Digital Commons Network^™

Strictly Intersectional Scrutiny: A Recommendation For Transforming The Epc To Highlight Queer Black Women, Kayla M. Richardson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) and how this interpretation can become more intersectional for Black queer women. This question is explored within the scope of two theoretical frameworks: Derrick Bell’s theory of interest convergence and Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality. This project examines whether any factors compel SCOTUS to be more intersectional in its approach to the Fourteenth Amendment. Simultaneously, this study also considers what social contexts make SCOTUS more likely to focus on the interests of the oppressor, a demographic …

Chevron'S Ghost Rides Again, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Gary Lawson has offered a remarkable account of the fate of the Chevron doctrine during a recent year in the Supreme Court, from August 2021 to June 2022. When one examines lower court decisions, petitions seeking review of those decisions, briefs filed by the parties, and transcripts of oral arguments, Chevron made frequent appearances during the year. But when one reads the published opinions of the Court, one finds virtually no reference to Chevron. Based on the published opinions of the Court, it was as if the Chevron decision did not exist.

The status of Chevron as a …

A 6-3 Supreme Court Could Allow The Government To Openly Discriminate In Its Policies, Katherine A. Shaw, Leah Litman

Faculty Online Publications

Over the past few days, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear challenges to hot-button Trump administration policies involving the border wall, an attempt to exclude noncitizens from the census breakdown used for allocating seats in Congress and limits on who can apply for asylum from Mexico.

How Strong Does The Evidence Against Kavanaugh Need To Be?, Katherine A. Shaw

Faculty Online Publications

The allegation made by Christine Blasey Ford — that at age 15 she was the victim of a sexual assault by a 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh — has not only upended Judge Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings, but has also left Americans wondering what standards should apply to an accusation like this.

The Age Of Scalia, Jamal Greene

Faculty Scholarship

During periods of apparent social dissolution the traditionalists, the true believers, the defenders of the status quo, turn to the past with an interest quite as obsessive as that of the radicals, the reformers, and the revolutionaries. What the true believers look for, and find, is proof that, once upon a time, things were as we should like them to be: the laws of economics worked; the streams of legal doctrine ran sweet and pure; order, tranquility, and harmony governed our society. Their message is: turn back and all will be well.

Arbitration In The Roberts Supreme Court, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court’s most recent set of arbitration law rulings — Stolt-Nielsen, S.A. v. AnimalFeeds Int’l, Rent-A-Center West v. Jackson, and AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion — merits all the attention it has been receiving. Taken collectively, the three decisions evidence the powerful commitment of a Supreme Court majority to arbitration as an alternative form of dispute resolution — a commitment so strong as to override important consumer welfare interests. At a minimum, the trilogy erects substantial barriers to the conduct of class arbitration, a form of arbitration that consumer advocates regard as essential to protecting consumer welfare.

In …

What He Was For, Eben Moglen

Faculty Scholarship

It will be said frequently in the years to come that an era in American history died when Thurgood Marshall left us. It will take some time for us to absorb the truth, for our sadness to be replaced by desperation. More than an era closed when his gallant heart failed him at last; in every corner of our battered country, maimed as it is by years of recklessly cultivated hatred, we lost the voice that constantly called us to attend to the work of our salvation.

A Vigil For Thurgood Marshall, Eben Moglen

Faculty Scholarship

Three days after his death, on January 27th, Thurgood Marshall came to the Supreme Court, up the marble steps, for the last time. Congress had ordered Abraham Lincoln's catafalque brought to the Court, and on it the casket of Thurgood Marshall lay in state. His beloved Chief, Earl Warren, had been so honored in the Great Hall of the Court, and no one else. Congress made the right decision about the bier, and it spoke with the voice of the people: no other American, of any age, so deserved to lie where Lincoln slept.

To him, all day on Wednesday, …