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Beyond More Accurate Algorithms: Takeaways From Mccleskey Revisited, Ngozi Okidegbe
Beyond More Accurate Algorithms: Takeaways From Mccleskey Revisited, Ngozi Okidegbe
Faculty Scholarship
McCleskey v. Kemp1 operates as a barrier to using the Equal Protection Clause to achieve racial justice in criminal administration.2 By restricting the use of statistical evidence in equal protection challenges, McCleskey stifled the power of the discriminatory intent doctrine to combat the colorblind racism emanating from facially neutral criminal law statutes and governmental actions.3 But what if McCleskey had been decided differently? Given that Washington v. Davis4 held that the challenged law or governmental action had to be “traced to a discriminatory racial purpose,”5 could McCleskey have articulated an approach to equal protection doctrine …
Ordered Liberty After Dobbs, Linda C. Mcclain, James E. Fleming
Ordered Liberty After Dobbs, Linda C. Mcclain, James E. Fleming
Faculty Scholarship
This Essay explores the implications of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization for the future of substantive due process (SDP) liberties protecting personal autonomy, bodily integrity, familial relationships (including marriage), sexuality, and reproduction. We situate Dobbs in the context of prior battles on the Supreme Court over the proper interpretive approach to deciding what basic liberties the Due Process Clause (DPC) protects. As a framing device, we refer to two competing approaches as “the party of [Justice] Harlan or Casey” versus “the party of Glucksberg.” In Dobbs, the dissent co-authored by Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan represents the party of …
Liberal Feminist Jurisprudence: Foundational, Enduring, Adaptive, Linda C. Mcclain, Brittany K. Hacker
Liberal Feminist Jurisprudence: Foundational, Enduring, Adaptive, Linda C. Mcclain, Brittany K. Hacker
Faculty Scholarship
Liberal feminism remains a significant strand of feminist jurisprudence in the U.S. Rooted in 19th and 20th century liberal and feminist political theory and women’s rights advocacy, it emphasizes autonomy, dignity, and equality. Liberal feminism’s focus remains to challenge unjust gender-based restrictions based on assumptions about men’s and women’s proper spheres and roles. Second wave liberal legal feminism, evident in Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s constitutional litigation, challenged pervasive sex-based discrimination in law and social institutions and shifted the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause to a more skeptical review of gender-based classifications. Liberal feminists have developed robust conceptions of …
Rewriting Brown, Resurrecting Plessy, James E. Fleming
Rewriting Brown, Resurrecting Plessy, James E. Fleming
Faculty Scholarship
It is an honor and a pleasure to ponder Cooper v. AaronI and the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education2 in general and to respond to David A. Strauss's wise and insightful Childress Lecture3 in particular. I want to address three topics. The first two are encapsulated in my title: Rewriting Brown, Resurrecting Plessy. I'll examine the widespread phenomenon of "rewriting Brown." And I'll document what I shall call "resurrecting Plessy": the phenomenon, evident in both liberal and conservative scholarship and opinions, of charging one's opponents with repeating the mistakes of Plessy v. Ferguson.4 I'll illustrate the liberal version …