Digital Commons Network^™

Standpoint Epistemology, The First Amendment, And University Affirmative Action, Paul Gowder

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Egalitarian legal scholars understandably might have been troubled by the end of June 2023, when, on two successive days, the Supreme Court appeared to put an end to public as well as to private university affirmative action on a theory of race discrimination in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, then appeared to put an end to the application of anti-discrimination law to any private enterprise that could be characterized as “expressive” in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis. Yet the June 30 case, I shall contend, has the potential to undermine the negative impact of the June 29 …

School Pronouns And The Compelled-Speech Objection, Phillip Seaver-Hall

Mercer Law Review

America’s transgender youth are entrenched in a nationwide mental health crisis. A majority of transgender teenage boys have attempted suicide at least once, and roughly a third of transgender teenage girls have done the same. To mitigate this national emergency, many public school districts have begun requiring their teachers to use transgender students’ preferred names and pronouns. Many conservatives, however, insist that such rules violate the First Amendment’s prohibition of compelled speech.

This article thoroughly dissects that argument and exposes its flaws. It examines the compelled‑speech objection through the lens of the government speech doctrine, weighs countervailing academic‑freedom concerns, proposes …

Roads Not Taken On Affirmative Action, Robert L. Tsai

Faculty Scholarship

The law of affirmative action is a mess. In the short term, legal doctrine is constrained by path dependence, but its long-term future is murkier due to the many unforeseen contingencies. To regain a sense of the possible, this Article looks forward to the future of equality jurisprudence by looking backward. It recovers three roads not taken. First, the Supreme Court could have kept expectations minimal by hewing closely to the methods and rhetoric of fairness rather than ratifying a consumerist model of entitlement by deploying an individualistic vision of equality. Second, the justices might have endorsed a robust right …

Childist Objections, Youthful Relevance, And Evidence Reconceived, Mae C. Quinn

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Evidence rules are written by and for adults. As a result, they largely lack the vantage point of youth and are rooted in arm’s-length assumptions about the lives and legal interests of young people. Moreover, because children have been mostly treated as evidentiary afterthoughts, they have been patched into the justice system and its procedures in a piecemeal fashion. Yet, to date, there has been no comprehensive scholarly critique of evidence principles and practices for failing to meaningfully account for youth. And the evidentiary intersection of youth and race has been almost entirely overlooked in legal scholarship. This Article, in …

Talk Should Be Cheap: The Supreme Court Has Spoken On Compelled Fees, But Universities Are Not Listening, Falco Anthony Muscante Ii

Duquesne Law Review

Taking money from a person to support political and ideological projects with which that person disagrees is, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, "sinful and tyrannical." Public universities are meddling with sin and tyranny by compelling some students to pay mandatory student activity fees in support of political and ideological activities with which those students disagree. This Article provides separate legal and historical backgrounds for both public union dues and fees and the more-recent public university student activity fees to ultimately propose a constitutional system congruent with Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31, and its impact on Board of Regents …

Hostile Learning Environments, The First Amendment, And Public Higher Education, Todd E. Pettys

Connecticut Law Review

The Supreme Court has never squarely addressed the First Amendment status of student-on-student verbal harassment at public institutions of higher education. Does the First Amendment permit public colleges and universities to discipline students on the grounds that their speech has created a hostile learning environment for others on campus? If so, what is the analysis underlying that constitutional judgment, and what are the requisite hallmarks of such an environment? Does it matter whether a student’s speech created the hostile learning environment on its own or whether it wielded that power only by virtue of its combination with the speech of …

Home, Schooling, And State: Education In, And For, A Diverse Democracy, Vivian E. Hamilton

Faculty Publications

Since the late nineteenth century, virtually all school-aged children have attended school; only rarely did children live and learn entirely within their homes. In recent decades, however, the practice of elective homeschooling has emerged, and the number of families opting out of regular schools has surged. Currently, the parents of nearly two million school-aged children annually eschew traditional schooling.

