Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) called for an investigation into allegations that a federal judge made racially biased remarks in a speech at the University of Pennsylvania Law School on Wednesday, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
A coalition of civil rights organizations claimed in a lawsuit that 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Edith Jones made inappropriate statements against minority groups, including saying that African-Americans and Hispanics are “predisposed to crime.” In a letter to Judge Carl Stewart, the chief on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Richmond demands a “full and swift” investigation into the accounts of Jones’ speech.
“The alleged statements, if true, demonstrate personal racial and religious bias as well as questionable legal analysis,” Richmond wrote in the letter, as quoted by the Times-Picayune. “These biases are incredibly inappropriate for a sitting jurist at any level, let alone a former chief judge on one of the highest level Article III Courts of Appeal.”
