Law Commons^™

Beyond The Cat’S Paw: An Argument For Adopting A “Substantially Influences” Standard For Title Vii And Adea Liability, Tim Davis

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “Susan, an African-American nurse, has worked for a large group of physicians for nearly twenty years and is nearing the end of her career. Susan’s boss has recently retired and has been replaced by a man with an animus toward African-Americans. This has put Susan in a precarious situation.

Instead of overtly discriminating against her, Susan’s supervisor complains to the large medical practice’s personnel committee that Susan’s work is substandard and she no longer is a productive worker. The committee, based on the supervisor’s report, fires Susan.

When Susan goes to court to assert her right not to be …

A Beautiful Lie: Exploring Rhinelander V. Rhinelander As A Formative Lesson On Race, Identity, Marriage, And Family, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

This essay explores the past and present social meanings of what occurred during a 1920s New York trial court case, Rhinelander v. Rhinelander. Rhinelander involved a claim by Leonard Kip Rhinelander, a white socialite, who filed for annulment of his marriage to Alice Beatrice Jones, a woman of racially ambiguous heritage. Leonard claimed that Alice committed fraud that went to the essence of their marriage by failing to inform him that she was of "colored" blood. According to legend, Leonard and Alice were madly in love, and Leonard filed the lawsuit only because of his father, who refused to accept …

The Troublemaker's Friend: Retaliation Against Third Parties And The Right Of Association In The Workplace, Alex B. Long

Scholarly Works

Title VII theoretically provides virtually unlimited protection from retaliation for one kind of workplace troublemaker - the employee who files a formal charge of discrimination. However, the protection from retaliation enjoyed by such individuals is significantly less when the troublemaker resorts to an employer's internal process for resolving discrimination complaints prior to the filing of a formal charge of discrimination. And what of the coworker who assists the troublemaker in pursuing such an internal grievance? Or the coworker who simply has some type of relationship with the troublemaker who files a formal charge of discrimination? What protection from retaliation do …

Who Says You're Disabled? The Role Of Medical Evidence In The Ada Definition Of Disability, Deirdre M. Smith

Faculty Publications

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), enacted by Congress seventeen years ago, offered disabled people a hope of equality and access that has not been fulfilled. ¹ Court decisions halt an overwhelming majority of claims, particularly in the employment context, at the summary judgment stage. ² A key mechanism for fencing out disabled people's claims is the pernicious requirement, based upon the very construction of disability that the ADA's proponents aimed to dispel, that medical evidence is required as a threshold matter to demonstrate that the plaintiff is entitled to seek protection under the statute. ³ The medical evidence requirement …

Ruling Out The Rule Of Law, Kim Forde-Mazrui

Kim Forde-Mazrui

Although criminal justice scholars continue to debate the overall value of the void-for-vagueness doctrine, broad consensus prevails that requiring crimes to be defined in specific terms reduces law enforcement discretion. A few scholars have questioned this assumption, but the conventional view remains dominant. This Article intends to resolve the question whether the void-for-vagueness doctrine really reduces police discretion. It focuses on traffic enforcement, a context in which laws are both specific and subject to discretionary enforcement. The Article concludes that specific rules do not constrain discretion unless judicial limits are placed either on the scope of activities that may be …

A More Employee Friendly Standard For Pretext Claims After Ash V. Tyson, Deanna C. Brinkerhoff

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Risky Business Of Lifestyle Genetic Testing: Protecting Against Harmful Disclosure Of Genetic Information, Gabrielle Z. Kohlmeier

Gabrielle Z Kohlmeier

The technological and scientific advances of nutrigenetic testing imply that the future is here, but unfortunately the legal protections are not. Nutrigenetics—the newly developing science correlating diet and genotypes—promises an easier way to escape the consequences of unhealthy lifestyles. And a large contingent of Americans, including cost-conscious employers and health insurers, are seeking such high-tech solutions. Web-based nutrigenetic testing, purportedly offering custom-tailored plans without a trip to the doctor’s office, thus captures a wide audience. The enthusiasm for nutrigenetics may obfuscate the unusual problems surrounding protection of genetic information, particularly in a market context. Upon providing genetic material, an individual …

