Amid a swath of recent attacks on equitable education—from the curriculum in high school classrooms, to limiting new hires at schools and disciplines at colleges and universities, to the canceling of diversity equity, and inclusion efforts—the Supreme Court’s decisions in the affirmative action cases present the most profound attack yet.
As lawyers, we are strictly bound by a professional conduct that renders us representatives of not only our clients, but also the legal system. Yet as Chief Justice Fred Vinson said in Sweatt v. Painter, the law is simultaneously highly learned and intensely practical, “and no one who has practiced law would choose to study in an academic vacuum, removed from the interplay of ideas and the exchange of views with which the law is concerned.”
Therefore, as lawyers, we are also wholly invested in the progression of the practice as reflected in the progression of our democracy.
For an industry that is tasked with representing the public, lawyers unfortunately remain largely unrepresentative of the public itself: Black people comprise 13.4% of the US population, but only 4.5% of lawyers. What’s even more sobering, the percentage of Black attorneys has fallen in the last decade, from 4.7% in 2012...
Councillor who spread false rumours apologises and says it is “important we do not point finger of blame at the wrong person” The former deputy crime commissioner of Hampshire has hit out after bei...