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A Survey Of Federal Agency Responses To President Clinton’S Executive Order Number 12898 On Environmental Justice, Eileen Gauna, Denis Binder, Colin Crawford, M. Casey Jarman, Alice Kaswan, Catherine A. O'Neill, Clifford Rechtschaffen, Bradford C. Mank, Robert R.M. Verchick Jul 2001

A Survey Of Federal Agency Responses To President Clinton’S Executive Order Number 12898 On Environmental Justice, Eileen Gauna, Denis Binder, Colin Crawford, M. Casey Jarman, Alice Kaswan, Catherine A. O'Neill, Clifford Rechtschaffen, Bradford C. Mank, Robert R.M. Verchick

Faculty Scholarship

In an effort to address the well-documented and serious problem of environmental justice in the United States, President William J. Clinton issued Executive Order (EO) No. 128981 on February 11, 1994. The EO represented the culmination of a century of rapid changes in society's attitudes toward the placement of hazardous facilities in poor, disadvantaged, and minority communities, as well as the denial of services to these communities. This survey examines the impact of the EO on federal agencies. Environmental justice is not a problem unique to the late 20th century. Majoritarian societies have historically discriminated against minority groups.3 For example, …


Epa At Thirty: Fairness In Environmental Protection, Eileen Gauna Jul 2001

Epa At Thirty: Fairness In Environmental Protection, Eileen Gauna

Faculty Scholarship

This Article looks at how EPA is managing the fairness issue in a discrete but highly charged context: permit issuances that affect heavily impacted communities. This Article first provides a discussion of how fairness-oriented reform might evolve within the permit process. This section also examines permit issuances that were appealed to the U.S. Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) on environmental justice grounds. Proceeding one step beyond environmental law, the Article looks at how EPA is responding to claims of disparate impact under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. However, rather than focus on the intricacies of legal doctrine under Title …


Brief For The American Association On Mental Retardation, The Arc Of The United States, The American Orthopsychiatric Association, Physicians For Human Rights, The American Network Of Community Options And Resources, The Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation, The Judge David L. Bazelon Center For Mental Health Law, And The National Association Of Protection And Advocacy Systems As Amici Curiae, April Land, James W. Ellis, Christian G. Fritz, Michael B. Browde Jun 2001

Brief For The American Association On Mental Retardation, The Arc Of The United States, The American Orthopsychiatric Association, Physicians For Human Rights, The American Network Of Community Options And Resources, The Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation, The Judge David L. Bazelon Center For Mental Health Law, And The National Association Of Protection And Advocacy Systems As Amici Curiae, April Land, James W. Ellis, Christian G. Fritz, Michael B. Browde

Faculty Scholarship

The American people first became aware of the issue of mental retardation and the death penalty around the time of this Court’s decision in Penry. In the intervening years, all available forms of evidence demonstrate an unmistakable national consensus that people with mental retardation should not be executed. Petitioner, as well as other supporting amici, will present this Court with the compelling clinical, moral, and constitutional reasons why such executions violate the Eighth Amendment. Amici American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) et al. offer a somewhat different perspective. Since the Court’s evaluation of whether a national consensus exists is essentially …


Rescuing Paha Sapa: Achieving Environmental Justice By Restoring The Great Grasslands And Returning The Sacred Black Hills To The Great Sioux Nation, John P. Lavelle Apr 2001

Rescuing Paha Sapa: Achieving Environmental Justice By Restoring The Great Grasslands And Returning The Sacred Black Hills To The Great Sioux Nation, John P. Lavelle

Faculty Scholarship

Looking at a unique proposal of the Conservation Alliance of the Great Plains for establishing a "Greater Black Hills Wildlife Protected Area" in the Northern Plains region. Especially in light of the proposal's potential impacts on the continuing efforts of the Sioux tribes of this region to secure the return of the sacred Black Hills to sovereign tribal ownership.


From Noriega To Pinochet: Is There An International Moral And Legal Right To Kidnap Individuals Accused Of Gross Human Rights Violations?, Sherri L. Burr Jan 2001

From Noriega To Pinochet: Is There An International Moral And Legal Right To Kidnap Individuals Accused Of Gross Human Rights Violations?, Sherri L. Burr

Faculty Scholarship

This article concerns the moral conceptions of justice and whether there should be an international legal right to kidnap individuals accused of gross human rights violations, and whether they should be brought before national and international judicial forums. This focus is based around the case of Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain, a Mexican citizen, who was kidnapped from his medical office in Guadalajara, Mexico, at the behest of United States Drug Enforcement Agents (DEA) in 1990.


Whither The Accountability Theory: Second-Class Status For Third-Party Refugees As A Threat To International Protection, Jennifer Moore Jan 2001

Whither The Accountability Theory: Second-Class Status For Third-Party Refugees As A Threat To International Protection, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

This article cautions that the accountability theory strikes at the very heart of international protection, by threatening the international consensus underlying the provision of asylum to refugees. Part 2 presents a conceptual analysis of the accountability theory and its fundamental inconsistency with the principle of refugee protection. This philosophical approach is followed in Part 3 by a pragmatic examination of the impact of the accountability theory in the context of a regional burden-sharing regime that allows a European State, under certain circumstances, to return an asylum seeker to the country of first asylum. Part 3 concentrates on two asylum cases …


Recurring Problems In Indian Gaming, Kevin Washburn Jan 2001

Recurring Problems In Indian Gaming, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

This essay briefly summarizes the history and legal framework of Indian gaming, describes the recent growth in the industry, and discusses some of the legal controversies that have been repeated across the country as states and tribes adjust to their respective roles in the Indian gaming industry.


Staying Alive: Executive Clemency, Equal Protection, And The Politics Of Gender In Women's Capital Cases, Elizabeth Rapaport Jan 2001

Staying Alive: Executive Clemency, Equal Protection, And The Politics Of Gender In Women's Capital Cases, Elizabeth Rapaport

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, I will review the matrix in which executive decisions in women's capital clemency cases are made, a matrix supplied by modern equal protection law, the nature and scope of the clemency power, gender politics, and contemporary death row. I will then conduct two thought experiments. Each invented case tests the relevance of gender in legally and politically acceptable contemporary clemency decisions. The goal is to understand the politics and law of granting or denying that very rare boon-commutation of sentence - to a female death row prisoner. The exercise offers support for two conclusions. In the age …


Learning Through Service In A Clinical Setting: The Effect Of Specialization On Social Justice & Skills Training, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez Jan 2001

Learning Through Service In A Clinical Setting: The Effect Of Specialization On Social Justice & Skills Training, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

Arguing against the trend toward specialization in clinical legal education, this essay addresses potential limitations of specialized legal clinics in furthering the dual mission of clinical legal education: social justice and skills training. It points out that specialized clinics limit access to justice by leaving the myriad needs of clients partially unmet. They limit students' learning about the complex needs of clients and students' ability to discover broad inequities in the legal system. Specialization makes it more difficult to train students to be creative problem solvers, and affects their professional socialization


Class In Latcrit: Theory And Praxis In A World Of Economic Inequality (Foreword), Margaret E. Montoya Jan 2001

Class In Latcrit: Theory And Praxis In A World Of Economic Inequality (Foreword), Margaret E. Montoya

Faculty Scholarship

The fifth annual Latina/o critical legal theory ("LatCrit") conference was held on May 4-7, 2000 in Breckenridge, Colorado. The mountain resorts of Colorado present an almost metaphorical location for a critical theory meeting. The majesty and apparent harmony of the natural environment contrast so vividly with the cotidian conflicts in the human environment, and the elites exhibit a banal oblivion to the vicious racial and class-based violence that provide the grist for critical theorists. These resort locations dedicated to a lifestyle of money, recreation and pampering and infused with the invisible oxygen of privilege offer a space for theoretical work …


The Georgia Immigration Pardons: A Case Study In Mass Clemency, Elizabeth Rapaport Jan 2001

The Georgia Immigration Pardons: A Case Study In Mass Clemency, Elizabeth Rapaport

Faculty Scholarship

The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) enlarged the class of aliens subject to mandatory deportation as "aggravated felons" under the Immigration and Nationality Act. There is only one way of avoiding deportation where a non-citizen has at any time in the past been convicted of an offense triggering removal, and that is to obtain a pardon. Over the 15-month period ending in June of 2001, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole granted 138 pardons to permanent resident aliens who had suddenly found themselves subject to deportation under IIRAIRA. Recipients of these pardons included people who …


Grooming Crossovers, Alfred Dennis Mathewson Jan 2001

Grooming Crossovers, Alfred Dennis Mathewson

Faculty Scholarship

This article is about the influence of African-American athletes on sports and sports law in the United States. It begins with an examination of the crossover Black athlete, one who is able to transcend color in popular consciousness and appeal to appeal to a racially diverse audience. This article studies African-American athletes from the 1950s to the present, and explores two distinct crossover models: the Jackie Robinson Model and the Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson Model. The article argues that the initial wave of African-American athletes were groomed to integrate predominantly White educational and sports institutions. The article further maintains that …


Ethnocentrism And Feminism: Using A Contextual Methodology In International Women's Rights Advocacy And Education, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez Jan 2001

Ethnocentrism And Feminism: Using A Contextual Methodology In International Women's Rights Advocacy And Education, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

I have proposed a method of comparative analysis that respects culture by contextualizing analysis of women's issues. I believe that we can help women around the world improve their lives while retaining their cultural values and identity. We can use comparative law as a tool to help identify laws that successfully address women's needs and those that do not. Comparative theory does not posit an evaluation of the law determining which law or legal system is "better." Rather, comparative theory can illuminate differences based on systemic and cultural diversity. Understanding these differences can help us understand how best to use …