When Obscenity Discriminates, Elizabeth M. Glazer

Elizabeth M Glazer

When public indecency statutes outlaw gender nonconformity, obscenity discriminates; when movie ratings censor representations of sexual minorities, obscenity discriminates, and discriminates on the basis of their status as sexual minorities. This Article addresses obscenity doctrine’s infliction of first generation, or status discrimination against sexual minorities by conflating “sex” – and the prurient representation of sex that constitutes obscenity – and “sexual orientation.” Civil rights lawyers and scholars have turned their attentions away from “first generation” discrimination,” where groups experience discrimination on the basis of their status, and toward “second generation” discrimination, where groups experience discrimination for failing to downplay or …

When Obscenity Discriminates, Elizabeth M. Glazer

Elizabeth M Glazer

When public indecency statutes outlaw gender nonconformity, obscenity discriminates; when movie ratings censor representations of sexual minorities, obscenity discriminates, and discriminates on the basis of their status as sexual minorities. This Article addresses obscenity doctrine’s infliction of first generation, or status discrimination against sexual minorities by conflating “sex” – and the prurient representation of sex that constitutes obscenity – and “sexual orientation.” Civil rights lawyers and scholars have turned their attentions away from “first generation” discrimination,” where groups experience discrimination on the basis of their status, and toward “second generation” discrimination, where groups experience discrimination for failing to downplay or …

Municipal Overreaching; Federal Preemption As It Applies To Town Ordinances Outlawing The Rental Of Housing To Undocumented Aliens, Hayden Patrick O'Byrne

Hayden Patrick O'Byrne

Within the past year or so a handful of towns around the United States have passed ordinances prohibiting undocumented aliens from renting housing. This paper explores how these ordinances are incompatible with the Federal Immigration Scheme and preempted by Federal Law.

Immigration And Language Rights: The Evolution Of Private Racist Attitudes Into American Public Law And Policy, Lupe S. Salinas

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Keeping The Internet Neutral?: Tim Wu And Christopher Yoo Debate, Tim Wu, Christopher Yoo

Federal Communications Law Journal

"Net neutrality" has been among the leading issues of telecommunications policy this decade. Is the neutrality of the Internet fundamental to its success, and worth regulating to protect, or simply a technical design subject to improvement? In this debate-form commentary, Tim Wu and Christopher Yoo make clear the connection between net neutrality and broader issues of national telecommunications policy.

Volunteer Discrimination, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

Part I of this Essay describes the new NBA dress code and then lays the framework for the discussions that ensued after the implementation of the code. Part II examines how some Blacks' defense of the allegedly discriminatory NBA appearance policy does not in itself negate claims of racial discrimination. In so doing, this Part explicates the various ways in which Blacks are pressured to perform their racial identity in order to advance in society - in particular, the ways in which outsiders often must conform to traditional standards of appearance and must distinguish themselves from the "bad outsiders" or …

Employers On The Fence: A Guide To The Immigratory Workplace, Natalie Prescott

Natalie Prescott

The Article discusses potential problems employers across the nation face when hiring, promoting, or employing foreign workers. It gives practical advice to employers on how to prevent discriminatory practices and avoid discrimination lawsuits and penalties and serves as an abbreviated employer's manual to immigration law.

English Only At Work, Por Favor, Natalie Prescott

Natalie Prescott

Whether or not employees can be required to speak only English at work is a very delicate question. This issue has caused considerable disagreement among courts and legal scholars and gained greater prominence in 2006, when the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals created a circuit split by allowing for the possibility that an English-only rule may violate Title VII. Some scholars have attempted to address the legality of an English-only rule, mostly arguing that the rule violates Title VII. This Article, however, explains why Title VII does not apply to an English-only rule. The Article addresses a wide range of …

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell": Negligent Hiring Law In Virginia And The Necessity Of Legislation To Protect Ex-Convicts From Employment Discrimination, Nancy B. Sasser

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Deceptive Appearances: Judges, Cognitive Bias, And Dress Codes, Marybeth Herald

Marybeth Herald

Although it is no longer legal to deny women the right to work simply because they are women, an employer can still require women conform to gender-based appearance norms in order to keep their jobs. In some industries, lipstick, foundation, mascara, and blush remain essential components of a woman's professional uniform. In these industries, men are spared the obligation of cosmetic upkeep, because only women must don face-paint to appear comfortably recognizable to customers.

