Law Commons^™

Consent Confusion, Aya Gruber

Publications

The slogans are ubiquitous: “Only ‘Yes’ Means ‘Yes’”; “Got Consent?”; “Consent is Hot, Assault is Not!” Clear consent is the rule, but the meaning of sexual consent is far from clear. The current state of confusion is evident in the numerous competing views about what constitutes mental agreement (grudging acceptance or eager desire?) and what comprises performative consent (passive acquiescence or an enthusiastic “yes”?). This paper seeks to clear up the consent confusion. It charts the contours of the sexual consent framework, categorizes different definitions of affirmative consent, and critically describes arguments for and against affirmative consent. Today’s widespread uncertainty …

Rape Law Revisited, Aya Gruber

Publications

This essay introduces the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law Symposium, “Rape Law Revisited” (Vol. 13(2)). The Symposium features articles by Deborah Tuerkheimer, Kimberly Ferzan, David Bryden and Erica Madore, Bennett Capers, and Erin Collins. The symposium provides fresh perspectives on the issues surrounding sexual assault law and policy in today’s environment. The introduction notes that the current rape reform redux is not just a rehashing of old arguments, but boasts many new features. Today’s rape activism occurs in a moment when feminist ideas about coerced sex no longer exist at the margins — they govern and enjoy cultural acceptance, …

The Trouble With 'Bureaucracy', Deborah L. Brake

Articles

Despite heightened public concern about the prevalence of sexual assault in higher education and the stepped-up efforts of the federal government to address it, new stories from survivors of sexual coercion and rape, followed by institutional betrayal, continue to emerge with alarming frequency. More recently, stories of men found responsible and harshly punished for such conduct in sketchy campus procedures have trickled into the public dialogue, forming a counter-narrative in the increasingly polarized debate over what to do about sexual assault on college campuses. Into this frayed dialogue, Jeannie Suk and Jacob Gersen have contributed a provocative new article criticizing …

Lessons From The Gender Equality Movement: Using Title Ix To Foster Inclusive Masculinities In Men's Sport, Deborah L. Brake

Articles

This article was written for a symposium issue in Law & Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice on the topic of LGBT inclusion in sports. The symposium, which was held at the University of Minnesota Law School in November of 2015, was precipitated by the controversy that erupted when NFL player Chris Kluwe sued and settled with the Minnesota Vikings for allegedly firing him over his outspoken support for marriage equality. The article situates the Chris Kluwe controversy in the broader context of masculinity in men’s sports. At a time when support for LGBT rights has resulted in striking …

Campus Sexual Assault Adjudication: Why Universities Should Reject The Dear Colleague Letter, Tamara Rice Lave

Articles

No abstract provided.

Sexual Assault On College Campuses: Is Title Ix The Answer?, Rebecca Sweeney

Undergraduate Research

In the past year, many universities have been accused of Title IX violations based on how they adjudicated sexual assault cases. As a result, Title IX has been in the forefront of the public’s attention. This research aims to explain whether Title IX complaints are an effective strategy for lowering the amount of sexual assault cases on U.S college campuses. This research uses journal articles, legal cases and government websites to gather information on the history of Title IX and it’s development in fighting the issue of sexual assault on college campuses. By analyzing landmark cases, it is possible to …

Who Is Best Suited To Combat Sexual Violence On College Campuses?: An Analysis Of H.B. 1785, Susana Bass

Law Student Publications

Virginia House Bill 1785, requiring campus police to notify the Commonwealth's Attorney of any victim-initiated sexual assault investigations, is a positive step forward in helping to combat sexual assault on Virginia college campuses. Under this legislation, victims of sexual assault are much more likely to receive the protection and justice they deserve. Part II of this comment outlines current federal law that intends to address sexual assault on college campus and whether these laws have been effective in preventing sexual assault. Part III details Virginia House Bill 1785 introduced in the 2015 Virginia General Assembly Session to address sexual assault …

Anti-Rape Culture, Aya Gruber

Publications

No abstract provided.

Securing Equal Access To Sex-Segregated Facilities For Transgender Students, Harper Jean Tobin, Jennifer L. Levi

Faculty Scholarship

If Title IX is to have any real meaning for transgender students, it must protect a student's ability to live and participate in school as a member of the gender with which they identify. This means that students must be permitted to use gender-segregated spaces, including restrooms and locker rooms, consistent with their gender identity, without restriction. Denial of equal access to facilities that correspond to a student's gender identity singles out and stigmatizes transgender students, inflicts humiliation and trauma, interferes with medical treatment, and empowers bullies. A student subjected to these conditions is, by definition, deprived of an equal …

A Bibliography Of Title Ix Of The Education Amendments Of 1972, Christine Iaconeta Dulac

