Paulette Brown, immediate past president of the American Bar Association and former president of the National Bar Association, rooted the proceedings of the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts, which met in St. Louis from May 15-17, in the present political reality of the country.
“What we’re talking about is not theoretical,” she said during a lunch keynote speech on Tuesday, May 16. “We are at a critical time in history.”
She meant the Trump administration and its looming constitutional challenges, as well as Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Session’s calling for federal prosecutors to return to hardline sentencing for drug offenders.
Like many others at the conference, she told the legal professionals in the room to be mindful of their own role in the pursuit of justice. She referenced the historical precedents that created our court system today: both the legal history of the country at large, and the ways it connects with St. Louis, specifically.
She noted that the municipality of Ferguson, now a flashpoint on issues of systemic racism, was incorporated around the same time as the Plessy v. Ferguson court case (Ferguson in that case was Judge John H. Ferguson of the Criminal Court for New Orleans). The City of Ferguson was created around a railroad, and Plessy v. Ferguson – the case which upheld “separate but equal” – dealt with racial segregation on trains.
In Brown’s view, the goal of the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts is to uphold the 14th Amendment – which guaranteed equal protection under the law to all American citizens – as it was written. The 14th Amendment is approaching its 150th anniversary in 2018, and Brown reminded the room that its promise has not yet been fully realized.
Again, she brought up the legal importance of the St. Louis area – the Dred Scott case, which was overturned by the 14th Amendment, was tried in the Old Courthouse downtown.
“We are living in constitutionally challenging times,” she said, “But this is not the first time we have worked through the negative impact of the 14th Amendment.”
Brown knows that these issues still have repercussions today, and she made it clear that she is aware that the courts, in her view, are not doing enough.
“We cannot always be as innovative as we would like,” she said, “And we cannot seem to keep pace with the increasing needs of the underserved.” She said change must be made “so there is at least a perception that our justice system is fair” and shift the idea, held by over one-half of young people, that the justice system is fundamentally biased.
She exhorted the room of judges, lawyers and legal staffers to make sure that the people going into their courtrooms are aware of their own rights, if nothing else. Even if laws regarding the rights of those on trial remain the same, Brown has some hope in the ability of ordinary citizens to change things.
“I know that we can free people from debtors’ prisons,” she said, referring to the recent Mother’s Day Bail Out by St. Louis activists and the movement to abolish the cash bail system.
“I know that in America, someday, a parking ticket will not land you in jail,” she said, and suggested using the courts to create a “pipeline to college, instead of a pipeline to prison.”
Brown’s speech could be summed up by a quotation she referenced from Judge Learned Hand: “If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.”
Sophie Hurwitz is a St. Louis American editorial intern from John Burroughs School.
