Digital Commons Network^™

Newsroom: Horwitz On The Trump Effect 12-1-2016, Amanda Milkovits, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Trending @ Rwu Law: Deborah Johnson's Post: Now "Defamation" Matters More Than Ever 11-16-2016, Deborah Johnson

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

Justice For Rodney King, Scott C. Burrell, Alan R. Dial, Thomas W. Mitchell

Thomas W. Mitchell

May 1992 letter from three Howard University School of Law students to President George H.W. Bush advocating that the United States Department of Justice invoke the Petite Policy to initiate a criminal action against the Los Angeles Police Department police officers responsible for brutally beating Rodney King despite the fact that these offers had been acquitted in a California state court. The letter, which was read in front of the White House by Thomas Mitchell to hundreds of people who had gathered to urge the federal government to take action, sets forth a clear legal basis to permit the Justice …

Confronting Race And Collateral Consequences In Public Housing, Ann Cammett

Seattle University Law Review

Access to affordable housing is one of the most critical issues currently facing low-income families. In many urban areas, rising costs, dwindling economic opportunity, and gentrification have foreclosed access to previously available rental stock and contributed to a crisis in housing. For African Americans lingering economic disparities arising from generations of forced racial segregation and the disproportional impact of mass incarceration have magnified these problems. In this Article I explore legal barriers to publicly subsidized housing, a “collateral consequence” of criminal convictions that increasingly serves as a powerful form of housing discrimination. Evictions, denial of admission, and permanent exclusion of …

Trending @ Rwu Law: Dean Yelnosky's Post: America's Cycle Of Violence 7-8-16, Michael Yelnosky

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same: Why Fisher V. University Of Texas At Austin Will Not Fundamentally Alter The Affirmative Action Landscape, Adam Lamparello

University of Miami Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Diversity Is Dead. Long Live Diversity: The Racial Isolation Prong Of Kennedy’S Pics Concurrence In Fisher And Beyond., Francisco M. Negrón Jr.

University of Miami Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

More Than Just The Numbers: Fisher V. Texas And The Practical Impact Of Texas’S Top Ten Percent Law, Shakira D. Pleasant

University of Miami Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

It’S Not About Race: The True Purpose Of The University Of Texas’ Holistic Admissions System Is To Give Preferences To Well-Connected White Applicants, Not To Disadvantaged Minorities, Jonathan R. Zell

University of Miami Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Getting Real About Race And Class: An Evaluation Of The Constitutionality Of Class-Based, Socioeconomic Affirmative Action Without Grutter, Junis L. Baldon

University of Miami Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Different Script, Same Caste In The Use Of Passive And Active Racism: A Critical Race Theory Analysis Of The (Ab)Use Of “House Rules” In Race-Related Education Cases, Steven L. Nelson

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Fisher V. University Of Texas At Austin: The Incoherence And Unseemliness Of State Racial Classification, Jay Alan Sekulow, Walter M. Weber

University of Miami Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Burn This Bitch Down!": Mike Brown, Emmett Till, And The Gendered Politics Of Black Parenthood, Teri A. Mcmurtry-Chubb

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Thirteenth Amendment, Disparate Impact, And Empathy Deficits, Darrell A.H. Miller

Seattle University Law Review

Modern civil rights policy is, as the late Justice Scalia warned, at “war.” On the one hand, some laws, like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) and the Fair Housing Act, can impose liability for decisions due to their racial impacts rather than their racial motivation. Defendants in such cases can always respond that the challenged decision (a test, a criterion, an allocation) is necessary in some legally cognizable sense; but the courthouse doors open with the prima facie case of disparate impact. On the other hand, the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, ever since …

A New Peonage?: Pay, Work, Or Go To Jail In Contemporary Child Support Enforcement And Beyond, Noah D. Zatz

Seattle University Law Review

Child support enforcement is one of several contemporary contexts in which the state threatens to incarcerate people if they fail to work. This symposium essay explores whether this practice violates the Thirteenth Amendment’s ban on involuntary servitude. At first glance, such threats fall squarely within the ambit of the early 20th century peonage cases. There, the Supreme Court struck down criminal enforcement of legal obligations to work off a debt. Several modern courts have declined to reach a similar conclusion when child support enforcement puts obligors to a choice between paying, working, and going to jail. To do so, these …

The Thirteenth Amendment, Human Trafficking, And Hate Crimes, Jennifer Mason Mcaward

Seattle University Law Review

The two most recent federal statutes passed pursuant to Congress’s Thirteenth Amendment enforcement power are the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) and the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Act of 2009. While the Thirteenth Amendment basis of the TVPA has never been questioned in court, the constitutionality of the Shepard-Byrd Act has been challenged (albeit unsuccessfully) in a series of recent cases. This Essay will consider this disparity and suggest that it tells us something about the parameters of the Thirteenth Amendment enforcement power. In particular, it suggests that congressional power is at its apex when the conduct regulated—like human …

Race And The Jury: How The Law Is Keeping Minorities Off The Jury, Stephanie Adamakos

Washington University Undergraduate Law Review

The modern jury focuses on three main ideas: impartiality, as laid out in the Sixth Amendment, jury of one’s peers, stemming from the Magna Carta, and a jury that represents a fair cross-section of the community. The cross-section idea has been developed by case law, but originates from the Sixth Amendment, under the belief that jury selection that does not systematically discriminate against members of the community and has a jury pool represents a cross-section of the community is likely to be impartial. Jurors are likely to draw upon their own experiences when deliberating, so having a variety of experiences …

The Strange Career Of Title Vii's § 703(M): An Essay On The Unfulfilled Promise Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1991, Jeffrey A. Van Detta

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

The 1991 CRA, then, held great promise when it responded to the provocation of Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins to address a larger problem—the problem that Francis Vaas identified in 1966. However, the often-invoked canon of statutory construction—start and stop with the text unless it is necessary to go to the legislative history to figure out what an ambiguous text means—has been tossed to the side, and the contextual history of overruling Price Waterhouse has been invoked by normally textualist judges who refuse to believe that Congress actually meant what it wrote. It is upon that sobering reality that we …

Title Vii At 50: The Landmark Law Has Significantly Impacted Relationships In The Workplace And Society, But Title Vii Has Not Reached Its True Potential, Cynthia Elaine Tompkins

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Article’s historical chronicle provides a valuable backdrop for an examination of Title VII. Part II analyzes Title VII’s impact on race relations in the workplace and society. While progress has been made in the effort to provide equal opportunities for all workplace employees, Title VII legislation has not eliminated employment discrimination. As Title VII marches toward its sixtieth anniversary, this Article’s final section, Part III, reviews unconscious bias and other current challenges preventing Title VII from reaching its true potential.

The Future Of Workplace Affirmative Action After Fisher, Rebecca K. Lee

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

The Supreme Court’s decision on race-conscious affirmative action in Fisher, along with the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in Fisher on remand, importantly preserves the validity of affirmative action programs in state decisionmaking if the programs meet certain criteria under strict scrutiny and satisfy full judicial review. Although Fisher arose in the higher education context, its application extends to the public setting more generally and thus would also apply to the public sector workplace under the Constitution, making it permissible for public sector employers to use race-conscious affirmative action in hiring and promoting employees. The approach taken in Fisher also …

In Defense Of Mcdonnell Douglas: The Domination Of Title Vii By The At-Will Employment Doctrine, Chuck Henson

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

The purpose of this Article is to describe the actual relationship between the Doctrine and Title VII as implemented in the Court’s disparate treatment decisions. Title VII and the Doctrine are not separate forces warring with each other. The at-will employment doctrine guided the Court’s Title VII disparate treatment jurisprudence, giving the maximum possible latitude to employers because that was the Eighty-eighth Congress’s intent.

Unfinished Equality: The Case Of Black Boys, Nancy E. Dowd

Nancy Dowd

Vulnerabilities and identities theories have an interdependent and symbiotic relationship that is critical to achieve social justice. Vulnerabilities analysis demands the state to explain and correct structural inequalities, while identities theories call for constructs and stereotypes to be confronted, challenged, and transformed in order to achieve justice and equality. An example of the value of both theoretical perspectives is in challenging, uncovering, and demanding action to end the subordination of black boys. Analyzing the situation of black boys, from birth to age eighteen, and the interaction they have with individuals, institutional structures, and culture leads to a conclusion that identity …

Nela Touro Conference 1999 Selected Second Circuit Cases Of Interest, Lawrence Solotoff

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Role Of The Courts In Creating Racial Identity In Early New Orleans, Jack M. Beermann

Faculty Scholarship

Reviewing Kenneth R. Aslakson, Making Race in the Courtroom: The Legal Construction of Three Races in Early New Orleans (New York University Press 2014).

The racial history of New Orleans is unique among American cities, as is Louisiana's among the history of American states. In the antebellum period, there were more free people of color in New Orleans than in any other city in the South, and free people of color lived, and often prospered, throughout Louisiana. The presence of so many free people of color in New Orleans, and Louisiana more generally, arose from many factors, including the consequences …

At Fifty, Title Vii Needs A Facelift: Two Reforms That Would Ensure Title Vii Works To Prohibit All Racial Discrimination In Employment, Joshua P. Thompson, Ralph W. Kasarda

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

No abstract provided.

"Race-Conscious" School Finance Litigation: Is A Fourth Wave Emerging?, David G. Hinojosa

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Newsroom: Reeves Urges: 'Be Citizen Soldiers', Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Trending @ Rwu Law: Lorraine Lalli's Post: Judge Reeves On Racial Violence, Same-Sex Marriage, 01/12/2016, Lorraine Lalli

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

"Cerd-Ain" Reform: Dismantling The School-To-Prison Pipeline Through More Thorough Coordination Of The Departments Of Justice And Education, Lisa A. Rich

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

In the last year of his presidency, President Barack Obama and his administration have undertaken many initiatives to ensure that formerly incarcerated individuals have more opportunities to successfully reenter society. At the same time, the administration has been working on education policy that closes the achievement gap and slows the endless flow of juveniles into the school-to-prison pipeline. While certainly laudable, there is much more that can be undertaken collaboratively among executive branch agencies to end the school-to-prison pipeline and the endless cycle of people re-entering the criminal justice system.

This paper examines the rise of the school-to-prison pipeline through …

Keeping Cases From Black Juries: An Empirical Analysis Of How Race, Income Inequality, And Regional History Affect Tort Law, Donald G. Gifford, Brian Jones

Faculty Scholarship

This Article presents an empirical analysis of how race, income inequality, the regional history of the South, and state politics affect the development of tort law. Beginning in the mid-1960s, most state appellate courts rejected doctrines such as contributory negligence that traditionally prevented plaintiffs’ cases from reaching the jury. We examine why some, mostly Southern states did not join this trend.

To enable cross-state comparisons, we design an innovative Jury Access Denial Index (JADI) that quantifies the extent to which each state’s tort doctrines enable judges to dismiss cases before they reach the jury. We then conduct a multivariate analysis …