The Judiciary Speaks

Editors’ Note: Various state supreme courts have issued statements in the wake of George Floyd’s death.  Members of the Washington State Supreme Court’s letter is particularly introspective.

Dear Members of the Judiciary and the Legal Community:

We are compelled by recent events to join other state supreme courts around the nation in
addressing our legal community.

The devaluation and degradation of black lives is not a recent event. It is a persistent and
systemic injustice that predates this nation’s founding. But 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. We
continue to see racialized policing and the overrepresentation of black Americans in every stage
of our criminal and juvenile justice systems. Our institutions remain affected by the vestiges of
slavery: Jim Crow laws that were never dismantled and racist court decisions that were never
disavowed.

The legal community must recognize that we all bear responsibility for this on-going injustice,
and that we are capable of taking steps to address it, if only we have the courage and the will.
The injustice still plaguing our country has its roots in the individual and collective actions of
many, and it cannot be addressed without the individual and collective actions of us all.
As judges, we must recognize the role we have played in devaluing black lives. This very court
once held that a cemetery could lawfully deny grieving black parents the right to bury their
infant. We cannot undo this wrong⸺but we can recognize our ability to do better in the future.
We can develop a greater awareness of our own conscious and unconscious biases in order to
make just decisions in individual cases, and we can administer justice and support court rules in
a way that brings greater racial justice to our system as a whole.

As lawyers and members of the bar, we must recognize the harms that are caused when
meritorious claims go unaddressed due to systemic inequities or the lack of financial, personal,
or systemic support. And we must also recognize that this is not how a justice system must
operate. Too often in the legal profession, we feel bound by tradition and the way things have
“always” been. We must remember that even the most venerable precedent must be struck down
when it is incorrect and harmful. The systemic oppression of black Americans is not merely
incorrect and harmful; it is shameful and deadly.

Finally, as individuals, we must recognize that systemic racial injustice against black Americans
is not an omnipresent specter that will inevitably persist. It is the collective product of each of
our individual actions—every action, every day. It is only by carefully reflecting on our actions,
taking individual responsibility for them, and constantly striving for better that we can address
the shameful legacy we inherit. We call on every member of our legal community to reflect on
this moment and ask ourselves how we may work together to eradicate racism.
As we lean in to do this hard and necessary work, may we also remember to support our black
colleagues by lifting their voices. Listening to and acknowledging their experiences will enrich
and inform our shared cause of dismantling systemic racism.
We go by the title of “Justice” and we reaffirm our deepest level of commitment to achieving
justice by ending racism. We urge you to join us in these efforts. This is our moral imperative.