Alito, Thomas Slam Supreme Court Decision in Race-Based Police Encounter Case

⚖️Supreme Court Justices ⚖️Samuel Alito and ⚖️Clarence Thomas issued a sharp dissent after the court declined to hear a case they argued could require police officers to apply different legal standards based on a person’s race.

According to Fox News, the case, United States v. Donte J. Carter, centered on whether police unlawfully seized Donte J. Carter before they had reasonable suspicion to detain him. The ⚖️Supreme Court declined to review the decision, leaving a ruling from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in place.

Writing for himself and Thomas, Alito argued that the lower court’s reasoning conflicts with the principle that government officials should not treat people differently because of race.

“It is dangerous to allow an individual to be treated differently based on statistics, studies, or expert testimony that purports to show that members of the racial or ethnic group to which he belongs are more likely to act in a certain way than are members of other groups,” Alito wrote. “Here, the special treatment helped the individual; in other situations, it will not.”