Description: By re-writing US Supreme Court opinions that implicate critical dimensions of racial justice, Critical Race Judgments demonstrates that it's possible to be judge and a critical race theorist. Specific issues covered in these cases include the death penalty, employment, voting, policing, education, the environment, justice, housing, immigration, sexual orientation, segregation, and mass incarceration. While some rewritten cases - Plessy v. Ferguson (which constitutionalized Jim Crow) and Korematsu v. United States (which constitutionalized internment) - originally focused on race, many of the rewritten opinions - Lawrence v. Texas (which constitutionalized sodomy laws) and Roe v. Wade (which constitutionalized a woman's right to choose) - are used to incorporate racial justice principles in novel and important ways. This work is essential for everyone who needs to understand why critical race theory must be deployed in constitutional law to uphold and advance racial justice principles that are foundational to US democracy.
Brief description: Bennett Capers is a Professor of Law at Fordham Law School and Director of the Center on Race, Law, and Justice. He teaches and writes in the area of criminal law, criminal procedure, evidence, and race.
Review Quotes: 'What a brilliant idea to invite critical race theorists to reimagine some of the most important and impactful legal cases in our history. The provocative collection shows what might have been if justices and judges employed an equitable lens to cases. It also shows what can still be: a fairer, egalitarian world.' Ibram X. Kendi, author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist