Publication Date
Fall 10-6-2024
Abstract
In the 1991 case Hernandez v. New York, the United States Supreme Court characterized bilingualism as a race-neutral trait that can be used to exclude individuals from jury service. This Note proceeds by demonstrating how the current state of the law undermines the interests of bilingual individuals and then proposes a solution. Focusing specifically on Hispanic bilingual Spanish speakers, this Note first employs Professor Jennifer Lackey’s multi-directional credibility model to show that bilingual Spanish speakers suffer injustice in the courtroom due to both credibility deficits and excesses. Following this analysis, it proposes a possible solution to this issue: an adaptation of procedures currently employed in New Mexico state courts to accommodate monolingual Spanish speakers.
Recommended Citation
Simone Stover,
A Feedback Loop of Exclusion: The Treatment of Bilingualism in the Courtroom,
119
Nw. U. L. Rev.
491
(2024).
https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/nulr/vol119/iss2/5
Included in
Civil Procedure Commons, Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Courts Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, Epistemology Commons, Evidence Commons, First and Second Language Acquisition Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Language Interpretation and Translation Commons, Latina/o Studies Commons, Law and Psychology Commons, Law and Race Commons, Law and Society Commons, Legal Profession Commons, Litigation Commons, Public Law and Legal Theory Commons, Social Justice Commons, State and Local Government Law Commons