Law Commons^™

Accommodating The Female Body: A Disability Paradigm Of Sex Discriminatio, Jessica L. Roberts

University of Colorado Law Review

This Article presents a novel approach for understanding sex discrimination in the workplace by integrating three distinct areas of scholarship: disability studies, employment law, and architectural design. Borrowing from disabilities studies, I argue that the built environment serves as a situs of sex discrimination. In the first Part, I explain how the concept of disability has progressed from a problem located within the body of an individual with a disability to the failings of the built environment in which that person functions. Using this paradigm, in the next Part, I reframe workplaces constructed for male workers as instruments of sex …

Title Vii: What's Hair (And Other Race-Based Characteristics)G Ot To Do With It?, D. Wendy Greene

University of Colorado Law Review

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, and sex. Many Title VII cases have arisen when an applicant's or employee's non-conformity with an employer's policy barring certain hairstyles or clothing has resulted in an adverse employment action, such as a denial or termination of employment. Generally, courts have not deemed an adverse employment action resulting from an applicant's or employee's non-conformity with an employment policy banning the display of mutable characteristics commonly associated with a particular racial or ethnic group a violation of Title VIis proscription …

Settling The Matter: Does Title I Of The Ada Work?, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

Analysis of cases decided under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which addresses employment discrimination, reveals that defendants have consistently prevailed in well over 90% of cases since the ADA's inception. This empirical evidence has led many commentators to conclude that the ADA's Title I has failed to improve workplace conditions for individuals with disabilities.

This article attempts to assess the efficacy of Title I through a different lens. It focuses on several data sets that have previously received little attention. It examines Equal Employment Opportunity Commission merit resolutions, lawsuit settlement statistics, and reports concerning reasonable accommodation …

The Truth Is Out There: Revamping Federal Antidiscrimination Enforcement For The Twenty-First Century, Marcia L. Mccormick

All Faculty Scholarship

Employment discrimination laws in the United States have not created full equality in the workplace, although that was their goal. Real change requires greater accountability for those who make employment decisions and greater transparency to bolster that accountability. To provide that transparency and accountability, we need greater federal involvement in enforcement and a mechanism to publicize the state of the nation's workplaces. To accomplish this, I propose taking private sector employment discrimination disputes away from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission entirely, and starting with a new agency. The current model, with the EEOC writing compliance guidelines, encouraging mediation, and acting …

Integrating Accommodation, Elizabeth F. Emens

Faculty Scholarship

Courts and agencies interpreting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) generally assume that workplace accommodations benefit individual employees with disabilities and impose costs on employers and, at times, coworkers. This belief reflects a failure to recognize a key feature of ADA accommodations: their benefits to third parties. Numerous accommodations – from ramps to ergonomic furniture to telecommuting initiatives – can create benefits for coworkers, both disabled and nondisabled, as well as for the growing group of employees with impairments that are not limiting enough to constitute disabilities under the ADA. Much attention has been paid to how the integration of …

Employee Speech & Management Rights: A Counterintuitive Reading Of Garcetti V. Ceballos, Elizabeth Dale

UF Law Faculty Publications

In the two years since the decision came down, courts and commentators generally have agreed that the Supreme Court's decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos sharply limited the First Amendment rights of public employees. In this Article, I argue that this widely shared interpretation overstates the case. The Court in Garcetti did not dramatically change the way it analyzed public employees' First Amendment rights. Instead, it restated the principles on which those claims rest, emphasizing management rights and the unconstitutional conditions doctrine. By making those two theories the centerpiece of the decision, the Court in Garcetti defined public employee speech rights …

Ask, Don’T Tell: Ethical Issues Surrounding Undocumented Workers’ Status In Employment Litigation, Christine N. Cimini

Articles

The presence of an estimated 11.5 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, of which an estimated 7.2 million are working, has become a flashpoint in the emerging national debate about immigration. Given these statistics, it is not surprising that many undocumented workers suffer injuries in the workplace that are typically legally cognizable. Even though undocumented workers are entitled to a number of legal remedies related to their employment, seeking legal relief often raises heightened concerns about the disclosure of their status. This article explores lawyers' increasingly complex ethical obligations with regard to a client's immigration status in the context …

After Inclusion, Mitu Gulati, Devon W. Carbado, Catherine Fisk

Faculty Scholarship

What forms of discrimination are likely to be salient in the coming decade? This review flags a cluster of problems that roughly fall under the rubric of inclusive exclusions or discrimination by inclusion. Much contemporary discrimination theory and empirical work is concerned not simply with mapping the forces that keep people out of the labor market but also with identifying the forces that push them into hierarchical structures within workplaces and labor markets. Underwriting this effort is the notion that, although determining what happens before and during the moment in which a prospective employee is excluded from an employment opportunity …

Unintended Consequences: How Antidiscrimination Litigation Increases Group Bias In Employer-Defendants, Jessica Fink

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the extent to which employment discrimination litigation conducted under the current legal framework increases the biases of those involved in this process, particularly defendant-employers. It examines whether discrimination litigation enhances and exacerbates the negative views that these defendants may have toward not just the plaintiff who initiated the litigation, but also toward the broader protected class to which the plaintiff belongs.

