Barred From the Profession, Mischaracterized as Unfit by Law

Authors

Julia Mizutani

Document Type

Essay

Abstract

(Excerpt)

There is growing recognition that the bar examination can have racial and social effects when determining who can be an admitted and barred attorney in the United States. This Essay explores the history and current racialized issues with the other portion of bar admission—the character and fitness process. The simultaneously rigid and fluid definition and subjective enforcement of “good moral character” is only one example of how the law continues to reproduce and maintain racial and class hierarchy by creating barriers to entry. This Essay does not come to any direct conclusions or specific solutions. This Essay is a discussion on whether or how mechanisms such as moral character investigations, background checks, credit score inquiries and other entry requirements to professions reproduce racial hierarchy even when the mechanism may appear neutral. Becoming a lawyer is often a gateway to positions of power in the U.S. political system. Beyond the judiciary, lawyers make up a significant percentage of governors, congressional committees, and legislative staff at both the state and federal level. Critically examining the ways in which barriers to a profession that serves as a pathway to power have been constructed to keep the profession White and upper class is central to understanding how the law has operated in the creation and maintenance of racial and social hierarchy.