Bias CLE 599 to 1
Friday, March 26, 2004
POINT BY POINT RESPONSE TO ROTHENBERG CASE (part 7)
The Court says:
(footnote 10) To support his assertion at the hearing before the Board, Rothenberg cited to an article by Richard Posner entitled An Army of the Willing, The New Republic, May 19, 2003, at 27; and an article by Jonathan Kay entitled Crime by the Numbers, Commentary, April 2003, at 73. Neither of these articles discusses the Race Bias Task Force Report nor provides any basis for the assertion that the elimination of bias requirement is ideologically-based, much less unconstitutional. In his brief to this court, Rothenberg cites to a newspaper article that discusses generally the Race Bias Task Force Report. Dave Peterson and Paul Gustafson, Accuracy or Advocacy? Bias Report Challenged, Minneapolis Star Trib., June 27, 1993, at 1B.
My amicus brief says:
There are further indications of an intent to promote a specific ideology in the task force reports that formed the basis of the rule. For example, the Hennepin County Glass Ceiling Task Force Report (“Glass Ceiling Report”) was cited by the MSBA in its petition to require Bias CLE. Petition of Minnesota State Bar Association at 2, In Re Amendment of Rules for Continuing Legal Education of Members of the Bar (1994) (C2-84-2163). The Glass Ceiling Report accuses employers of being in “denial” if they disagree with the premise that there is a “glass ceiling” preventing advancement by women and minorities in legal jobs. HENNEPIN COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION GLASS CEILING TASK FORCE REPORT, April 20, 1993, at 10. The Final Report of the Minnesota Supreme Court Task Force on Racial Bias in the Judicial System ("Racial Bias Report"), one of two reports cited by the Bias CLE Rule, contains ideological elements. The Racial Bias Report states that one impediment to justice stems from “well intentioned, if naïve, efforts to demonstrate that the system is.‘color blind.’” RACIAL BIAS REPORT at S-2. Appellant also notes that the Report takes a controversial position on interracial adoption and foster care placements. Brief of Appellant at 5. Subsequent federal legislation on this topic calls into question whether certain sections of the Report are consistent with current law. See Multiethnic Placement Act, Pub. L. No. 101-382, Section 551 (1994).
The 1989 Final Report of the Minnesota Supreme Court Task Force for Gender Fairness in the Courts ("Gender Fairness Report") is the other report cited by the Bias CLE Rule and is also subject to claims of being ideological. Attorneys and lay witnesses who testified at the task force hearings have complained that the Gender Fairness Report did not reflect their testimony that the Minnesota legal system is not prejudiced against women. See Letters, Gender Bias May Lie Within the Task Force, NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL, March 4, 1991 at 14.