Part I of this Article briefly expands upon the different types of bias that can infect employers' decisions, from the blatant discrimination that largely has disappeared from American society, to intentional discrimination that employers strategically hide …

Mandatory Arbitration: Why It's Better Than It Looks, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

"Mandatory arbitration" as used here means that employees must agree as a condition of employment to arbitrate all legal disputes with their employer, including statutory claims, rather than take them to court. The Supreme Court has upheld the validity of such agreements on the grounds that they merely provide for a change of forum and not a loss of substantive rights. Opponents contend this wrongfully deprives employees of the right to a jury trial and other statutory procedural benefits. Various empirical studies indicate, however, that employees similarly situated do about as well in arbitration as in court actions, or even …

Silent Partners: The Role Of Unpaid Market Labor In Families, Lisa Philipps

Articles & Book Chapters

The term 'unpaid market labor' refers to the direct contributions of unpaid family members to market work that officially belongs to another member of the household. Thus one individual may be construed legally as an owner or entrepreneur, but relatives may help out informally with business operations. Likewise, in corporate or public-service settings, certain employees rely on the unpaid help of an executive spouse or political wife. This paper argues that unpaid market labor is conceptually distinct from both paid work and unpaid domestic labor. Legal cases from Canada are used to illustrate the policy implications of this insight and …

Captive Audience Meetings And Forced Listening: Lessons For Canada From The American Experience, Sara Slinn

Articles & Book Chapters

Widespread adoption of mandatory representation votes and express protection of employer speech invite employer anti-union campaigns during union organizing, including employer-held captive audience meetings. Therefore, the problem of whether and how to restrict employers’ captive audience communications during union organizing is of renewed relevance in Canada. Captive meetings are a long-standing feature of American labour relations. This article considers how treatment of captive meetings evolved in the U.S., including the notion of employee choice, the “marketplace of ideas” view of expression dominating the American debate, and the central role of the contest between constitutional and statutory rights. It also considers …

Economic Analysis Of Labor And Employment Law In The New Economy, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, Alan Hyde, Michael Risch, Jagdeep Bhandari, Richard Block

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Helping Out In The Family Firm: The Legal Treatment Of Unpaid Market Labor, Lisa Philipps

Articles & Book Chapters

This article investigates the work of individuals who help out informally with a family member's job, often without pay. Examples include the relative who works in the back room of the family business, the executive spouse who hosts corporate functions, the political wife who campaigns with her husband, or the child who does chores on the family farm. The term "unpaid market labor" (UML) is used here to describe the ways that family members collaborate directly in paid activities that are legally and socially attributed to others. The practical legal problems that can arise in relation to UML are illustrated …

No Right (To Organize) Without A Remedy: Evidence And Consequences Of Failure To Provide Compensatory Remedies For Unfair Labour Practices In British Columbia, Sara Slinn

Articles & Book Chapters

Employees and unions encounter significant risks during union organizing and often see their efforts thwarted by employers. Labour law regimes attempt to minimize these risks by rendering unlawful a number of unfair labour practices (ULPs) employers can use to prevent unionization. But labour relations boards (LRBs) in Canada often avoid awarding full compensation for the harm ULPs cause, leading employers to still view ULPs as advantageous courses of action with only moderate associated costs.The author argues that this problem can be solved or greatly mitigated without the need for formal reforms, LRBs rather must come to embrace the full range …

Civil Rights And Related Decisions, Eileen Kaufman

Scholarly Works

This article analyzes two cases from the October 2006 Supreme Court Term, Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Gonzales v. Carhart. The cases have much in common, even though Ledbetter concerns pay disparity claims based on gender and Gonzales concerns second trimester abortions. Both are five-four decisions which demonstrate how profoundly the appointment of Justice Samuel Alito to occupy Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat has affected the balance of power on the Court. The net result of this shift has been a devastating setback for women's rights. Both decisions prompted Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to uncharacteristically read aloud …

Invited Comparative Commentary To The 67th Biennial German Jurists Meeting, Thomas Kohler

Thomas C. Kohler

No abstract provided.

