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Race, Class And Criminal Prosecutions: The Supreme Court’S Role In Targeting Minorities, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In No Equal Justice, I examine the ways in which race and class disparities have an effect at each stage of the criminal justice system. Much of the disparity concerns discriminatory police practices. My argument is that the Supreme Court, and our society, have constructed a set of rules that virtually ensure there will be racially disparate prosecution of the criminal law by the police. The way the Court has done that, I suggest, is by creating pockets of discretion that police can use without having to identify any objective, individualized basis for suspicion. When the police are free to …