Racial Profiling: National Legislation Policy Analysis

LaTasha Chaffin

  The first national racial profiling legislation was sponsored and introduced by U.S. Representative John Conyers Jr. of the 14th Congressional District of Michigan. This national racial profiling legislative policy analysis focuses on the racial profiling legislation that was first introduced by Rep. John Conyers in 1998 and the succession of legislative proposals that have been introduced and sponsored four additional times since 1998 by Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan in the House and Senator Russ Feingold D-Wisconsin in the Senate addressing the issue of racial profiling. There has been other proposed national racial profiling legislation, yet the legislation that U.S. Rep. John Conyers and Senator Russ Feingold have drafted is the most comprehensive. The purpose of the proposed national racial profiling legislation by Rep. Conyers and Sen. Feingold is to:

“Enforce the constitutional right to equal protection of the laws, pursuant to the Fifth Amendment and section 5 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; to enforce the constitutional right to protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, pursuant to the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and to enforce the constitutional right to interstate travel, pursuant to section 2 of article IV of the Constitution of the United States; and to regulate interstate commerce, pursuant to clause 3 of section 8 of article I of the Constitution of the United States (ERPA, 2004, p. 4).”