New York State Fights Racism in State Courts

NEW YORK’S HIGHEST COURT OFFICIALS ISSUED AN UPDATE ON THEIR EFFORTS TO ADDRESS THE INSTITUTIONAL RACISM FOUND BY AN INDEPENDENT COMMISSION LAST YEAR. EAGLE FILE PHOTO BY DAVID BRAND

New York’s courts continue efforts to combat racism

By Rachel Vick, Queenseagle.com, May 17, 2021

Just six months after the release of a report outlining racism in the state’s court system, leaders shared an update on the steps they are taking to eliminate system-wide bias.

The dozen recommendations made by the Special Adviser on Equal Justice in the Courts, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, were issued in October 2020 to mitigate pervasive racism within the courts by declaring a zero-tolerance policy and implementing bias training. 

“There is no greater priority for the court system than the implementation of the Special Adviser's recommendations,” Chief Administrative Judge Marks said on Monday. “I am gratified by the significant progress made these past few months and look forward to further developments in our pursuit to combat racial and other bias systemwide.” 

Marks described the task force’s ongoing efforts as a “critically-important undertaking” and “a wide-ranging endeavor that relies on the collaboration and support” from all parties involved. 

To date, the courts have taken steps including improving high ranking court official’s outreach, mandatory training for all judges and nonjudicial staff on racial bias and implicit bias, mandatory name tags for court personnel, updating the court system’s juror orientation video to address juror bias, increasing visibility of the Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission and Office of Diversity and Inclusion, increasing language access and the inclusion of diversity in a new Unified Court System mission statement.

“In the service of our mission, the UCS is committed to operating with integrity and transparency, and to ensuring that all who enter or serve in our courts are treated with respect, dignity, and professionalism,” the new statement reads.  “We affirm our responsibility to promote a court system free from any and all forms of bias and discrimination, and to promote a judiciary and workforce that reflect the rich diversity of New York State.” 

They are also working to increase awareness of the Inspector General’s office, including its Bias Matters Unit, where court system employees and court users can file complaints, and increase access through an intermediary. 

Judge Edwina Mendelson, who is overseeing the overhaul, is launching a website to highlight the vision and ongoing work of the Equal Justice in the Court's Initiative in the coming weeks. She is also in the process of organizing court officer community outreach programs and a community affairs appointee in each courthouse to improve public trust.

“It is a professional and personal privilege for me to oversee implementation of the Special Adviser’s recommendations for eliminating racial bias in the courts and promoting meaningful diversity, equity, and inclusion at all levels,” Mendelssohn said. “I have deep faith in the strength of our commitment and a strong belief in our collective will to meet this moment – and to fulfill our obligation to provide equal justice in all our courts.”

Judge Milton Shadur Gives The Chicago Teachers Union and Three Teachers Certification as a Class Action Against Racism by The Chicago Board of Education

Judge Milton Shadur

#BlackTeachersMatter. The suit against CPS and the larger national context.

MAY 25, 2015

LINK

Yesterday I posted on U.S. Judge Milton Shadur’s ruling that African American teachers who were laid off by the Chicago Public School constituted a class.

In other words, African American teachers were targeted.

The law suit will now proceed to trial and possible damages.

Today’s NY Times reports that public sector jobs have vanished.

And who have been the victims?

Because blacks hold a disproportionate share of the jobs, relative to their share of the population, the cutbacks naturally hit them harder.

But black workers overall, women in particular, also lost their jobs at a higher rate than whites, Ms. Laird found. There was a “double disadvantage for black public sector workers,” she said. “They are concentrated in a shrinking sector of the economy, and they are substantially more likely than other public sector workers to be without work.”

#BlackTeachersMatter. U.S. Judge Milton Shadur calls CPS response to teachers discrimination lawsuit, “totally irresponsible.”

In 2011 the Chicago school board carried out large-scale layoffs of teachers and paraprofessionals.

African American board employees bore the brunt of the layoffs just as the board’s closing of neighborhood public schools two years ago mainly impacted African American communities.

As a result of the layoffs in 2011 the Chicago Teachers Union and three impacted teachers filed suit.

CTU President Karen Lewis speaking at Daley Plaza during the protest of
Chicago school closings, 2013

As I understand it, a law suit like this has three components.  First, the plaintiffs must show that they represent a class of people by a preponderance of the evidence. They were not just individual victims. It was not a coincidence that they were mostly African American. The judge is asked to certify that it is a class action before the case can move on to trial and a ruling of damages.

On Friday, Senior U.S. Judge Milton Shadur ruled in favor of the CTU and the three teachers.

However Judge Shadur didn’t just rule in the plaintiff’s favor.

The Judge was scathing in his rebuke of the CPS board.

“What does Board say on the critical issue of disparate impact in this critical case? Here are Amended Complaint 7 and 8 and Board’s “responses”:

7. In June, 2011, the Board terminated the employment of 931 classroom teachers through a round of layoffs. 480 of these teachers were tenured. African Americans made up 42% of the tenure teachers terminated, although constituting less than 29% of all CPS tenured teachers.

ANSWER: The Board denies the allegations of paragraph 7.

8. Defendant’s pattern and practice of targeting schools with high African American teaching populations for layoffs has a disparate impact on African American tenured teachers and staff.

ANSWER: The Board denies the allegations of paragraph 8 and further states that the Board does not “target” schools, or any demographic of teachers or staff, for layoffs under any circumstance.

And that’s it — the sum total of Board’s purported input on the subject of disparate impact, which is of course the essential linchpin for class certification purposes. Board has said not a word, then or since then, about the claimed basis for its unsupported ipse dixit “denial.”

In candor, that is totally irresponsible. This action has been pending for just short of 2-1/2 years: Plaintiffs filed their initial Complaint on December 26, 2012, and Board has known from day one about plaintiffs’ disparate impact contention and about the asserted numbers upon which those contentions rely.”

Judge Shadur’s ruling and order then proceeded through each requirement for certification as a class and sided with the teachers on each one.

He concluded:

Board’s only challenge to certification under Rule 23(b)(3) is its broken-record-type reassertion that individual principals fired plaintiffs, so that common questions do not predominate on that skewed premise. And that means Board has simply failed to raise any substantial challenge at all to plaintiffs’ arguments.

The case now will proceed to trial and damages.

2015.5.22 Memo Order Granting Class Cert