A small but well-resourced homeschool lobby has aggressively pressured state legislators to withdraw state oversight of homeschooling. No similarly resourced lobby exists to counterbalance these efforts. As a result, states now impose few—and in some cases, no—obligations on parents who choose …

Cyberbullying: School Administrators' Perceptions Of Law And Prevalence, And Their Roles In Prevention, Intervention And Discipline, Suzan Gragg Denby

Theses and Dissertations

This study was aimed at investigating secondary school administrators’ experiences with and their perceptions of cyberbullying, as well as their intervention and prevention procedures. As technology has become ubiquitous in our society, students’ use has increased and impacted the school environment. Given the potential for cyberbullying and the negative effects of such, schools harbor the responsibility to prevent and intervene in such occurrences. This can be a tricky process.

This study included 12 administrators of secondary schools across eight school divisions in Virginia. Through an interview process, administrators spoke of their experiences with technology and cyberbullying incidents, and how they …

Rhode Island's School Funding Challenges In Historical Context, Daniel W. Morton-Bentley

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Speech Across Borders, Jennifer Daskal

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

As both governments and tech companies seek to regulate speech online, these efforts raise critical, and contested, questions about how far those regulations can and should extend. Is it enough to take down or delink material in a geographically segmented way? Or can and should tech companies be ordered to takedown or delink unsavory content across their entire platforms—no matter who is posting the material or where the unwanted content is viewed? How do we deal with conflicting speech norms across borders? And how do we protect against the most censor-prone nation effectively setting global speech rules? These questions were …

Trinity Lutheran And The Future Of Educational Choice: Implications For State Blaine Amendments, Richard D. Komer

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Religious Freedom In Faith-Based Educational Institutions In The Wake Of 'Obergefell V. Hodges': Believers Beware, Charles J. Russo

Charles J. Russo

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli’s fateful words, uttered in response to a question posed by Justice Samuel Alito during oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges,² likely sent chills up the spines of leaders in faith-based educational institutions, from pre-schools to universities. In Obergefell, a bare majority of the Supreme Court legalized same-sex unions in the United States. Verrilli’s words, combined with the outcome in Obergefell, have a potentially chilling effect on religious freedom. The decision does not only impact educational institutions—the primary focus of this article—but also a wide array of houses of worship. Other religiously affiliated …

Religious Freedom In Faith-Based Educational Institutions In The Wake Of 'Obergefell V. Hodges': Believers Beware, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli’s fateful words, uttered in response to a question posed by Justice Samuel Alito during oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges,² likely sent chills up the spines of leaders in faith-based educational institutions, from pre-schools to universities. In Obergefell, a bare majority of the Supreme Court legalized same-sex unions in the United States. Verrilli’s words, combined with the outcome in Obergefell, have a potentially chilling effect on religious freedom. The decision does not only impact educational institutions—the primary focus of this article—but also a wide array of houses of worship. Other religiously affiliated …

Academic Freedom And Professorial Speech In The Post-Garcetti World, Oren R. Griffin

Seattle University Law Review

Academic freedom, a coveted feature of higher education, is the concept that faculty should be free to perform their essential functions as professors and scholars without the threat of retaliation or undue administrative influence. The central mission of an academic institution, teach-ing and research, is well served by academic freedom that allows the faculty to conduct its work in the absence of censorship or coercion. In support of this proposition, courts have long held that academic freedom is a special concern of the First Amendment, granting professors and faculty members cherished protections regarding academic speech. In Garcetti v. Ceballos, the …

School Bullying Victimization As An Educational Disability, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

Parts I and II of this essay urge school authorities, parents, and other concerned citizens to perceive bullying victimization as a disability that burdens targeted students. Since 1975, the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has guaranteed “full educational opportunity to all children with disabilities” in every state. The IDEA reaches both congenital disabilities and disabilities that, like bullying victimization, stem from events or circumstances unrelated to biology or birth. To set the context for perceiving bullying victimization as an educational disability, Part I describes the public schools' central role in protecting bullied students, and then briefly discusses the …

A Theory Of The Perverse Verdict, Bethel G.A Erastus-Obilo

Bethel G.A Erastus-Obilo

The concept of a perverse verdict is one that pervades the Criminal justice system of nearly all common law jurisdictions. The English Criminal Justice system is no exception and the concept has become institutionalised as if it were a true occurrence. This paper challenges the idea and argues that it is, technically, a legal non-event given the system of trial by jury. The theory is that besides the jury, no one else is invested with the power and authority to declare a verdict and this position is supported both by legal custom and the mechanism of the criminal justice system. …

Facebook Fatalities: Students, Social Networking, And The First Amendment, Thomas Wheeler

