Digital Commons Network^™

Why France Needs To Collect Data On Racial Identity . . . In A French Way., David B. Oppenheimer

David B Oppenheimer

Don’T Tell, Don’T Ask: Narrow Tailoring After Grutter And Gratz, Ian Ayres, Sydney Foster

Ian Ayres

The Supreme Court’s affirmative action decisions in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger changed the meaning of “narrow tailoring.” While the narrow tailoring requirement has always had multiple dimensions, a central meaning has been that the government must use the smallest racial preference needed to achieve its compelling interest. We might have expected, therefore, that if the Court were to uphold one of the two programs at issue in Grutter and Gratz, it would, all other things being equal, uphold the program with smaller racial preferences. We show, however, that the preferences in the admissions program upheld in Grutter …

Freeriders And Diversity In The Legal Academy, Ediberto Roman, Christopher Carbot

Ediberto Roman

Diversity is a bedrock principle of the legal academy. American law schools have accordingly adopted the principle by virtue of their membership in the professional accrediting organizations of the American Bar Association(ABA) and the American Association of Law Schools(AALS). This article uses empirical analysis as well as microeconomic theory to demonstrate that despite the above pronouncements, one half of American law schools have failed to fully integrate and are thus not abiding by their commitments to the ABA and AALS.

Reflections On The Technicolor Right To Association In American Labor And Employment Law, Paul M. Secunda

Paul M. Secunda

It is time to rethink how the United States enforces the right of association in the workplace. The proliferation of political associational rights, intimate association rights, and expressive association rights in the constitutional sphere over the last thirty years has made the scope of this fundamental civil liberty confusing and hard to enforce. Outside of the constitutional framework, which generally applies only to public employees, low union density and the lack of common law associational claims have made private-sector employees' associational rights vulnerable. The unfortunate consequence may be that American workers currently enjoy less associational freedoms than almost any other …

Valuing Integration: Lessons From Teachers, Wendy Marie Parker

Wendy Marie Parker

The Supreme Court ended its last term by making unconstitutional a choice Brown v. Board of Education once required – the voluntary, and race conscious, pursuit of integration – to little public outcry. As a society, we continue to find comfort in segregation. This Article argues that this acceptance is wrong, both educationally and constitutionally. It does so through the lens of teacher segregation, a topic all but ignored in the current literature. The first step of this argument is demonstrating, by an original empirical study, the segregation of teachers, thereby proving a more profound school segregation than is generally …

"Simplify You, Classify You": Stigma, Stereotypes And Civil Rights In Disability Classification Systems, Michael L. Perlin

Michael L Perlin

Abstract:

In this paper I consider the question of the extent to which sanism and pretextuality - the factors that contaminate all of mental disability law - do or do not equally contaminate the special education process, and the decision to label certain children as learning disabled. The thesis of this paper is that the process of labeling of children with intellectual disabilities implicates at least five conflicts and clusters of policy issues:

1. The need to insure that all children receive adequate education

2. The need to insure that the cure is not worse than the illness (that is, …

No Right To Respect: Dred Scott And The Southern Honor Culture, Cecil J. Hunt

Cecil J. Hunt II

Article Abstract: No Right to Respect: Dred Scott and the Southern Honor Culture; by Professor Cecil J. Hunt, II This article reflects on the 150th anniversary of the infamous decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford, 19 How. (60 U.S.) 393 (1857) in which the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the constitutionality of slavery. This essay is part of the considerable national effort by all of the constituencies in the American legal community to reflect on this infamous case and consider the distance the nation has come since it was decided as well as its continuing legacy on the …

Antisubordination Of Whom? What India’S Answer Tells Us About The Meaning Of Equality In Affirmative Action, Sean Pager

Seattle University

Who should be the beneficiaries of race-conscious affirmative action? Conspicuous by its absence in the US affirmative action debate, this question takes us beyond conventional majority/minority discourse and forces us to confront questions of comparative entitlement. Asking the “Who Question” serves to illuminate a much larger debate over the nature of equality itself. Two paradigms of equal protection compete in modern scholarship: antidiscrimination vs. antisubordination. Yet, neither offers a satisfactory method to select affirmative action beneficiaries on its own.

