Races Divided in Opinion on Courts

Black Americans have far less confidence in state and local courts than their fellow citizens do, a nationwide survey suggests. Surprisingly, Latinos expressed greater overall satisfaction than non-Latino whites in the performance of courts.

“Opinion is divided sharply across racial lines,” said Frank Bennack Jr., president of the Hearst Corp., which funded the survey for the National Center for State Courts.

“The consensus is that the courts protect our constitutional rights and that they are honest and fair. But there is also an overwhelming belief that equal justice under the law is more equal to some than to others,” he said.

The survey results, made public Friday at a conference studying public perceptions of courts, indicate that 68% of blacks believe “people like them” are treated worse than others in court.

Conversely, only 33% of Latinos said people in their own ethnic group received worse treatment than others from the courts. More non-Latino whites (47%) and blacks (60%) said they thought Latinos receive less than equitable treatment.

About 42% of Latinos and non-Latino whites believe blacks receive worse treatment, the survey indicated.

Among Latinos, 33% said they strongly agreed with the statement that courts make reasonable efforts to ensure all litigants get adequate legal help. Only 29% of non-Latino whites and 27% of blacks said the same.

The survey was based on 1,826 interviews conducted Jan. 13 to Feb. 15. About 1,200 people were randomly chosen. An additional 300 Latinos and 300 blacks were selected “to ensure that the findings reflect the voices of the major groups in American society,” the report said.

The sample was weighted so the three groups were represented in the same proportion as in American society--12% black, 13% Latino and 72% white and others. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.

Overall, 85% of Americans believe courts protect criminal defendants’ constitutional rights, and only 18% prefer that a judge ignore the law to ensure a defendant’s conviction.

But 81% also say they believe judges’ decisions are influenced by political considerations, and 78% agreed with a statement saying elected judges “are influenced by having to raise campaign funds.”

Most Americans (80%) also believe that legal disputes “are not resolved in a timely manner.” A majority (68%) also disagreed with the statement: “It is affordable to bring a case to court.”

And 53% disagreed with this statement: “The media’s portrayal of courts is mostly accurate.”

The survey’s results regarding minorities track the findings of a poll commissioned by the American Bar Assn. last August. It found that many Americans think the nation’s courts do not provide equal justice for racial minorities.

ABA President Philip Anderson, a lawyer from Little Rock, Ark., said then that his organization “will intensify our efforts to eradicate gender and racial bias in our courts.”

The two-day conference at which the new survey was released is jointly sponsored by the ABA, the League of Women Voters, the Conference of State Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators.