Dean Johnson Comments for Media on Justice Scalia
Dean Kevin R. Johnson commented on the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia for media including Fox40 News and the Sacramento Bee.
Justice Scalia's absence from the Court throws an element of uncertainty into a wide range of issues, Dean Johnson said. "If there are not nine justices, it's going to be hard to break ties and establish the law of the land in some of the most controversial issues," he stated in an interview with Fox40.
One example would be Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a case challenging the right of unions to collect mandatory dues. Many expected the case to be resolved in a 5-4 ruling against the unions, with Justice Scalia siding with the majority, and without him the union's case has new life, Dean Johnson said.
In an op-ed published in the Sacramento Bee, Dean Johnson wrote that one of Justice Scalia's most consequential opinions was Whren v. United States, which upheld the use of racial profiling by law enforcement.
"The Whren decision effectively authorizes traffic stops by police based on race," Dean Johnson writes. "As a result, racial profiling is integral to a criminal justice system that critics contend is, at bottom, racially biased. In the end, one of Justice Scalia's legacies is the existing problem of racial injustice in law enforcement."
Kevin R. Johnson is Dean and Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o studies at UC Davis School of Law. He is an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of immigration law and policy, refugee law, and civil rights.