Sens. Metts, Quezada & Cano Call on Raimondo to Appoint Minorities to Judicial Openings

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Sens. Metts, Quezada & Cano Call on Raimondo to Appoint Minorities to Judicial Openings

Harold Metts
Senator Harold Metts, Ana Quezada, and Sandra Cano are calling for Governor Gina Raimondo to appoint minorities to judicial openings.

“Structural racism can be defined as a system that promotes inequality. Whether intended or not, the lack of African-American and Latino judges in the judiciary is troubling, even before the deaths and retirement referenced above. We will continue working within the General Assembly on legislation to reform this deeply flawed system, and now ask you to do your part by demanding a more diverse list of candidates,” wrote the Senators in a letter.

The Letter

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In the letter, the Senators ask Raimondo to include at least one minority candidate among the three to five finalists on every list of her judicial appointments.

They ask her to appoint a minimum of three minority judges to make up for the minority judges who have recently passed away or retired.

The legislators also pledged to work within the General Assembly to enact changes to the judicial selection process to bring more diversity to the judicial branch in Rhode Island.

“While these inequities are affected by a wide variety of factors inside and outside the judicial and law enforcement sphere, the lack of minority representation on the bench doubtlessly is among those factors. It’s time that we fix this broken system, as the lack of diversity in the judiciary is a travesty,” the Senators wrote.

They wrote that members of the Assembly’s Black and Latino Caucus have been contacted by several highly qualified minorities who are interested in becoming judges.


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