Cleaning Up The Tracks: Superfund Meets Rails-To-Trails, Clifford J. Villa Jan 2001

Cleaning Up The Tracks: Superfund Meets Rails-To-Trails, Clifford J. Villa

Faculty Scholarship

For more than one hundred years, railroad cars rumbled and roared along tracks in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin, serving the mining industry in the Panhandle of northern Idaho. As in many parts of the American West, the history of railroads in northern Idaho largely reflects the history of mining in the region. The first gold was discovered in this area in 1883, the same year that the area saw its first line of the Northern Pacific Railroad. In 1885, the Bunker Hill mine was established near the present town of Kellogg. Four years later, the first rail line of …


Did The Fifteenth Amendment Apply In Bush V. Gore, Alfred Dennis Mathewson Jan 2001

Did The Fifteenth Amendment Apply In Bush V. Gore, Alfred Dennis Mathewson

Faculty Scholarship

The story comes to mind now because the Supreme Court rendered its decision in Bush v. Gore1 without any reference to the Fifteenth Amendment in the opinion or any mention of it by any Justice or lawyer in the oral argument. The Amendment provides that "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude." If I had been a Justice I would have asked the lawyers whether the Fifteenth Amendment was at all relevant to …


Mary Daily V. Boston College: The Impermissibility Of Single-Sex Classes In Private Universities, Maryam Ahranjani Jan 2001

Mary Daily V. Boston College: The Impermissibility Of Single-Sex Classes In Private Universities, Maryam Ahranjani

Faculty Scholarship

This Comment discusses the rationale underlying single-sex education and the diversity in its implementation. This Comment argues that not only are single-sex classrooms withing private undergraduate institutions legally unsound, but also that this approach fails to address long-term public policy concerns about the situation of women in education. As the United States grapples with education reform, it is far too easy to initiate Band-Aid solutions. Single-sex education, ranging from single-sex classrooms to single-sex public schools, should exist as an option, but Title IX and equal protection standards must be satisfied. The first section of this article discusses the historical perspective …


The Uniform Mediation Act: To The Spoiled Go The Privileges, Scott H. Hughes Jan 2001

The Uniform Mediation Act: To The Spoiled Go The Privileges, Scott H. Hughes

Faculty Scholarship

The Uniform Mediation Act, as currently written and approved by NCCUSL, may unnecessarily cause the destruction of self-determination in many cases. The provisions demonstrate favoritism for mediators and may result in damage to the integrity of the process. Further, the nature of the provisions restricting the parties access to the exceptions to the privilege may both increase the number of lawsuits against mediators and also encourage wrongful behavior on the part of disputants. None of this will ultimately inure to the benefit of mediation as an institution. If it is necessary to have a privilege for mediation, certain elements should …


Strengthening Tribal Sovereignty Through Indian Participation In American Politics: A Reply To Professor Porter, John P. Lavelle Jan 2001

Strengthening Tribal Sovereignty Through Indian Participation In American Politics: A Reply To Professor Porter, John P. Lavelle

Faculty Scholarship

A rebuttal to Porter's recent article The Demise of the Ongwehoweh and the Rise ofthe Native Americans: Redressing the Genocidal Act of Forcing American Citizenship upon Indigenous Peoples


Integrating Indian Law Into A First Year Legal Writing Course, Barbara P. Blumenfeld Jan 2001

Integrating Indian Law Into A First Year Legal Writing Course, Barbara P. Blumenfeld

Faculty Scholarship

When the author designed the appellate problem for first-year law students, she chose Indian Law because the learning experience transcends subject-specificity. The author discusses how she designs the problem and introduces it to students, and notes reactions from students as they research and prepare their brief.


Television And Societal Effects: An Analysis Of Media Images Of African-Americans In Historical Context, Sherri L. Burr Jan 2001

Television And Societal Effects: An Analysis Of Media Images Of African-Americans In Historical Context, Sherri L. Burr

Faculty Scholarship

This paper takes a historical approach to the depictions of African-Americans in television in the five decades since the 1950s and links those images to the changing roles and perceptions of African-Americans in society. Part I discusses the various television shows from the 1950s to the 1990s that featured African-Americans and have had a societal impact. Part II analyzes the chicken/egg relationship between networks and advertisers and asks whether television, given the economic forces affecting it, can be used as a force for change. Part III explores how these television images have affected foreigners and children. Television remains "without a …


Funding Long Term Care: Is There A Way To Ensure That Our Assets Will Last Longer Than We Will?, Nathalie Martin Jan 2001

Funding Long Term Care: Is There A Way To Ensure That Our Assets Will Last Longer Than We Will?, Nathalie Martin

Faculty Scholarship

Long-term care is a subject of great concern to most elders. Stripping away the emotional hype and confusing lingo surrounding this topic is essential to making sound decisions. This article pares away all the extraneous complications and lays out the options that are currently available to elders, paying particular attention to the methods available to fund long-term care if or when it is needed.