Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
-
- Notre Dame Law School (2)
- Barry University School of Law (1)
- Chicago-Kent College of Law (1)
- Cornell University Law School (1)
- Saint Louis University School of Law (1)
-
- St. John's University School of Law (1)
- Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center (1)
- University of Denver (1)
- University of Michigan Law School (1)
- University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law (1)
- University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (1)
- Yeshiva University, Cardozo School of Law (1)
- Publication Year
Articles 1 - 13 of 13
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
The Ironies Of Affirmative Action, Kermit Roosevelt Iii
The Ironies Of Affirmative Action, Kermit Roosevelt Iii
All Faculty Scholarship
The Supreme Court’s most recent confrontation with race-based affirmative action, Fisher v. University of Texas, did not live up to people’s expectations—or their fears. The Court did not explicitly change the current approach in any substantial way. It did, however, signal that it wants race-based affirmative action to be subject to real strict scrutiny, not the watered-down version featured in Grutter v. Bollinger. That is a significant signal, because under real strict scrutiny, almost all race-based affirmative action programs are likely unconstitutional. This is especially true given the conceptual framework the Court has created for such programs—the way …
Ut Case Was Stop On Road To Brown V. Board Of Education, Thomas D. Russell
Ut Case Was Stop On Road To Brown V. Board Of Education, Thomas D. Russell
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
“Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice” is Gary Lavergne’s treatment of Sweatt v. Painter, an important 1950 Supreme Court decision on the way to Brown. Lavergne, director of admissions research at the University of Texas, tells an interesting and important story that fills many gaps between Plessy and Brown.
Rehnquist's Missing Letter: A Former Law Clerk's 1955 Thoughts On Justice Jackson And Brown, John Q. Barrett, Brad Snyder
Rehnquist's Missing Letter: A Former Law Clerk's 1955 Thoughts On Justice Jackson And Brown, John Q. Barrett, Brad Snyder
Faculty Publications
"I think that Plessy v. Ferguson was right and should be reaffirmed." That's what Supreme Court law clerk William H. Rehnquist wrote privately in December 1952 to his boss, Justice Robert H. Jackson. When the memorandum was made public in 1971 and Rehnquist's Supreme Court confirmation hung in the balance, he claimed that the memorandum reflected Jackson's views, not Rehnquist's. Rehnquist was confirmed, but his explanation triggered charges that he had lied and smeared the memory of one of the Court's most revered justices. This Essay analyzes a newly discovered document—a letter Rehnquist wrote to Justice Felix Frankfurter in 1955, …
Racial Inclusion, Exclusion And Segregation In Constitutional Law, Michelle Adams
Racial Inclusion, Exclusion And Segregation In Constitutional Law, Michelle Adams
Faculty Articles
In Part I of the Article, I examine early cases in which the Court described segregation as a form of resource "lock-up." In several cases leading up to Brown, the Court detailed how racial segregation allows a more dominant group to hoard substantial societal resources. In these early cases, the Court's focus was on segregation as a mechanism for excluding individuals from valuable benefits on the basis of race; it did not speak explicitly to the harms associated with racial classification schemes. In this Part of the Article, I also return to Brown v. Board of Education and explore the …
"Neutral" Principles: Rethinking The Legal History Of Civil Rights, 1934-1964, Anders Walker
"Neutral" Principles: Rethinking The Legal History Of Civil Rights, 1934-1964, Anders Walker
All Faculty Scholarship
This paper recovers Columbia Law Professor Herbert Wechsler's constitutional involvement in the long civilrights movement. Derided for criticizing Brown v. Board of Education in 1959, Wechsler first became involved in civil rights litigation in the 1930s, continued to be interested in civil rights issues in the 1940s, and argued one of the most important civil rights cases to come before the Supreme Court in the 1960s. His critique of Brown, this article maintains, derived not from a disinterest in the black struggle but from a larger conviction that racial reform should be process rather than rights-based. By recovering Wechsler's approach, …
Brown And The Colorblind Constitution, Christopher W. Schmidt
Brown And The Colorblind Constitution, Christopher W. Schmidt
All Faculty Scholarship
This Essay offers the first in-depth examination of the role of colorblind constitutionalism in the history of Brown v. Board of Education. In light of the recent Supreme Court ruling in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School Dist. No. 1 (2007), such an examination is needed today more than ever. In this case, Chief Justice John Roberts drew on the history of Brown to support his conclusion that racial classifications in school assignment policies are unconstitutional. Particularly controversial was the Chief Justice's use of the words of the NAACP lawyers who argued Brown as evidence for his colorblind …
The Nuremberg Trials And American Jurisprudence: The Decline Of Legal Realism, The Revival Of Natural Law, And The Development Of Legal Process Theory, Rodger D. Citron
The Nuremberg Trials And American Jurisprudence: The Decline Of Legal Realism, The Revival Of Natural Law, And The Development Of Legal Process Theory, Rodger D. Citron
Scholarly Works
No abstract provided.
