Equal Protection Under the Law

Equal Protection under the Law

Marcella Jackson

Liberty University

Abstract

This discussion board concentrates on the overwhelming rate of officials failing to uphold the law to its fullest extent. The issue regarding equal protection of the law is presented through a then and now lens. Examples and studies are presented to the reader to show the accountability that equal protection under the law is often violated by officials. Various amount of information is presented regarding the corruption in the justice department; however the scope of a Christian worldview is applied at the end of the paper to demonstrate how that particular worldview can influence the breakthrough in the modern day justice department.

Keywords:  inequality, biased, Christ-like leaders

Equal Protection under the Law

The 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution provides equal protection under the law, requiring that we must treat everyone equally the same. One’s physical appearance, religious beliefs, or any other feature that distinguishes one from another should not deprive him or her from his or her natural rights. However, the implementation of this amendment is and have been disregarded not only by the people, but also by law officials. Although the scope of this issue is at an alarming rate, I do believe that the aspect of equal protection under the law is within the criminal justice system however, I feel that it is often violated and abused by law officials.

        In my opinion, equal protection under the law is one of the many foundational aspects that holds the criminal justice system together. I do firmly believe that it is embedded within the core of the criminal justice system, yet, it is not upheld to the fullest extent by law officials. Although many are not subjected to such behavior; however there is an overwhelming rate in which this issue is occurring. Biased policing greatly exist whether it is intentionally or unintentionally being done. Social injustice occurred at a frightful and rapid rate during the era of the 1900s, yet society have not remotely moved far away from such issue. For instance, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (1987), researchers “consistently found substantial race-of-defendant disparities. The results of this bias against black defendants is estimated to be an excess of 38% in death sentences for black defendants compared to all other defendants for similar crimes” (para. 20). Compared to a more recent study that was conducted researchers found that “the unequal treatment of minorities in our criminal justice system manifested itself in a mushrooming prison population that is overwhelmingly black and Hispanic” (Civil and Human Rights Coalition, 2016). The scoop of this issue undermines the system as a whole while also causing the people to doubt the rule of law.

        Another example in which people who are similarly situated but were not fairly treated the same happened at the Dakota pipeline. In 2016 hundreds of Native Americans with over 40 tribes gathered to peacefully protest against the approval and drilling of an oil pipeline that would run through Lake Oahe on the Standing Rock Sioux Indian reservation. Officials were not only violated the rights of the Native American tribes, but also disregarded their concerns and threw hundreds in prisons for getting in their way (I provided a link below for more information on this story). This particular issue have been going on for a while; however, it barely received any news coverage until recently.