Greim speaks on implicit bias during Federalist Society’s 4th annual Missouri Chapters Conference

Graves Garrett partner Eddie Greim helped lead a moderated discussion on implicit bias in the judicial selection process during the Federalist Society’s fourth annual Missouri Chapters Conference late last month at the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City.

About 200 Federalist Society members, legal professionals, state and federal judges, and government leaders were in attendance for discussions on current legal issues in the state. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos delivered the keynote address, while Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Speaker of the House Elijah Haahr also provided remarks.

Greim and St. Louis attorney Mark Bremer gave a presentation entitled, “Implicit Bias — What is it, and how do we control for it under the Missouri Plan?” The Hon. Duane Benton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit moderated. In a speech last summer, the Hon. George Draper, Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court, cited studies which he said showed that “implicit bias” is still affecting lawyers’ evaluations of judges. This concern led Missouri to change its ethics and CLE rules last year, but previously, it had also led Missouri to substantially revise its judicial evaluation process. Greim examined Chief Justice Draper’s critique, providing and discussing the results of the “bias” studies. Greim then outlined the response of Missouri’s judicial review committee and suggested that its work in response to “bias” concerns could provide a case study for considering other reforms to Missouri’s plan for selecting judges.

At Graves Garrett, Greim focuses his practice on free speech and election law, complex commercial litigation, internal investigations and whistleblower claims. His free speech and election law experience has included numerous constitutional challenges to election and campaign finance laws; representation of clients in state and federal ethics and campaign finance enforcement actions and investigations; initiative petition drafting and litigation; litigation and advice regarding First Amendment protections for petition circulation; representation of not-for-profit clients before state regulators; and advice on campaign and election law compliance.

Greim is also the president of the Federalist Society’s Kansas City Chapter.

The Federalist Society is a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order, founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be.