Digital Commons Network^™

The Bridge Connecting Pontius Pilate's Sentencing Of Jesus To The New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission's Concerns Over Executing The Innocent: When Human Beings With Human Flaws Determine Guilt Or Innocence And Life Or Death, James B. Johnston

James B Johnston

No abstract provided.

The Judicial Ethics Of Criminal Law Adjudication, Keith Swisher

Keith Swisher

Judges in the United States regularly (and often harshly) are disciplined for “bad” criminal law decisions. On a number of levels, it is baffling that this ethical “Rule” — punishing judges for errors of adjudication — has never been the subject of in-depth critical analysis. Thus, this Article is surprisingly the first scholarly work fully deconstructing the Rule (along with attendant considerations in criminal law adjudication) and addressing directly many of the tough questions that have been avoided or mistreated. This Article begins by examining an unexamined, “yet earthshaking” movement—that is, the modern invention of using judicial conduct commissions (“judge …

Culture, Religion, And Indigenous People, David S. Bogen, Leslie F. Goldstein

David S. Bogen

The Constitution treats culture, religion, and government as separate concepts. Different clauses of the First Amendment protect culture and religion from government. For several decades, the Supreme Court of the United States interpreted the First Amendment as offering religion greater protection against interference than was offered to culture, but the Supreme Court largely dissolved these constitutional differences when confronted with issues posed by the religious practices of Native Americans. With some indigenous Americans, the lines between culture, religion, and even government blur – challenging the Supreme Court’s assumptions about the Constitution. The uniqueness of the claims of Native Americans pushed …

The Idea Eligibility Mess, Mark C. Weber

Mark C. Weber

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) guarantees students with disabilities a free public education appropriate to their needs, but students must meet the definition of “child with a disability” to be eligible for that entitlement. The law governing special education eligibility, however, is charitably characterized as a mess. There are several sources of the current eligibility confusion. First, recent court cases have reached conflicting conclusions about how much adverse educational impact the child’s disabling condition must have, what constitutes a sufficient need for special education, and when children with emotional disabilities are eligible. Second, long-established methods for assessing learning …

Torch (January 2009), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

The Notsogolden Years Why Hate Crime Legislation Is Failing A Vulnerable Aging Population, Helia Garrido Hull

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Debunking The Myth Of Civil Rights Liberalism: Visions Of Racial Justice In The Thought Of T. Thomas Fortune, 1880-1890 Symposium: The Lawyer's Role In A Contemporary Democracy: Promoting Social Change And Political Values, Susan Carle

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This essay addresses the development of American understandings of the various roles of lawyers in building democracy by focusing on legal reform efforts in the American civil rights movement. In recent years, the supposed achievements of that movement have come under attack as part of a critique of the ideology of legal liberalism. That critique argues that civil rights lawyers and other activists too greatly emphasized court-focused strategies aimed at achieving what would turn out to be Pyrrhic "civil" rights victories-i.e., gains solely in "formal" equality through requirements enshrined in law as to how the state must treat its citizens.

Preparing For Disaster: Protecting The Most Vulnerable In Emergencies, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

Many federal, state, local and private entities are investing significant resources in disaster readiness initiatives. Often disregarded, however, are the special needs of vulnerable populations during disasters. In the context of emergencies, vulnerable groups may include individuals with disabilities, pregnant women, children, the elderly, prisoners, members of ethnic minorities, people with language barriers, and the impoverished. The fate of the disadvantaged during disasters has received little attention in the legal literature, and this article begins to fill that gap. It examines ethical theories of distributive justice and existing federal and state civil rights and emergency response laws and argues that …

Feminizing Capital: A Corporate Imperative, Darren Rosenblum

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article argues that Norway’s Corporate Board Quota Law (“CBQ”) fosters a productive symbiosis between the public and private spheres. Recent studies indicate that higher numbers of women in executive positions result in stronger rates of corporate return on equity (“ROE”). Countries with higher levels of women's political representation also tend to have higher levels of economic growth. Increasing women's workforce participation outside the home can drive overall economic growth. These factors prompted the CBQ's proponents to argue for the economic imperative of women's corporate leadership. The CBQ will not only ameliorate gender inequality, but will bring new life to …

Human Rights Hero - President Barack Obama, Stephen Wermiel

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Attacking Jim Crow: Black Activism In New Orleans 1925-1941, Sharlene Sinegal Decuir

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

After the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, blacks in the South lost most of the rights achieved during Reconstruction and for over half a century lived in a system defined by disfranchisement and segregation. Plessy promised a “separate but equal” society but by 1920 it was evident that separate was fulfilled but equal fell short in facilities. At about the same time, a three-tiered racial hierarchy, rooted in New Orleans long and distinctive racial history returned. New Orleans’ black community was split into two groups, American blacks and Creoles. The two groups rarely interacted. As the black community developed its …

Brown, James, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

Encyclopedia article on James Brown focusing on his impact on African American history and the Civil Rights movement as well as, to a lesser degree, his impact on the history of music.

“Argue, But Obey: ” Black Vietnam War Veterans Interpret American Exceptionalism, Robert N. Hall

Digitized Theses

This paper describes the experiences of African American soldiers during and after the Vietnam War, using personal statements drawn from oral histories, journals, and interviews to expose their interpretation of American exceptionalism as seen in both domestic and foreign policy. Participants in both the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, black veterans argued that racial nationalism (an ethno-racial view of foreign relations and American citizenship) superseded civic nationalism (the tendency toward individual liberty, and rooted in universal equality) during defining moments in the nation’s history, determining its foreign and domestic policies, and undermining the universal appeal of American principles. …

The Jena Six, Mass Incarceration, And The Remoralization Of Civil Rights, Joseph E. Kennedy

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Free At Last! Anti-Subordination And The Thirteenth Amendment, Rebecca Zietlow

Rebecca E Zietlow

Notwithstanding the powerful symbolism that liberty has in the American psyche, liberty is largely absent from our late Twentieth Century understanding of civil rights, which instead is based in the Equal Protection Clause and its promise of formal equality. People of color and women of every race have made significant advances under the Equal Protection model of equality, but they continue to lag behind whites and men under virtually every economic index. This paper argues for an alternative model of equality, an anti-subordination model, which allows decision-makers to focus on the material conditions that contribute to inequality in our society, …

An Iconic Social Activist, Mark S. Brodin

Mark S. Brodin

No abstract provided.

Fitting Punishment, Juliet P. Stumpf

Juliet P Stumpf

Proportionality is conspicuously absent from the legal framework for immigration sanctions. Immigration law relies on one sanction – deportation – as the ubiquitous penalty for any immigration violation. Neither the gravity of the violation nor the harm that results bears on whether deportation is the consequence for an immigration violation. Immigration law stands alone in the legal landscape in this respect. Criminal punishment incorporates proportionality when imposing sentences that are graduated based on the gravity of the offense; contract and tort law provide for damages that are graduated based on the harm to others or to society. This Article represents …

Debunking The Myth Of Civil Rights Liberalism: Visions Of Racial Justice In The Thought Of T. Thomas Fortune, 1880-1890 Symposium: The Lawyer's Role In A Contemporary Democracy: Promoting Social Change And Political Values, Susan D. Carle

Susan D. Carle