US Supreme Court Legitimizes Racial Profiling; Sotomayor Issues Scathing Dissent

FEATURING JODY ARMOUR – The US Supreme Court on Monday issued a majority ruling that could have wide repercussions on civil liberties, particularly for people of color. In a 5-3 decision, the court ruled that police will be able to use evidence that was illegally obtained in court cases. The case in question involved the police surveillance of a Utah man suspected of running narcotics.

Black and brown communities, who are disproportionately profiled by police are particularly vulnerable to unconstitutional searches. Reflecting that reality, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first and only woman of color on the court, issued a scathing dissent that quoted Michelle Alexander, W.E.B. Dubois, James Baldwin, and Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Jody Armour, the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism: The Hidden Costs of Being Black in America. He is also a Soros Justice Senior Fellow of The Open Society Institute’s Center on Crime, Communities and Culture. And he is the Race and Criminal Justice Correspondent for Rising Up With Sonali.