Hispanics to Study Law One

¶ … Hispanics to Study Law

One of the most remarkable things about law is that law has the ability to create social change. When one changes a society's laws, one does not merely change written word, but a living, breathing entity, which reflects the values and mores of a society at large. Indeed, one of the most important and noble goals to which a lawyer can aspire, as any fan of Harper Lee can attest, is to change those laws that encourage or permit discrimination by those with power against those without power. Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, it is up to those who do not have power, whether that power be financial or political, to affect such change. Today Hispanics are in a position where they have the power in numbers, but have yet to use those numbers to develop correlative political and financial power. For those reasons, it is imperative that Hispanics study the law.

One need only look back a few decades in American history to see how powerful an agent of social change the law can be. In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court determined that separate but equal facilities did not violate the spirit of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. However, the NAACP, not satisfied that African-Americans were actually receiving equal treatment, searched for another suit in which they could challenge the separate but equal doctrine established in Plessy. In Brown v. Board of Education, the NAACP looked to the spirit of the Plessy decision and determined what evidence would be needed to overcome the presumption of equality. It then did so by providing evidence of the disparity in the quality of education that was being offered to white and African-American children. By proving that separate was inherently not equal, the NAACP was able to secure a favorable decision in Brown. Of course, the legal decision did not end racism in America; in fact, the National Guard was called out to protect those African-American students who chose to enroll in white schools. However, the law did engender social change; fifty years after the Brown decision, there is no system of legal segregation in America.

While changing the law through the use of the court system by challenging laws that violate the Constitutional guarantees of equality is an effective means of social change, it is insufficient to provide the broad scale social change needed to protect the rights of Hispanics in America. One of the problems facing Hispanics is the fact that English, while not declared an official language, is used in a way that excludes Hispanics from participating in many facets of American life, including the American legal system. The use of English-only is not discrimination and does not violate the letter or the spirit of the Constitution. Therefore, it is only by having Hispanics involved in the legislative process that such disparity can be corrected. The fact is that legislators, while not required to have a legal background, are primarily elected from those in the legal field. Therefore, it is important for Hispanics to be involved in the legal system.