The Supreme Court’s current antidiscrimination approach to affirmative action remains incomplete. In focusing solely on remedying particularized underrepresentation, the Court tells …

Antisubordination Of Whom? What India’S Answer Tells Us About The Meaning Of Equality In Affirmative Action, Sean Pager

Seattle University

Who should be the beneficiaries of race-conscious affirmative action? Conspicuous by its absence in the US affirmative action debate, this question takes us beyond conventional majority/minority discourse and forces us to confront questions of comparative entitlement. Asking the “Who Question” serves to illuminate a much larger debate over the nature of equality itself. Two paradigms of equal protection compete in modern scholarship: antidiscrimination vs. antisubordination. Yet, neither offers a satisfactory method to select affirmative action beneficiaries on its own.

The Supreme Court’s current antidiscrimination approach to affirmative action remains incomplete. In focusing solely on remedying particularized underrepresentation, the Court tells …

The Judicial Restraint Of The Warren Court (And Why It Matters), Rebecca E. Zietlow

Rebecca E Zietlow

Abstract: The Judicial Restraint of the Warren Court (and Why it Matters)

This article argues that the strongest contribution that the Warren Court made to expanding equality rights was not its judicial activism in protecting those rights, but its restraint in allowing Congress to protect those rights. This argument may seem counter-intuitive given that the Warren Court is practically synonymous with judicial activism. Indeed, the Warren Court’s activism in protecting individual rights provides the paradigm for those constitutional scholars who argue that an active judiciary is necessary for the adequate protection of those rights. However, this paradigm is relatively new. …

"Avoiding Harm Otherwise": Reframing Women Employees' Responses To The Harms Of Sexual Harassment, Margaret Johnson

Margaret E Johnson

This article concerns the concepts of employee harm and harm avoidance within the liability framework for hostile work environment sexual harassment by a supervisor. Whether an employer is liable for supervisor sexual harassment depends in part on whether or not the employee avoids her harm or mitigates her damages resulting from the sexual harassment. Despite the law’s interest in employee’s harm avoidance, courts have failed to fully explore the vast array of harms resulting from sexual harassment and the variety of ways in which an employee avoids these multiple harms. This article reframes the legal discussion of an employee’s actions …

Dangerous Bodies: Freak Shows, Expression, And Exploitation, Brigham A. Fordham

Brigham A Fordham

The freak shows of the late 1800s and early 1900s, which traveled the nation exhibiting “human oddities” for profit, are regaining popularity as an underground form of entertainment. While some non-legal scholars have investigated the meaning of freak shows in American culture, little attention has been paid to the laws that regulate freak shows or the legal rights of freak show participants. This Article seeks to introduce legal discourse into the discussion of freak shows and, in the process, to comment on legal approaches to preventing discrimination against persons who are physically different. Drawing upon the theories and analysis of …

Time To Step Up: Modeling The African American Ethnivestor For Self Help Entrepreneurship In Urban America, Roger M. Groves

Roger M. Groves

Almost $6 billion in taxes paid by the American people have been rather ubiquitously placed in the hands of a federal subsidy program for investors in low income communities. The subsidy is in the form of a tax credit. The program is entitled the New Markets Tax Credit (“NMTC”) initiative. Under the program, the tax credit is used to lure investors to provide equity capital into low income areas, urban and/or rural (i.e. a new market for equity funding). According to my companion law review article (Florida Tax Review, Spring, 2007; The Florida Tax Review was ranked 1st among tax …

Liberdade No Mundo Moderno E O Estado Meio, Ivo T. Gico

Ivo Teixeira Gico Jr.

A liberdade é elencada como valor supremo de nossa sociedade na Constituição Federal. Seríamos, contudo, um povo livre? Seriam as restrições impostas à liberdade essenciais para garantir outros valores sociais ou mesmo a própria liberdade ou não passa de discurso para legitimar a imposição antidemocrática de valores não-dominantes? O presente artigo é o primeiro de uma série de pequenos ensaios visando incitar inquietude àqueles que acreditam viver em um país livre e democrático.

Freedom is often listed as a supreme value of our society in the Federal Constitution. Are we, however, a free society? Are the restrictions imposed on freedom …

Liberdade De Voto, Ivo T. Gico

Ivo Teixeira Gico Jr.

Este artigo visa a demonstrar que não vige no Brasil uma democracia plena e livre como se acredita, ilustrando essa tese por meio da análise do chamado voto-dever ou voto-obrigação. É possível que, em um país que se pretende democrático, o mais significante dos atos de cidadania seja, não um direito, mas uma obrigação, haja vista que o próprio conceito de obrigação legal implica necessariamente na redução da esfera de liberdade do indivíduo?

This paper shows the reader that democracy in Brazil is not as free as it seems while analizes the "vote-obligation". Is it possible, in a Democratic State, …