Bias CLE 599 to 1
Friday, March 26, 2004
POINT BY POINT RESPONSE IN ROTHENBERG CASE (Part 3)
The Court says:
(page 7) At oral argument, Rothenberg conceded that “there is prejudice and bias in society” and among lawyers as well.
My notes from oral argument (available on powerlineblog.com):
• Justice Paul Anderson began the first question to Attorney Rothenberg with, "Based on your experience with prejudice and bias in society..." and went on to ask whether bias also exists in the legal profession. Rothenberg countered that certainly individual attorneys exhibit bias, but it is not systemic.
Minnesota Lawyer Article (1/12/2004):
“Bigotry is evil,” Rothenberg told the justices. “I can say with all sincerity that I don’t think you’ll find anyone more opposed to bigotry, discrimination and bias than the appellant in this case.” Following up on those comments and responding to questioning by Justice Paul Anderson, Rothenberg acknowledged that bias exists in society and in the legal and judicial system, although he questioned how systemic the problem really is in the legal system. “Shouldn’t we as a society work to eliminate those attitudes within the judiciary and work to avoid that type of bias in the system?” Anderson asked. Rothenberg agreed that discriminatory conduct by judges and attorneys is reprehensible, but argued that there are other ways of dealing with the problem.
My amicus brief says:
Those who support the theory of legal system bias with anecdotes use “straw man” argumentation to suggest that their ideological opponents are calling every alleged victim of discrimination a liar. This argumentation distorts the position that bias is not systemic to an easily refutable statement that bias never occurs in the legal system. This is a distortion of the mainstream and possible majority opinion that the legal system is fair as a whole.
