John Valery White

What's the most important thing you are working on right now?
 
I am preparing to become the chair of the board of the Law School Admissions Council, the organization that delivers the LSAT and facilitates law school admissions. The LSAC is a nonprofit membership organization consisting of the accredited law schools that utilize the LSAT for admissions. Its board of trustees consist of deans, faculty, and admissions professionals from member schools. The LSAC managed to deliver a remote LSAT in the wake of COVID-19 shutdowns and is working to ensure law school admissions are not disrupted by the pandemic. LSAC is also working to ensure diversity in legal education while ensuring that those admitted to law school will thrive and become effective members of the legal profession. I will have my hands full.

I am also working on a long-term project about the nature of civil rights litigation, a project whose importance has been underscored by this summer’s protests against police excessive force. Since such protest first emerged in 2015, activist have dismissed civil rights litigation as a means of achieving the social justice they are pursuing. Many have viewed the civil rights suits that the families of victims of excessive force have pursued as a distraction from the movement. And at the height of this summer’s protests when some thought congress might have had the will to eliminate or modify the qualified immunity defense that undermines most civil rights claims in response to excessive force, many activists loudly rejected the effort as insufficient. The inadequacy of civil rights litigation to effectively memorialize the past successes of the Civil Rights Movement or adequately respond to the demands of contemporary activist is a damning indictment of the field. My work seeks to explain the evolution and nature of civil right law’s inadequacy and point to how we might restore the promise of rights for ensuring social justice.