A New York City Bar Association working group tracking the state court system’s progress in addressing racial bias in its venues says the appointment of a former Court of Appeals judge as the outside monitor on reforms gives “the appearance of a lack of independence.”
Following a scathing 2020 report by Jeh Johnson, partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and former Homeland Security secretary, that described a “second class system of justice” in New York’s courts for people of color, former Human Rights Campaign president Alphonso David was appointed as an independent monitor to oversee the implementation of recommendations contained in Johnson’s report.
