Minorities in Criminal Justice

Running Head : CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Minorities in Criminal Justice

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Minorities in Criminal Justice

1 . Racial minorities make up a very small proportion of the lawyers and judges in the United States . What accounts for this ? What difference , if any , would it make if more of the lawyers representing criminal defendants were racial minorities ? Support your answer

In the Introduction to Federal Voting Rights Law , under the Reconstruction and the Civil War Amendments the 15th Amendment was ratified and stated that

.Which provided specifically that the right

to vote shall not be denied or abridged on the basis of race , color or previous condition of servitude ? This superseded state laws that had directly prohibited black voting . Congress then enacted the Enforcement Act of 1870 , which contained criminal penalties for interference with the right to vote and the Force Act of 1871 , which provided for federal election oversight

Thus , racial minorities specifically the blacks , begun to have positions in the federal , and local positions that had a meaningfully served their government and almost hundreds and thousands of black men registered to vote after being freed from slavery . However , this amendment was strongly resisted by white men , like the Knights of White Camelia and some terrorists groups that showed their opposition to this thru violence and cruelty . With this , the Supreme Court has made two decisions in 1876 to narrow the scope of enforcement in the Enforcement Act and Force Act , also with the end of the Reconstruction that has removed the federal troops after the signed Hayes-Tilden Compromise of 1877 , and as a result violence was used to depress the outcome of black voters and fraud was used to disengage the effect of lawfully cast votes (US DOJ , Civil Rights Division

This strategy was used by the whites in to gain power in the legislature over the blacks . They reduced black voting power and decreased the number of blacks being elected in state positions . With the good results of these plans in 1890 , they began making amendments and laws to regain white supremacy in the country . With this , many racial minorities ' issues aroused

One issue is the Texas Congressional Redistricting Plan lead by Rep . Tom DeLay (R ) dishonored the Voting Rights Act . According to a previously undisclosed memo obtained by The Washington Post , senior officials overruled them and approved the plan . The memo , unanimously endorsed by six lawyers and two analysts in the department 's voting section , said the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts . It also said the plan eliminated several other districts in which minorities had a substantial , though not necessarily decisive , influence in elections (Dan Eggen , December 2 2005 ,

. 1 . With this , I can say that racial minorities are still discriminated even if there are existing amendments that protects their rights for equality . As stated earlier , the white men in to reestablish their dominance over the blacks made a strategy such as reducing the voting population of...