Faculty Publications

It has been thirty-five years since the passage of Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972. Title IX provides that no person shall be excluded from participation in any educational program or activity that receives federal funding. This legislation is credited with bolstering the participation rates of girls and women in athletics. Although athletics are not explicitly addressed in the statutory language, Title IX requires schools to offer male and female students equal opportunities to play sports, to give male and female athletes their fair share of athletic scholarship money, and to treat male and female athletes equally in …

Rights And Wrongs In The Debate Over Single-Sex Schooling, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In September 2011 an article entitled The Pseudoscience of Single-Sex Schooling appeared in the journal Science. Unlike articles typically published in peer-reviewed journals, the primary intent in this case was not to inform the scholarly community but rather to accomplish larger political and legal ends. Co-authored by eight prominent psychologists and neuroscientists, it immediately made the front pages of national newspapers and soon took the international media by storm. From the United Kingdom to Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa, it gave rise to a global debate about the pros and cons of single-sex schooling.

As directly …

Wrestling With Gender: Constructing Masculinity By Refusing To Wrestle Women, Deborah Brake

Articles

In February of 2011, an Iowa high school boy captured national attention when he refused to wrestle a girl at the state championship meet. The media shaped the story into a tale that honored the boy for sacrificing personal gain out of a moral imperative to “never hurt a girl.” Unpacking this incident reveals several “fault lines” in U.S. culture that often derail gender equality projects: (1) religion/morality is interposed as an oppositional and equally weighty social value that neutralizes an equality claim; (2) the agency of persons supporting traditional gender norms is assumed, while the agency of persons contesting …

Discrimination Inward And Upward: Lessons On Law And Social Inequality From The Troubling Case Of Women Coaches, Deborah L. Brake

Articles

In the Title IX success story, women’s opportunities in coaching jobs have not kept pace with the striking gains made by female athletes. Women’s share of jobs coaching female athletes has declined substantially in the years since the law was enacted, moving from more than 90% to below 43% today. As a case study, the situation of women coaches contains important lessons about the ability of discrimination law to promote social equality. This article highlights one feature of bias against women coaches — gender bias by female athletes — as a counter-paradigm that presents a challenge to the dominant frame …

Introduction: Umkc Sports Law Symposium: Emerging Legal Issues Affection Amateur & Professional Sports, Kenneth D. Ferguson

Faculty Works

Introduction to the 2007 University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School’s inaugural Sports Law Symposium. The symposium created a forum that contributed to developing intellectual synergies among national sports law scholars, practicing sports law attorneys, athletic directors, coaches, sports industry professionals, and, importantly, student-athletes. The engagements created revolved around the theme of emerging legal issues affecting amateur and professional sports. The symposium featured scholarly presentations in the amateur and professional sports areas. Scholarly inquiry focused on a range of topics, from the economic and legal issues affecting the coaching profession to balancing gender and minority gender equity under Title IX. The …

The Heart Of The Game: Putting Race And Educational Equity At The Center Of Title Ix, Deborah L. Brake, Verna L. Williams

Articles

This article examines how race and educational equity issues shape women's sports experiences, building upon the narrative of Darnellia Russell, a high school basketball player profiled in the documentary The Heart of the Game. Darnellia is a star player who, because of an unintended pregnancy, has to fight to play the game she loves.

This girl's story provides a unique and underutilized lens through which to examine gender and athletics, as well as evaluate the legal framework for gender equality in sport. In focusing on this narrative, we seek to give voice to black female athletes and to express their …

The Invisible Pregnant Athlete And The Promise Of Title Ix, Deborah Brake

Articles

The question of how law should respond to women who become pregnant, and whether to specially accommodate pregnancy or analogize it to other conditions, features prominently in virtually every area of sex equality law. In debates over women's equality in the workplace, for example, it has been the defining issue for the development of and debate over various models of equality in feminist legal theory. Until recently, however, the issue has been all but absent in debates and discussion about Title IX and its promise of sex equality in sports. This changed suddenly in 2007, when ESPN televised a program …

Perceiving Subtle Sexism: Mapping The Social-Psychological Forces And Legal Narratives That Obscure Gender Bias, Deborah L. Brake

Articles

This essay seeks to explain the Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education case as an interpretation of discrimination that notably and correctly focuses on how institutions cause sex-based harm, rather than on whether officials within chosen institutions act with a discriminatory intent. In the process, I discuss what appears to be the implicit theory of discrimination underlying the Davis decision: that schools cause the discrimination by exacerbating the harm that results from sexual harassment by students. I then explore the significance of the deliberate indifference requirement in this context, concluding that the standard, for all its flaws, is distinct …

Jackson V. Birmingham Board Of Education: Title Ix's Implied Private Right Of Action For Retaliation, Elizabeth Mccuskey

Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court has penned countless words about the sound of statutory silence.' On March 29, 2005, the Court once again grappled with the meaning of silence in a statute, splitting along familiar 5-4 lines in Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education.² When the dust cleared, a male coach of a high school girls' basketball team, who was fired in retaliation for protecting his players' Title IX³ rights, possessed a private right of action arising from the statute itself.⁴ Although the Court has retreated from its high-water mark of implying private rights of action,⁵ in …

Intercollegiate Athletics: The Program Expansion Standard Under Title Ix's Policy Interpretation, Julia C. Lamber

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

"There's No Crying In Baseball": Sports And The Legal And Social Construction Of Gender, Rhonda Reaves

Journal Publications

This Article analyzes the view that to be taken seriously as an athlete, women must replicate the behaviors prevalent in male-dominated sports. The Article focuses on sports in the educational context as an important opportunity for legal intervention. Because the law involves the allocation of resources and the policing of behavior by the government, this discussion prompts us to ask how resources should be allocated and what kinds of behavior should be encouraged and discouraged in promoting gender equity. In particular, the analysis of sports within educational programs offers an opportunity for a critical examination of current models of athletic …

Gender And Intercollegiate Athletics: Data And Myths, Julia C. Lamber

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article explores what nondiscrimination means in the context of intercollegiate athletics. After reviewing the Department of Education's controversial Title IX Policy Interpretation, it critically examines the analytical framework used in Title IX athletic cases and concludes that commonly made analogies to litigation under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act are inapt. A major part of the Article is an empirical study, looking first at gender equity plans written by institutions of higher education for the National Collegiate Athletic Association and then at data collected from more than 325 institutions pursuant to the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act. …

If You Build It, They Will Come: Establishing Title Ix Compliance In Interscholastic Sports As A Foundation For Achieving Gender Equity, Amy Bauer

Publications

No abstract provided.

School Liability For Peer Sexual Harassment After Davis: Shifting From Intent To Causation In Discrimination Law, Deborah L. Brake

Articles

This essay seeks to explain the Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education case as an interpretation of discrimination that notably and correctly focuses on how institutions cause sex-based harm, rather than on whether officials within chose institutions act with a discriminatory intent. In the process, I discuss what appears to be the implicit theory of discrimination underlying the Davis decision: that schools cause the discrimination by exacerbating the harm that results from sexual harassment by students. I then explore the significance of the deliberate indifference requirement in this context, concluding that the standard, for all its flaws, is distinct …

The Cruelest Of The Gender Police: Student-To-Student Sexual Harassment And Anti-Gay Peer Harassment Under Title Ix, Deborah L. Brake

Articles

Title IX, like other sex discrimination laws, addresses discrimination that occurs because of an individual’s sex. Courts interpreting Title IX, like those interpreting Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, have struggled to demarcate a line separating discrimination because of sex from discrimination because of sexual orientation. This article constructs an argument for viewing anti-gay discrimination, and in particular anti-gay harassment between students, as a form of sex discrimination under Title IX. The article first explores why school inaction in the face of sexual harassment discriminates on the basis of sex. Although sex discrimination law generally has long …

In The Title Ix Race Toward Gender Equity, The Black Female Athlete Is Left To Finish Last: The Lack Of Access For The “Invisible Woman", Tonya M. Evans

Law Faculty Scholarship

Although each of us is defined by race and gender, those of us who are neither white nor male often experience invisibility as a result of our dual subordinate status.... Black women have been disproportionately located at the lower end of the economic hierarchy and, therefore, have been unable to afford private golf, swimming, or tennis lessons. Overt racial discrimination prevented black women from gaining access to the sports participated in by white women. To the extent that the main thrust of solutions to gender inequity and a lack of adherence to Title IX mandates has been the addition of …

Subtracting Sexism From The Classroom: Law And Policy In The Debate Over All-Female Math And Science Classes In Public Schools, Carolyn B. Ramsey

Publications

No abstract provided.

Running The Gauntlet No More - Using Title Ix To End Student-To-Student Sexual Harassment, Verna L. Williams

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Reports on the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Davis v. Monroe Board of Education which dealt with student-on-student sexual harassment.

When A Kiss Isn't Just A Kiss: Title Ix And Student-To-Student Harassment, Verna L. Williams

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This article discusses peer hostile environment sexual harassment. It examines the circuit court caselaw on the issue and the legislative history of Title IX, provides an overview of the Supreme Court precedent interpreting Title IX, outlines the Department of Education’s interpretation of Title IX’s requirements concerning peer hostile environment sexual harassment, and discusses analogous legal principles underlying the analysis of student-to-student hostile environment sexual harassment.

Private Causes Of Action Under Federal Agency Nondiscrimination Statutes, Julia C. Lamber

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. Similarly Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education programs or activities. Although the effect of Title VI has been felt primarily in education, the statutory prohibition applies to any federally funded activity, public or private, including hospitals, social service and welfare agencies, law enforcement agencies, housing, and recreational programs. Both statutes provide for administrative enforcement against prohibited activities. This article explores the question of whether a private cause …