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Civil Rights and Discrimination

University of the District of Columbia School of Law

Civil Rights

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Disability Rights Past, Present And Future: A Roadmap For Disability Rights, Marcy Karin, Lara Bollinger Mar 2020

Disability Rights Past, Present And Future: A Roadmap For Disability Rights, Marcy Karin, Lara Bollinger

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

The Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”)2 “was and is all about civil rights.”3 Enacted in 1990, its goal was to prohibit discrimination based on disability across society, from employment to places of public accommodation and government services. As the byproduct of bipartisan support and significant advocacy and leadership by members and allies of the disability community, there were high hopes that the ADA would live up to its goal. Unfortunately, that reality never came to pass for many individuals with disabilities. Instead, a line of Supreme Court decisions in 1999 and 2002 imposed increasingly narrow interpretations of the law’s core …


"Other Than Honorable" Discrimination, Marcy L. Karin Jan 2016

"Other Than Honorable" Discrimination, Marcy L. Karin

Journal Articles

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) is the most comprehensive federal civil rights law that exists related to the workplace. Its goal is to help people who serve in the military reintegrate back into civilian work and remain attached to the workforce. It does so by offering a mix of anti-discrimination protection and labor standards. Despite the promise of robust reemployment rights and post-service assistance, Congress has excluded people with a certain “character of service,” including those with “other than honorable” separations, from these protections. This statutory exclusion has a disparate impact on people with service-connected disabilities, …


Restoring The Ada And Beyond: Disability In The 21st Century, Robert L. Burgdorf Jan 2008

Restoring The Ada And Beyond: Disability In The 21st Century, Robert L. Burgdorf

Journal Articles

Perhaps it was imprudent for me to agree, in response to the request of the symposium organizers, to address the future of disability law. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Neils Bohr supposedly once said that "[p]rediction is very difficult, especially about the future."' Columnist and author Jim Bishop wrote, "The future is an opaque mirror. Anyone who tries to look into it sees nothing but the dim outlines of an old and worried face." 2 Prognosticating is a very tricky and uncertain undertaking. I cannot pretend to have any particular gift for crystal ball gazing in disability matters. When I joined the …


Naacp V. The Attorney General: Black Community Struggle Against Police Violence, 1959-68, Jay Stewart Jan 2006

Naacp V. The Attorney General: Black Community Struggle Against Police Violence, 1959-68, Jay Stewart

Journal Articles

On March 30, 1959, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two decisions which set the stage for a new era in police-community relations. In Abbate v. United States. I and Bartkus v. Illinois,2 the Court gave the U.S. Justice Department the power to prosecute police officers under federal civil rights laws for acts of racist violence - even when they were already under state or local investigation - without fear of violating states' rights. These decisions - had they been enforced - would have been welcome news at the New York headquarters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored …


A Representative Democracy: An Unfulfilled Ideal For Citizens Of The District Of Columbia, Aaron E. Price Sr. Mar 2003

A Representative Democracy: An Unfulfilled Ideal For Citizens Of The District Of Columbia, Aaron E. Price Sr.

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Newly Disenfranchised: A Constitutional Right Withheld, Herman R. Brown Jr. Mar 1992

The Newly Disenfranchised: A Constitutional Right Withheld, Herman R. Brown Jr.

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

Traditionally, Blacks and women have been denied their constitutional rights based strictly on race and sex. This brand of disenfranchisement has in many instances made these groups feel like "second class" citizens. Although recently, these groups have been able to share in some rights previously withheld, the "playing field of equality of rights" is still not level. For example, women still earn less pay for comparable work performed by their male counterparts. Blacks continue to be shut out of the system based strictly on race. Just as women and Blacks have been denied their rights, other groups have suffered similar …


"Equal Members Of The Community": The Public Accommodations Provisions Of The Americans With Disabilities Act, Robert Burgdorf Jan 1991

"Equal Members Of The Community": The Public Accommodations Provisions Of The Americans With Disabilities Act, Robert Burgdorf

Journal Articles

Nearly three decades ago, four black students sat down at a lunch counter in a Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina, ordered a cup of coffee, and refused to move until they were served. I Unknown to the four young men at the time, their act of courage would help precipitate a series of sit-in protests and other forms of civil disobedience challenging racial segregation at lunch counters, restaurants, parks, hotels, motels, and other facilities. The desegregation of such places was a principal objective of civil rights protests, lawsuits, and proposals for legislative reform during the early 1960s.2 Equal opportunity …


Civil Rights In The 1980s, Nathaniel R. Jones Dec 1982

Civil Rights In The 1980s, Nathaniel R. Jones

Antioch Law Journal

have been asked for my views on the civil rights agenda for the 1980s. Such an agenda cannot be proposed in a vacuum, for the roots of current civil rights problems extend deep into the nation's history. In fact, public acceptance of civil rights remedies has been impeded precisely because their historical predicates are so little understood. While the civil rights thrust has broadened to include gender, ethnic, and age considerations, the basic problems in shaping remedies continue to center around race and the nation's treatment of racial groups. This fact confounds those who had come to believe that problems …