No Equal Justice; Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System

New York: The New Press, 1999. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good/Very good. xi, [1], 18, [2] pages. Endnotes. Index. Some yellow highlighting observed. In his role as national legal director, David Cole directs a program that includes approximately 1,400 state and federal lawsuits on a broad range of civil liberties issues. He manages 100 ACLU staff attorneys in New York headquarters, oversees the organization's U.S. Supreme Court docket, and provides leadership to more than 200 staff attorneys who work in ACLU affiliate offices in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. Another 1,700 volunteer cooperating attorneys throughout the country are engaged in ACLU litigation. With an annual headquarters budget of $140 million and more than 1.5 million members, the ACLU is the nation's largest and oldest civil liberties organization. Cole is on leave from Georgetown University, where he has taught constitutional law and criminal justice since 1990, and is the Hon. George J. Mitchell Professor in Law and Public Policy. Cole writes regularly for The Nation, New York Review of Books, Washington Post, and many other periodicals. He is the author or editor of 10 books, several of which have won awards, including the Palmer Civil Liberties Prize, the American Book Award, and prizes from the American Political Science Association, the Boston Book Review, and the Jesuit Honor Society. The award-winning classic work on race- and class-based double standards in the law, by the leading constitutional scholar. "No Equal Justice offers a challenging, multilayered analysis of how the disconnect between constitutional theory and legal practice has infected today's justice system." -The Washington Post Book World. American Political Science Association Best Book on an Issue of National Policy. Boston Book Review Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year. No Equal Justice is the seminal work on race- and class-based double standards in criminal justice. Hailed as a "shocking and necessary book" by The Economist, it has become the standard reference point for anyone trying to understand the fundamental inequalities in the American legal system. The book, written by constitutional law scholar and civil liberties advocate David Cole, was named the best nonfiction book of 1999 by the Boston Book Review and the best book on an issue of national policy by the American Political Science Association. No Equal Justice examines subjects ranging from police behavior and jury selection to sentencing, and argues that our system does not merely fail to live up to the promise of equality, but actively requires double standards to operate. Such disparities,Cole argues, allow the privileged to enjoy constitutional protections from police power without paying the costs associated with extending those protections across the board to minorities and the poor.