Digital Commons Network^™

Setting Aside The Will Of The Plaintiffs: How And Why The 1950s School-Desegregation Strategy Marginalized Experiences Of Black Self-Determination In Unequal Schools And Examples Of Black Self-Sufficiency In Equalization Plans, Amos N. Jones

Georgia State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Democracy Means That The People Make The Law, Gerald Torres

New England Journal of Public Policy

Gerald Torres delivered the Robert C. Wood lecture at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at University of Massachusetts Boston in 2006. This is his talk.

Note: Johnson V. California: A Grayer Shade Of Brown, Brandon N. Robinson

Brandon N. Robinson

For decades, the famous school desegregation case of Brown v. Board of Education and its progeny have supported the notion that a State may not constitutionally require [racial] segregation of public facilities. Indeed, with regard to state-mandated racial segregation, the doctrine of separate but equal has long been considered dead and buried. In February 2005, however, the Supreme Court of the United States in Johnson v. California curiously reopened the segregation question by replacing the post-Brown ban on racial segregation with the strict scrutiny standard of review afforded to all other racial classifications, thereby muddying the once clear doctrinal waters. …

The Convicted Felon As A Guardian: Considering The Alternatives Of Potential Guardians With Less-Than-Perfect Records, Mike Jorgensen

ExpressO

Courts require discretion in appointing guardians. Oftentimes, the legislature prevents the courts from exercising discretion when statutes are enacted that prohibit felons from serving as guardians under any circumstances. Yet, the need for guardians is increasing and will continue to do so due to the exponential growth in the aging elder population.

At the same time, however, the pool of potential guardians is shrinking in size. Additionally, the same reducing pool of eligible guardians is being attenuated further by having a disproportionate amount of felonies.

The groups most impacted by these trends are the indigent and the minorities. The indigent …

No Due Process: How The Death Penalty Violates The Constitutional Rights Of The Family Members Of Death Row Prisoners, Rachel C. King

ExpressO

The article makes the case for a novel theory that the death penalty violates the constitutional rights of the family members of death row prisoners. First, the article establishes that Americans are entitled to a fundamental “right to family,” based on a long history of Supreme Court jurisprudence that has established substantive due process rights such as the right to marry, to use contraceptives, to have children, to make educational decisions for children, and decisions about how to configure ones’ household. Next, the article makes the case that the death penalty interferes with the constitutional right to family by harming …

Traditional Values, Or A New Tradition Of Prejudice? The Boy Scouts Of America Vs. The Unitarian Universalist Association Of Congregations, Eric Alan Isaacson

ExpressO

President William Howard Taft, a Unitarian leader whose liberal faith had been viciously attacked by religious conservatives in the 1908 presidential campaign, used the White House as a platform in 1911 to launch a new nonsectarian organization for youth: The Boy Scouts of America (“BSA”). Lately, however, the BSA itself has come under the control of religious conservatives – who in 1992 banned Taft’s denomination from the BSA’s Religious Relationships Committee, and in 1998 threw Taft’s denomination out of its Religious Emblems Program. The denomination’s offense: A tradition of teaching its children that institutionalized discrimination is wrong. Unitarian Universalist religious …

Representative Government, Representative Court? The Supreme Court As A Representative Body, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

In this Symposium Essay, I propose, as a thinking matter, that we expand the number of Supreme Court justices to increase the representation of various demographic groups on the Court. In Part I, I advance the argument that the Court should be regarded as a demographically representative body of the citizens of the United States, and in Part II, I argue that the Court should be enlarged to ensure diverse representation of all voices on the most powerful judicial body of our nation.

Civil Rights In Black And Green: Towards A Transatlantic Understanding Of The Civil Rights Movements In The United States And Northern Ireland, Mollie Gabrys

American Studies Honors Projects

Due to the lack of recognition for the solidarity between movements for civil rights, little formal scholarship acknowledging the relationship between African Americans and Nationalists in Northern Ireland exists. Nationalists in Northern Ireland, however, have long identified with African American civil rights activists in a cross-cultural quest for equality. From Northern Ireland’s very first protests against discrimination, civil rights campaigners firmly aligned themselves with the ideological framework modeled in the United States. In this thesis, I explore the interconnectedness of civil rights struggles in the United States and in Northern Ireland through the use of scholarly, primary, and secondary documents.

