Critical Race Judgments

By rewriting U.S. Supreme Court opinions that implicate critical dimensions of racial justice, Critical Race Judgments demonstrates that it is possible to be both a judge and a critical race theorist. The cases examined address a wide range of issues, including the death penalty, employment, voting, policing, education, environmental justice, housing, immigration, sexual orientation, segregation, and mass incarceration.

While some rewritten cases—such as Plessy v. Ferguson, which constitutionalized Jim Crow, and Korematsu v. United States, which upheld the internment of Japanese Americans—originally centered on race, other rewritten opinions, including Lawrence v. Texas, which addressed sodomy laws, and Roe v. Wade, which recognized a woman’s right to choose, demonstrate how racial justice principles can be incorporated into constitutional analysis in new and significant ways.

This essential work offers readers a deeper understanding of why critical race theory remains an important framework in constitutional law for examining and advancing racial justice principles that are foundational to American democracy.