Justice Ginsburg Skeptical of Two-Year Law School Idea | National Law Journal

Marcia Coyle interviews Justice Ruth Ginsburg. - gwc

Justice Ginsburg Skeptical of Two-Year Law School Idea | National Law Journal:

by Marcia Coyle // National Law Journal



"The turmoil in Ferguson, Mo., and the controversial stop-and-frisk policy in New York City illustrate a “real racial problem” in America, one that recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have done little to help, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told The National Law Journal.
The high court was “once a leader in the world” in rooting out racial discrimination,” the justice said in a wide-ranging interview late Wednesday in her chambers.

“What’s amazing is how things have changed.”
Ginsburg recalled the Burger Court’s unanimous landmark ruling in 1971 in which the justices, led by Chief Justice Warren Burger, a Nixon appointee, embraced the powerful legal tool known as the “disparate impact” framework for uncovering discriminatory policies that are neutral on their face but disproportionately harm minorities.
In that ruling (Griggs v. Duke Power), Burger spoke of “built-in head winds” for minorities, she said. There was then a sensitivity that the requirement of a high school diploma for a janitor’s job, for example, would inevitably screen out black applicants.
“It was a very influential decision and it was picked up in England,” Ginsburg recalled. “That’s where the court was heading in the ’70s.”

Some of the Roberts Court’s conservatives, as well as conservative organizations, have challenged the continued use of the disparate-impact theory, which many credit for playing a major role in transforming the workplace for women and minorities.

The court’s more recent rulings restricting affirmative action and voting rights, she added, have not “helped” the country deal with its racial problems. The Voting Rights Act, in particular, has been the most important law “in terms of making people count in a democracy,” Ginsburg said. She repeated her disagreement with the 5-4 majority’s decision last year in Shelby County, Ala. v. Holder that struck down a key section of the law, which had been renewed by overwhelming majorities in both chambers of Congress in 2006."



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