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Diversity Readings Related to First-Year Courses

Judges, Lawyers, et al. - General

Judith Resnik, Representing What? Gender, Race, Class, and the Struggle for the Identity and the Legitimacy of Courts, in Law & Ethics of Human Rights (forthcoming 2021), [SSRN (draft)] From abstract: "the new faces on the bench ought not obscure that the project of representation, inclusion, and equality is far from complete. The vivid inequalities in courts are problems for courts because such disparities undermine their ability to be places of justice."

Judges

David Abrams et al., Do Judges Vary in Their Treatment of Race? 41 J. Legal Stud. 347 (2012), [SSRN]

Pat K. Chew & Robert E. Kelley, The Realism of Race in Judicial Decision Making: An Empirical Analysis of Plaintiffs' Race and Judges' Race, 28 Harv. J. Racial & Ethnic Just 91 (2012), [HeinOnline] [SSRN]

Stephen J. Choi et al., Judging Women, 8 J. Empirical Legal Stud. 504 (2011), [HeinOnline] [SSRN]

Jerry Kang et al., Implicit Bias in the Courtroom, 59 UCLA L. Rev. 1124 (2012), [HeinOnline] [SSRN

Jeffrey J. Rachlinski & Andrew J. Wistrich, Benevolent Sexism in Judges, 58 San Diego L. Rev. 101 (2021), [journal site].  Empirical study (questionnaires describing hypothetical child custody and sentencing cases) finds bias in favor of women. Blog post discussing article: Kaiponanea Matsumura, Judging in the Shadow of Gender, JOTWELL (April 25, 2022).

 

Clerks & Staff Attorneys

Penelope Pether, Sorcerers, Not Apprentices: How Judicial Clerks and Staff Attorneys Impoverish U.S. Law, 39 Ariz. State L. Rev. 1 (2007), [HeinOnline] ("This  article  explores  how  and  why  the  work  of judicial  clerks  and  staff attorneys treats 'have-nots' unequally, and  suggests  how 'mistakes' and 'sloppiness'  in  clerk  and  staff  attorney  decisionmaking  and  opinion-writing reinforce  these  effects." p. 18) 

Juries

jury box with chairs and monitors

 

Jerry Kang et al., Implicit Bias in the Courtroom, 59 UCLA L. Rev. 1124 (2012) [HeinOnline] [SSRN

 

Kurt M. Saunders, Race and Representation in Jury Service Selection, 36 Duq. L. Rev. 49 (1997) [HeinOnline] [SSRN]

 

Image: jury box (with monitors for viewing evidence), from Eastern District of Washington website

Lawyers

Jerry Kang et al., Are Ideal Litigators White? Measuring the Myth of Colorblindness,  7 J. Empirical Legal Stud. 886 (2010), [HeinOnline] (study examining whether explicit and implicit biases in favor of Whites and against Asian Americans would alter evaluation of a litigator's deposition).