<i>Whren</i>'s Flawed Assumptions Regarding Race, History, and Unconscious Bias

I want to talk very briefly about some of the flaws in Whren as a matter of constitutional history, doctrine, and social psychology. Those issues have been discussed throughout this symposium, so I will only touch upon them briefly. I will then discuss some legal developments in equal protection doctrine post-Whren. Finally, I will suggest a possible path forward.

A great deal of my scholarship over the years has been in the field of the Thirteenth Amendment. I will, therefore, suggest that we can reconceptualize racially motivated, pretextual police encounters as a Thirteenth Amendment issue rather than as either a Fourth Amendment issue or a Fourteenth Amendment issue.