Batson v. Kentucky: Curing the Disease but Killing the Patient

The Power of the Court: Racial Discrimination as Evidenced through Supreme Court Decisions After 1954

“…Justice Marshall's concurring opinion raises the question of allowing prosecutors freedom to discriminate against blacks, so long as they held discrimination to an "acceptable level" (Batson v Kentucky 1986). Justice Marshall's concern is not without merit, it is only in a "particularly flagrant case where a defendant [will] be able to establish a prima facie case to require judicial inquiry into the prosecutor's motives" (Pizzi 1987). Each of the Justices that writes a concurring or dissenting opinion addresses the utilization of the Equal Protection Clause rather than the Sixth Amendment when deciding the Batson case; there was much to process in the means of future application and understanding of this monumental decision.…”