‘Batsh—t Crazy’: Washington State Supreme Court Says Any Accusation of Racial Bias Should Lead to a Retrial

If a party to a civil lawsuit accuses his opponent’s lawyers of any sort of racial stereotyping, judges must order a retrial. That appears to be the implication of an October ruling from the Washington State Supreme Court.

When litigants claim that racial bias affected a trial verdict, state justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis wrote in a unanimous opinion, the opposing party "must prove how it did not," demonstrating that nothing said at trial played on the jury’s "unconscious biases." Absent such proof—which lawyers say will be impossible to furnish—courts must grant a new trial, the opinion indicates.

Lawyers and legal scholars are aghast, arguing that the decision undermines bedrock principles of the American justice system.