Thread by @SheillaDingus

I believe @Advocate_Habiba was right. Courts are working as designed, dismissing issues that apparently seem trivial to the panel, preserving the status quo and letting the vulnerable down once again.😡

Patrick is right also. As @TheNeuroTimes said a couple of weeks ago, they'd probably rather be on a spacecraft to Mars than address the systemic problems in the concussion settlement.

A few more thoughts. This law review article hits on some of the shortcomings in this case and within the court system. She is right about procedure. This case was dismissed on procedural grounds allowing the court to avoid the merits.

A few more relevant highlights...
"one of the most distinctive institutional characteristics of the federal judiciary: overwhelmingly, its members are white, male, middle-aged or older, and wealthy"

I'd add to this that even many women and minorities that are appointed to a federal judgeship come from the same type of background of privilege and appear to relate closely with the white, wealthy males.

Most appointees come from a "big law" background. Think firms like Paul Weiss that represents the NFL in the settlement. Their minds are likely to retain instincts favoring defendants. We need more diversity of background in the federal judiciary. Not just superficial diversity

" Like all of us, their perceptions and understanding of the world have been shaped by their experiences, and because they are quite a homogeneous group, certain kinds of experiences are very rare among federal judges."

"We must look for the expression of such judicial biases in the case law and in judicial practices , where judges make procedure with relatively little interference or oversight, rather than in the Federal Rules." #Truth This is especially true in #MDL

This is also something we've witnessed in the concussion settlement, but instead of gender, racial outcomes have been uneven and #racenorming took place with no objection from any of the parties overseeing the settlement. The Henry/Davenport lawsuit forced them to acknowledge it

"Gender, racial, and class bias is usually unconscious... we tend to be more sensitive to and interested in the problems of people like ourselves."

"Justice Scalia, for example, has spoken nostalgically about the past times when the federal docket supposedly consisted of 'cases of major significance' rather than “minor,” “routine” matters “of less import."

Words like “important,” “trivial,” and “routine” may, quite unconsciously, mask gender, racial, and class bias."

"former Judge Bork...proposed to limit the fed docket to “important” cases by creating a new set of non Article III tribunals. These tribunals would hear cases under the Social Security Act, environmental laws, consumer &worker safety laws, fed benefit laws, & prisoners’ suits."

"What is striking about these proposals is that the plaintiffs in the cases...tend to be of a different race, gender, or class from most federal judges. The perception that such cases are 'unimportant' may reflect judges’ lack of sympathy for such plaintiffs."

Here's a link to the article for those who would like to read more. law.stanford.edu/publications/j…