Acing The Bar Exam : A Checklist Approach To Taking The Bar Exam, Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus

Suzanne Darrow Kleinhaus

This study aid provides candidates with a complete guide to the bar exam - from pre-planning considerations through bar review and sitting for the exam. Every aspect of the process is explained in detail and by example. The bar exam is deconstructed, section by section, where candidates are led through the steps they need to follow to succeed. Approaches for learning the black letter law, setting study schedules, and answering essay and multiple-choice questions are combined to maximize the likelihood of success. Each of these tasks is then configured into checklist format to help candidates navigate each step.

Employee Participation In Sweden. Union Paradise And Employer Hell Or …?, Reinhold Fahlbeck

Reinhold Fahlbeck

No abstract provided.

The Thirteenth Amendment And Access To Education For Children Of Undocumented Workers: A New Look At Plyler V. Doe, Maria Ontiveros, Joshua Drexler

Maria L. Ontiveros

This paper examines the extent to which the Thirteenth Amendment can be used to guarantee access to public education for the children of undocumented workers. It offers a reimagined version of Plyer, written using the Thirteenth Amendment, instead of the Fourteenth Amendment. After offering a brief summary of Thirteenth Amendment jurisprudence, it offers a variety of theoretical frameworks for analyzing the denial of education under the U.S. Constitution. It argues that the Thirteenth Amendment can provide a powerful tool for litigation, moral persuasion, organizing and legislation in the area.

Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. V. Glenn, Don Bogan, Mark Gillett, Kathleen Guzman, Joseph Thai

Donald T. Bogan

No abstract provided.

Sweden: Industrial Relations And Labor Law. National Monograph. Third Revised And Amended Edition, Reinhold Fahlbeck, Johann Mulder

Reinhold Fahlbeck

No abstract provided.

Restatement - Technique And Tradition In The United States, Thomas Kohler

Thomas C. Kohler

This paper considers the meaning and development in a historical perspective of what Americans mean by labour law. The author highlights the fact that employment law in the United States consists of a patchwork of state regulation with a variegated federal overlay. He also discusses the development of the restatement tradition in the United States and examines the course and the current status of the Restatement of Employment Law project promoted by the American Law Institute (ALI), taking account of the fact that the character of employment has changed radically in the past two decades, and has yet to reach …

Rethinking Information Privacy In An Age Of Online Transparency, Robert Sprague

Robert Sprague

No abstract provided.

Protecting Whistleblowers By Contract, Richard E. Moberly

Richard E. Moberly

Numerous statutes and the tort of wrongful discharge purport to prohibit companies from retaliating against employee whistleblowers. However, whistleblowers often lose retaliation lawsuits because these statutory and common law tort protections depend upon a variety of nuanced factors, such as the employer for whom the whistleblower works, the kind of wrongdoing reported, the way in which the employee blew the whistle, and, under some laws, the willingness of an administrative agency to investigate the whistleblower’s claim. Given these difficulties, this Article explores an alternate route for whistleblower protection: enforcing the existing contract protections that private employers currently provide employees when …

Religion In The Workplace: Faith, Action, And The Religious Foundations Of American Employment Law, Thomas C. Kohler

Thomas C. Kohler

No abstract provided.

Tres Son Multitud: Tc Fija Nuevos Criterios Para El Otorgamiento De Pensiones Por Enfermedades De Trabajos De Riesgo, Óscar Súmar, Luis Alberto Chang

Oscar Súmar

No abstract provided.

Sales And Sports Law, Adam Epstein

Adam Epstein

The purpose of this article is to provide insight into the basics of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and explore its application to sports law. Particular focus is on the sale of goods found in the UCC's Article 2. Whether a buyer and seller closes a deal for the sale of helmets, bats, balls, backboards, sports memorabilia, a new artificial surface for the outdoor field or to fulfill an order for a new set of game jerseys, the UCC applies to the sale if the parties to the sales contract failed to otherwise agree upon the specifics.

Mega-Cases, Diversity, And The Elusive Goal Of Workplace Reform, Nancy Levit

Nancy Levit

Employment discrimination class action suits are part of a new wave of structural reform litigation. Like their predecessors - the school desegregation cases in the 1950s, the housing and voting inequalities cases in the 1960s, prison conditions suits in the 1970s, and environmental lawsuits since then - these are systemic challenges to major institutions affecting large segments of the public. This article explores the effectiveness of various employment discrimination remedies in reforming workplace cultures, promoting corporate accountability, and implementing real diversity.

Reviewing the architecture and aftermath of consent decrees in five major employment discrimination cases - the cases against Shoney's, …