Reflections On The Insurrection At the U.S. Capitol

Back when I was practicing law full-time, I had a criminal defense case before a judge that was increasingly hostile toward me.

Every case, every appearance, the judge would demean, yell, and require me to brief and argue topics that the prosecution hadn’t even brought up.

At first, I ignored it. Hoping the case would end without me having to do anything about the judge’s behavior. However, I soon realized that no matter what I did or said, the court would never see past my skin color.

After one particularly contentious hearing, I knew I had two options. I could either get another attorney for my client (at this point, the judge’s bias against me was affecting my client’s case) or file a motion for the judge’s recusal. So, I sat in my car in the court’s parking lot, weighing my options.

At the time, I worked at a firm. So before I did anything, the one thing I knew for sure was that I would have to talk this whole thing out with the partner, a white man in his 70s.

Here’s how I thought that conversation would go.

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