Implicit Bias, Structural Bias, and Implications for Law and Policy
Goodwin Liu* | 25.6 | Citation: Goodwin Liu, Implicit Bias, Structural Bias, and Implications for Law and Policy, 25 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 1280 (2023).
It is my honor to give the Owen J. Roberts lecture in constitutional law, named for a former dean of this law school and for a Supreme Court Justice perhaps most famous for casting the deciding vote in the 1937 case West Coast Hotel v. Parrish, which upheld a state minimum wage law and averted passage of a judicial reform bill to increase the size of the Supreme Court—the so-called “switch in time that saved nine.” Justice Roberts is also known for leading the federal commission that investigated the attack on Pearl Harbor and for being one of three dissenters in Korematsu v. United States, which upheld the relocation and incarceration of persons of Japanese descent during World War II, two-thirds of whom were American citizens.
It is also my honor to give the Provost’s Lecture on Diversity. This topic has long been a matter of personal and professional interest for me. Like many people who grew up in an immigrant family, I’ve had my share of experiences navigating racial and ethnic differences. As a judge, I have seen issues of implicit bias and structural bias play out in areas like jury selection, search and seizure, and the criminal justice system writ large.
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* Associate Justice, California Supreme Court.