing field end, and entitlement begin? The Post offers this pithy little anecdote, which I’m sure is aimed at perpetuating the myth of the Burdened White Man. “The lead plaintiff, Frank Ricci, is a veteran firefighter who said in sworn statements that he spent thousands of dollars in preparation and studied for months for the exam. Ricci said he is dyslexic, so he had tapes made of the test materials and listened to them on his commute to work.”

Well, good for him! That still doesn’t convince me that something wasn’t fishy with the test. Ricci, although he may be dyslexic, is still a white man and has the advantage of living in a country (really, a world) in which the infrastructure is meant to favor him at every level. There’s no way that a black man can possibly compete with that. I have no idea how many firefighters took the test, and blacks are almost certainly in the minority. Assuming that the scores follow a bell curve distribution, it is still highly unlikely that not one (not ONE!) black man would qualify for promotion. I have to say that I am truly disappointed with the court’s decision, and I really hope that New Haven does a second round of promotions with a valid test.

I get so tired of people saying that we’ve moved past the need for affirmative action. We most certainly haven’t! Slavery lasted for 200 years. It took another 200 to get from freedom on paper to freedom in practice, and after a mere 50 years of the latter everything is supposed to be okay? I think not. And if you’re not black or brown, it takes an incredible amount of compassion, empathy and open-mindedness to understand our plight. As a high achieving black student, I’ve always struggled with feelings of tokenism. Still, I have to remind myself that if I were not qualified, affirmative action wouldn’t do me any good. Even at that, I feel like I work much harder than any white person would to maintain my success. I know full well that I overcompensate so that nobody can ever look at me and say “Oh, they just picked her because she’s black. She’s not adding anything but color.”

I don’t really have a good conclusion for this post. As far as black people have come in this country, we still have so far to go. A prominent politician referred to the First Lady as a monkey a couple of weeks ago. His excuse? It was a joke referencing her belief in Darwinian evolution. *pause* Riiiiiight. Now he very well may have been sincere, but surely he had to realize that it would be in poor context given the historical and social context of the word. Then again, as a white male he can remain blissfully ignorant of such things.

The only thing I have left to say is, think about it. Think before you speak on a racial matter. Try to put yourself in the other person’s shoes for a minute, because only by trying to understand each other can we move forward. I understand that black people feel like we already have to be experts on white culture to get ahead, why do we have to do more work? And white people can reasonably argue that they shouldn’t have to continue paying for the mistakes of people who have long been dead. I understand that. But this is the world we live in, and unless we all try to make it better nothing is going to change.

 

Felon’s Rights

Two news items in particular happened to catch my eye this week: Chris Brown is now a convicted felon; and the Supreme Court passed down a decision stating that convicted prisoners do not have the right to DNA testing of evidence that may exonerate them. This troubled me.

Let’s start with Mr. Brown. I pity him, in a way. I know I may catch flak for this, but I don’t think Rihanna was completely blameless in this situation. Abuse is categorically wrong, but so is murder- unless it’s self-defense. And I personally think that Chris may have been provoked. Most abusers manifest other warning signs like being overly controlling, possessive, or jealous, and verbally/emotionally abuse the victim before things escalate to a physical level. From what I’ve read about the situation, none of that occurred. And Chris Brown is a major public figure- surely if he had shown abusive tendencies before, SOMEONE would have come out of the woodwork by now claiming to have been another victim. But that didn’t happen either. He took a plea deal, most likely to avoid jail time, but now he is a convicted felon! This will stay on his permanent record and he will not be able to vote. If Chris Brown was just an average Joe, his life and career prospects would be totally ruined right now.

Moving on to the Supreme Court decision. That’s just messed up! On the case in question, they said that the man should have asked for DNA testing during the trial, not during the appeal. But depending on how good (read: thorough and involved) an attorney he could afford, he may not have known that was an option. Admittedly this would be a glaring oversight on his lawyer’s part, but people slip through the cracks every day.

There was a time when I didn’t bat an eye about prisoner’s rights. They’re horrible people and should be treated as such, right? But I think they should be able to vote. Prisoners make up a significant portion of the population. Think about the Florida voting fiasco in 2000, when hundreds of people were turned away because they were incorrectly listed as being felons. Think about the fact that black men are incarcerated at a rate highly disproportionate to their population size in this country. I think something needs to change. I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but had those people been able to vote Bush very well may not have gotten in office! And when a black man and a white man commit an identical crime, common knowledge says that the black man will almost always get the harshest sentence permissible.

This is a blog, not a research project, so I’m sure there are many facts and figures you could throw out to disprove all of the points I’ve made here today. If you have a thoughtful rebuttal I’d love to read it, but I’m stepping off of my soapbox for today.

**************6/29/09 Edit****************
Rihanna wants the restraining order on Chris Brown lifted so that they can “work on their friendship”. Really now? That doesn’t make sense. He beat you up, you sued him for it and you still want to be friends? I hope they don’t lift the order, seeing as it’s for her protection.

In further news, apparently some prisoners aren’t getting adequately fed. In my own home state of Georgia, prisoners only get two meals a day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The prison officials claim that the men are getting the same amount of calories as they would on a day with three meals. I still feel that’s stretching the limits of humane punishment. And in Alabama, the warden gets to keep any money that he doesn’t spend on food. Corrupt much?