October 23, 2015
I traveled to Cleveland this week to participate in the Case Western Law Review's symposium on the 20th anniversary of the Supreme Court's major traffic stop decision, Whren v. United States. The decision let stand a criminal conviction based on a traffic stop that appears to have been based on race. The participants considered whether the Whren decision has resulted in systematic racial bias in the criminal justice system. My paper, "Race-Based Law Enforcement: The Racially Disparate Impacts of Crimmigration Law," considers how the current practice of deporting noncitizens with criminal problem, including simple arrests as well as convictions, results in the overwhelming percentage of the immigrants removed from the United States (96%) are Latino even though they comprise a much smaller part of the immigrant -- legal and undocumented -- population. Removal disparities are a collateral consequence of the racial profiling in law enforcement permitted by the Supreme Court in Whren.
It was an energizing conference and I loved the opportunity to participate.
