Insult to Injury: The Standing Obstacles That Often Awaits African Americans When Trying To Prove an Injury-in-Fact

Abstract

The courthouse serves as a place of fairness and justice in America. A place where all citizens across the nation have access to have their claims heard. However, for African Americans, access to the courts is not always easy and is often denied. Court access is denied when an individual brings an injury to the courts, and the courts deny this injury because of standing. African Americans develop a distrust of the judicial system when they lack access. This also violated the Reconstruction amendments that were established to afford African Americans different protections. Also, it overlaps with other issues that African Americans face like higher crime and mass incarceration because not having access to courts leads to African Americans seeking their justice. This Casenote sheds light on a crucial contributor that is aiding in the struggles that African Americans face while seeking relief from the Courts. The author examined five cases from the U.S. Supreme Court and one from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. The author focused primarily on the courts' granting of standing for individuals seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. The author examined the courts’ interaction between White Americans and African Americans who sought relief for the same injuries. What the author discovered is that African Americans were denied relief compared to White Americans. African Americans also were faced with additional burdens from the courts compared to White Americans. As a result, of the cases, the author has concluded that the different outcomes stem from a bias towards African Americans by the courts. This conclusion is supported by the Supreme Court’s dissents in cases like the City of Los Angeles v. Lyons and Allen v. Wright. It is the author's theory that this court bias from the Court is why African Americans are denied access to the Courts, distrust the judicial system, search for justice elsewhere, and struggle with many other issues. The author concludes that to address this issue, the courts must take a more diverse approach with whom they hire as judges and adopt a view of the world that mirrors the twenty-first century.