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

School Discipline Of Cyber-Bullies: A Proposed Threshold That Respects Constitutional Rights, 45 J. Marshall L. Rev. 85 (2011), Laura Pavlik Raatjes

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Good Politics Is Good Government": The Troubling History Of Mayoral Control Of The Public Schools In Twentieth-Century Chicago, James (Jim) C. Carl

Educational Studies, Research, and Technology Department Faculty Publications

This article looks at urban education through the vantage point of Chicago's mayors. It begins with Carter H. Harrison II (who served from 1897 to 1905 and again from 1911 to 1915) and ends with Richard M. Daley (1989 to the present), with most of the focus on four long-serving mayors: William Hale Thompson (1915--23 and 1927--31), Edward Kelly (1933--47), Richard J. Daley (1955--76), and Harold Washington (1983--87). Mayors exercised significant leverage in the Chicago Public Schools throughout the twentieth century, making the history of Chicago mayors' educational politics relevant to the contemporary trend in urban education to give more …

Same-Sex Marriage And Public School Curricula: Preserving Parental Rights To Direct The Education Of Their Children, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of The Press Box: Classifying High School Athletes Under The Gertz Public Figure Doctrine, Jonathan Deem

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Multiracial Identity, Monoracial Authenticity & Racial Privacy: Towards An Adequate Theory Of Mulitracial Resistance, Maurice R. Dyson

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article is divided into five parts. Part I briefly places the significance of the Supreme Court's affirmative action ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger in context, particularly the implications of its recommended twenty-five year timeframe in recognizing racial diversity. Part II examines the dangerous consequences of implicit assumptions underlying the RPI. More specifically, I investigate the potential ramifications the RPI would have had upon multiple sectors of our society, including healthcare, education, and law enforcement. In the process, I attempt to demonstrate that the concept of racial privacy is a strategic misnomer intended not to protect one's privacy, but rather …

The Theology Of The Blaine Amendments, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

The Supreme Court affirmed, in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, that the Constitution permits us to experiment with school-choice programs and, in particular, with programs that include religious schools. However, the constitutions of nearly forty States contain provisions - generically called Blaine Amendments - that speak more directly and, in many cases, more restrictively, than does the First Amendment to the flow of once-public funds to religious schools. This Article is a series of reflections, prompted by the Blaine Amendments, on education, citizenship, political liberalism, and religious freedom.

First, the Article considers what might be called the federalism defense of the provisions. …

Diversity Efforts In Independent Schools , Michael Brosnan

Fordham Urban Law Journal

In recent years, independent schools have begun committing themselves to diversity. Schools are recruiting more students and teachers of color and have transformed their curriculum to better address race, gender, class religion, and sexual orientation. Schools must start marketing themselves to a broad spectrum of families, teachers, and administrators, and have done so in order to prepare students for the adult world to come. Schools need to hire and retain teachers of color. To achieve this, some overlapping efforts by schools include: creating the need to hire teachers of color with the school's mission, clarifying the school's climate and culture, …

Diversity Efforts In Independent Schools, Michael Brosnan

Fordham Urban Law Journal

When it comes to diversity, many high-end institutions--including those in education, politics, and media--have been slow to change and reluctant to promote people who do not fit a certain profile. They are cautious institutions reflecting the broader culture of power. Independent schools are wrestling with the same concerns as law firms. They are trying to diversify their teaching staffs and student bodies, but are having limited success. Diversifying a school with a tradition of being predominantly white (and sometimes predominantly Christian) requires work on many fronts. Any effort to hire teachers of color, to be successful, must coincide with steps …

The Burden Of Brown On Blacks: History-Based Observations On A Landmark Decision, Derrick A. Bell Jr.

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judicial Scrutiny Of "Benign" Racial Preference In Law School Admissions, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

Racial preferences for blacks generate ambivalence in those who care about racial equality and also believe that individuals should be judged "on their own merits." This ambivalence is reflected in divergent "equal protection" values, the value of eliminating barriers to equality imposed on minority groups and that of distributing the burdens and benefits of social life without reference to arbitrary distinctions. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that after Marco DeFunis, Jr. challenged the constitutionality of racial preferences for admission to a state law school, the Supreme Court's resolution of the issue was awaited with intense interest and some trepidation. For …