Current Issues in Law - Topic: Critical Race Theory, Racism in the House of Law

“Racism is endemic, and its harms are not confined to any place, matter, or issue…” 

Washington State Supreme Court Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis 

“Our institutions remain affected by the vestiges of slavery: Jim Crow laws that were never dismantled and racist court decisions that were never disavowed…As judges, we must recognize the role we have played in devaluing Black lives. Recent events have brought to the forefront of our collective consciousness a painful fact. That is, for too many of our citizens, common knowledge: the injustices faced by Black Americans are not relics of the past.”

1. Washington State Supreme Court 

This class supports the development of a critical lens for viewing racial injustices imbedded in our legal systems, understanding racial ideologies and how they underpin the law, and introduces the role legal practitioners play in effective legal activism, and cause lawyering. This will include a discussion of the law's role in social justice movements and its limitations. 

Final Project:  Create a 5 page issue outline and prepare a 15 min presentation to the class on the topic chosen. Know that class discussion and demonstrated completion of reading assignments as reflected in your participation during discussions, will be equally waited with the final project for your final evaluation.