Civil Rights Struggle Remembered, Mary Jane Park, Willie J. Allen, Jr.

Newspaper and Magazine Clippings

Two experts on the civil rights movement [John Hope Franklin and Ray Arsenault] hold an eclectic audience in rapt attention

Secrecy In Context: The Shadowy Life Of Civil Rights Litigation, Minna J. Kotkin

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article explores how secrecy has come to pervade employment discrimination litigation as a consequence of procedural and substantive changes in the law over the last twenty-five years. In contrast to products liability and toxic tort claims, where secrecy can endanger the public health and safety, secrecy in the discrimination context has a less dramatic impact and thus, has attracted little attention. But when very few discrimination claims end in a public finding of liability, there is a significant cumulative effect, creating the appearance that workplace bias is largely a thing of the past. The trend towards secrecy can be …

Has Conduct In Iraq Confirmed The Moral Inadequacy Of International Humanitarian Law? Examining The Confluence Between Contract Theory And The Scope Of Civilian Immunity During Armed Conflict, Samuel Vincent Jones

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law

No abstract provided.

Indigenous Rights Wronged: Extinguishing Native Title In New Zealand, Geoffrey Wg Leane

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article is an account of a recent controversy in New Zealand regarding the common law native title rights of indigenous Maori people to a possible title in certain areas of the foreshore and seabed. In overturning its own precedent the New Zealand Court of Appeal had opened the door to such claims. However, the legislature, overwhelmingly supported by the majority non-Maori population, moved quickly to extinguish the inchoate rights with no guarantee of fair compensation. The lack of any constitutional protection ofcivil and political rights, and the absence of alternative institutional checks and balances, allowed the legislation to proceed …

Authors, Friends To Co-Host Discussion On Civil Rights, Mary Jane Park, Herb Snitzer

Newspaper and Magazine Clippings

A longtime civil rights activits and a respected civil rights historian will speak at the Studio@620.

Second-Class Citizens: Jews, Freedom Of Speech, And Intolerance On Canadian University Campuses, Stefan Braun

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Poisoning The Well: Law & Economics And Racial Inequality, Robert E. Suggs

Faculty Scholarship

The standard Law & Economics analysis of racial discrimination has stunted our thinking about race. Its early conclusion, that laws prohibiting racial discrimination were unnecessary and wasteful, discredited economic analysis of racial phenomena within the civil rights community. As a consequence we know little about the impact of racial discrimination on commercial transactions between business firms. Laws do not prohibit racial discrimination in transactions between business firms, and the disparity in business revenues between racial minorities and the white mainstream dwarfs disparities in income by orders of magnitude. This disparity in business revenues is a major factor in the persistence …

Traditional Values Or New Tradition Of Prejudice? The Boy Scouts Of America Vs. The Unitarian Universalist Association Of Congregations, Eric Alan Isaacson

Eric Alan Isaacson

President William Howard Taft, a Unitarian leader whose liberal faith had been viciously attacked by religious conservatives in the 1908 presidential campaign, used the White House as a platform in 1911 to launch a new nonsectarian organization for youth: The Boy Scouts of America (“BSA”). Lately, however, the BSA itself has come under the control of religious conservatives – who in 1992 banned Taft’s denomination from the BSA’s Religious Relationships Committee, and in 1998 threw Taft’s denomination out of its Religious Emblems Program. The denomination’s offense: A tradition of teaching its children that institutionalized discrimination is wrong. Unitarian Universalist religious …

Responsibility For Historical Injustices: Reconceiving The Case For Reparations, Amy J. Sepinwall

Amy J. Sepinwall

Two opposing conceptions of responsibility animate the debate about reparations for slavery. Opponents of reparations espouse an individualist conception, and hold that one may be held responsible only for an action in which she participated directly, and only to the extent that her contribution caused harm. Since no contemporary citizen participated in slavery, opponents conclude that no contemporary citizen has a duty of repair. Supporters of reparations, or reparationists, adopt or develop theories of collective responsibility, according to which responsibility attaches to a group first and foremost, and then gets ascribed to the group's members derivatively. Reparationists thus argue that, …

William Jefferson Clinton, "Racism In The United States" (16 October 1995), Jill M. Weber

Communication Studies Faculty Scholarship

In "Racism in the United States," President Bill Clinton acknowledged racial differences and called upon Americans to "clean our house of racism." Maintaining that the discussion of differences was the first step in alleviating racial tension, Clinton made dialogue a centerpiece of his race initiative. Clinton's approach to civil rights and his emphasis on dialogue marked an important step in the ongoing debates over civil rights in America by illustrating a president's role in shaping such debates.