"The Dean Of Chicago's Black Lawyers": Earl Dickerson And Civil Rights Lawyering In The Years Before Brown, Jay Tidmarsh, Stephen Robinson
"The Dean Of Chicago's Black Lawyers": Earl Dickerson And Civil Rights Lawyering In The Years Before Brown, Jay Tidmarsh, Stephen Robinson
Journal Articles
Brown v. Board of Education is a watershed in American law and society. In the years since it was decided, Brown has shaped America's views of race, constitutionalism, and equality. Brown exerts an equally important influence over the historiography of civil rights lawyering in the decades before Brown. In particular, in constructing the story of civil rights lawyering in the crucial years between World War I and World War II, historians and legal scholars have focused primarily on the people and the events that shaped Brown.
Under A Critical Race Theory Lens -- Brown V. Board Of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone And Its Troubled Legacy, Carlo A. Pedrioli
Under A Critical Race Theory Lens -- Brown V. Board Of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone And Its Troubled Legacy, Carlo A. Pedrioli
Faculty Scholarship
This critical book review argues that James T. Patterson’s narrative in, "Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy," is a mostly balanced historical reflection. Here, the term balanced will refer to giving consideration to both the negative and positive aspects of the phenomenon in question. To advance its thesis, the book review initially offers an overview of Patterson’s historical narrative and evaluation of the Brown legacy. Then the book review analyzes Patterson’s conclusions through a Critical Race Theory lens. Given the focus of Critical Race Theory on race and the law, especially on how …
Equal Educational Opportunity By The Numbers: The Warren Court's Empirical Legacy, Michael Heise
Equal Educational Opportunity By The Numbers: The Warren Court's Empirical Legacy, Michael Heise
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
By drawing upon empirical social science evidence to inform a core tenet of the Court's understanding of equal education the Warren Court established one of its enduring - if under-appreciated - legacies: The increased empiricization of the equal educational opportunity doctrine. All three major subsequent legal efforts to restructure public schools and equalize educational opportunities among students - post-Brown school desegregation, finance, and choice litigation - evidence an increasingly empiricized equal educational opportunity doctrine. If my central claim is correct, it becomes important to consider the consequences of this development. I consider two in this Article and find both benefits …
Before Brown: Charles H. Houston And The Gaines Case, Douglas O. Linder
Before Brown: Charles H. Houston And The Gaines Case, Douglas O. Linder
Faculty Works
In 1895 in Plessy v. Ferguson the Supreme Court announced the legal principle, separate but equal, that would guide American race relations for over half a century. For Charles Houston, the training of black lawyers was a key to mounting an attack on segregation. While at Harvard, Houston wrote that there must be Negro lawyers in every community and that the great majority of these lawyers must come from Negro schools. It was, he concluded, in the best interests of the United States - to provide the best teachers possible at law schools where Negroes might be trained. After graduating …
Thurgood Marshall And The Forgotten Legacy Of Brown V. Board Of Education, Kenneth F. Ripple
Thurgood Marshall And The Forgotten Legacy Of Brown V. Board Of Education, Kenneth F. Ripple
Journal Articles
On May 17, 1979, the United States celebrated, with relatively little public ceremony, the twenty-fifth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. Two years earlier, another anniversary was celebrated even more quietly as Thurgood Marshall, the principal architect of the school desegregation litigation, celebrated his first decade as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Anniversaries are traditionally a time both of celebration and reflection. These particular anniversaries are appropriate occasions for celebration since each marks an important milestone in American life. At the same time, both present a unique opportunity for reflection upon and reassessment of …
The School Desegregation Cases In Retrospect—Some Reflections On Causes And Effects, Yale Kamisar
The School Desegregation Cases In Retrospect—Some Reflections On Causes And Effects, Yale Kamisar
Book Chapters
Recently, when asked to give a lecture on appellate advocacy, Justice Thurgood Marshall reminded his audience what Judge Benjamin Cardozo had once said: "The great tides and currents which engulf the rest of men do not turn aside in their course and pass judges by." An outstanding example, he might have added, is Brown v. Board of Education.
In a sense, the significant changes which have occurred in the Black man's status in the last two decades had their beginnings in the rise of numerically, and hence politically, important Black communities in the North. For the importance of civil rights …