U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) authored an op-ed in The Washington Post calling for the passage of the EQUAL Act, legislation that will eliminate the federal sentencing disparity between drug offenses involving crack cocaine and powder cocaine.

Washington Post

There’s No Excuse for Allowing the Savage Cocaine Injustice to Persist 

The Equal Act would finally end the racial disparities in crack and powder cocaine sentencing that has devastated too many lives and families

By Cory Booker

The Sept. 16 editorial “Uneven justice” was right: “The powder vs. crack cocaine disparity still exists, and it remains unfair.” The Equal Act would finally end the racial disparities in crack and powder cocaine sentencing by changing the sentencing ratio from 18-to-1 to 1-to-1. The bill has already passed the House in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 361-66. A bipartisan coalition has grown further to include 11 sponsoring Senate Republicans, as well as law enforcement groups and civil rights leaders, who are ready to right this pernicious wrong. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has pledged to do everything he can to pass the bill.

So, the editorial’s suggestion that we should instead pursue an Un-Equal Act — an arbitrary “compromise” ratio of 2.5-to-1 — doesn’t make sense. We have 61 votes to pass Equal, a rarity in today’s hyperpartisan Senate. Whenever a vote is scheduled, I believe we will succeed. With a truly transformative bill within reach, why should we settle for less or capitulate before even a vote?

There is no pharmacological difference between crack and powder cocaine. There is no criminological justification for the difference in sentencing guidelines. And when 61 senators agree, there’s no excuse for allowing such a savage injustice to persist.

We have the votes. It is time to send the Equal Act to President Biden’s desk and end the devastation this disparity has caused to too many lives and families.

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