Civil Rights, Latinos, And Immigration : Cybercascades And Other Distortions In The Immigration Reform Debate, Enid Trucios-Haynes

Brandeis School of Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Intergration Myth: America's Failure To Produce Equal Education Outcomes, Samuel E. Brown

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Religion In The Workplace: New Perspectives And Laws, Marie Mckendall

Seidman Business Review

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act has for 41 years been the law that governs religious discrimination in the workplace. For some Michigan employers, that may be about to change. On November 2, the Michigan House of Representatives passed Bill 972, known as the Conscientious Objector Policy Act. The bill will now go to the Senate, where is it also expected to pass. It is not known whether the governor will sign the bill.

Upholding The Rights Of Citizens, Cynthia Di Pasquale

JD Alumni Magazine

Despite internment and discrimination; UMLaw's first Asian-American graduate has spent a lifetime fighting for civil rights. Meet distinguished graduate Frank F. Chuman.

Renewing The Temporary Provisions Of The Voting Rights Act: Legislative Options After Lulac V. Perry, Sherrilyn A. Ifill

Congressional Testimony

No abstract provided.

Race, Religion And Law: The Tension Between Spirit And Its Institutionalization, George H. Taylor

Articles

My reflections flow from some recent writings by the critical race scholar Derrick Bell. Bell acknowledges that in prior work he has focused on the "the economic, political, and cultural dimensions of racism" but now suggests the possibility of a "deeper foundation" arising from the conjunction that "[m]ost racists are also Christians." This statement is Bell at his best: at once both extremely provocative and extremely unsettling. I want to explore and develop two aspects of Bell's argument.

First, if we want to examine and understand the many dimensions of racism, it is not enough to employ economic, political, or …

Freeing Racial Harassment From The Sexual Harassment Model, Pat K. Chew

Articles

Judges, academics, and lawyers alike base their legal analyses of workplace racial harassment on the sexual harassment model. Legal principles derived from sexual harassment jurisprudence are presumed to be equally appropriate for racial harassment cases. The implicit assumption is that the social harms and public policy goals of racial harassment and sexual harassment are sufficiently similar to justify analogous scrutiny and remedies. Parties to racial harassment cases cite the reasoning and elements of sexual harassment cases without hesitation, as if racial harassment and sexual harassment are behaviorally and legally indistinguishable.

This Article, however, questions the assumption that there should be …

The Empire Forgotten: The Application Of The Bill Of Rights To U.S. Territories, Alan Tauber

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Democracy's Handmaid, Robert L. Tsai

Faculty Scholarship

Democratic theory presupposes open channels of dialogue, but focuses almost exclusively on matters of institutional design writ large. The philosophy of language explicates linguistic infrastructure, but often avoids exploring the political significance of its findings. In this Article, I draw from the two disciplines to reach new insights about the democracy enhancing qualities of popular constitutional language. Employing examples from the founding era, the struggle for black civil rights, the religious awakening of the last two decades, and the search for gay equality, I present a model of constitutional dialogue that emphasizes common modalities and mobilized vernacular. According to this …

Class Actions And The Interpretation Of Monetary Damages Under Federal Rule Of Civil Procedure 23(B)(2), Natasha Dasani

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Democracy's Handmaid, Robert L. Tsai

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Democratic theory presupposes open channels of dialogue, but focuses almost exclusively on matters of institutional design writ large. The philosophy of language explicates linguistic infrastructure, but often avoids exploring the political significance of its findings. In this Article, Tsai draws from the two disciplines to reach new insights about the democracy enhancing qualities of popular constitutional language. Employing examples from the founding era, the struggle for black civil rights, the religious awakening of the last two decades, and the search for gay equality, he presents a model of constitutional dialogue that emphasizes common modalities and mobilized vernacular. According to this …

From Undermining Child Protection Statutes To Creating Exceptions To Prohibitions Against Racial Discrimination In Public Accommodations: The Unsettling Consequences Of Mischaracterizing The Police Reporting Privilege, Peter Zablotsky

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.