Why this differential dress-code is not considered discrimination on the basis of sex under Title VII is the mystery. The textual force of anti-discrimination law would …

Our Pluralist Housing Ethics And The Struggle For Affordability, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

Building on recent scholarship, this Article explores the five “housing ethics” that have historically shaped U.S. housing law and policy: (1) housing as an economic good, (2) housing as home, (3) housing as a human right, (4) housing as providing social order, and (5) housing as one land use in a functional system. The “housing ethic” framework brings all of America’s housing law and policy under one conceptual roof. The Article argues that each of these housing ethics is deeply embedded in American housing policy and law, and that none has ever achieved a complete hegemony, i.e., that coexistence and …

Expanding The Protectional Scope Of Title Vii “Because Of Sex” To Include Discrimination Based On Sexuality And Sexual Orientation, Colleen C. Keaney

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Beneath The Veil: Corollaries On Diversity And Critical Mass Scholarships From Rawls' Original Position On Justice, Chris Chambers Goodman

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Relations Before Transactions: A New Paradigm For Racial Discrimination Theory, Glenn C. Loury

Georgia State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

23(B)(2) Class Certification: Choosing An Approach For Certifying Civil Rights Discrimination Class Action Suits, James T. Tsai

ExpressO

The passage of the 1991 amendments to the Civil Rights Act granted injunctive as well as monetary damages for impermissible discrimination in the workplace. The Act also created a tension with the last revision of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in 1966. This revision prohibits the certification of a class under Rule 23(b)(2) if the damages sought are predominantly monetary in nature. On one end of this resulting tension is the desire to protect individuals rights to “opt-out” of a class action suit and maintain future individual actions. On the other end is the desire for judicial economy and …

Recreating Diversity In Employment Law By Debunking The Myth Of The Mcdonnell Douglas Monolith, Sandra F. Sperino

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

The McDonnell-Douglas framework is one of the primary methods used by courts to evaluate discrimination claims based on circumstantial evidence. Although McDonnell-Douglas often is referred to as a singular test, it is actually a collection of different tests gathered rather deceptively under one name. Over the years, federal courts considering state law claims have increasingly applied the McDonnell-Douglas framework to these state claims, without considering whether the same result would occur under state law. The federal courts' rather monolithic view of McDonnell-Douglas is choking debate on important issues of employment law and denying states the ability to weigh in on …

Can Michigan Universities Use Proxies For Race After The Ban On Racial Preferences?, Brian T. Fitzpatrick

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

In 2003, the Supreme Court of the United States held that public universities—and the University of Michigan in particular--had a compelling reason to use race as one of many factors in their admissions processes: to reap the educational benefits of a racially diverse student body. In 2006, in response to the Supreme Court's decision, the people of Michigan approved a ballot proposal--called the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative ("MCRI")-that prohibits public universities in the state from discriminating or granting preferential treatment on the basis of race. Shortly after the MCRI was approved, a number of Michigan universities suggested that they were …

The Power Of Observation: The Role Of Federal Observers Under The Voting Rights Act, James Thomas Tucker

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) is one of the most successful civil rights laws ever enacted. Following its passage, the promise of the Fifteenth Amendment has become a reality for millions of Americans. Black voters in the South register to vote without being subjected to discriminatory tests or devices. Minority citizens can cast ballots free of intimidation and violence. Barriers posed by English-only elections have been removed for many language minority voters. Voters are permitted to receive assistance from the person of their choice. Federal observers play an indispensable role in serving as the eyes and ears of …

Friday Night Lite: How De-Racialization In The Motion Picture Friday Night Lights Disserves The Movement To Eradicate Racial Discrimination From American Sport, N. Jeremi Duru

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Why Do Landlords Still Discriminate (And What Can Be Done About It)?, Robert G. Schwemm

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Let's say you have a serious, though not life-threatening, medical condition, such as a non-malignant growth in your back that causes considerable pain and impairs your ability to walk. At first, your doctor tells you there is no cure, but then one day, a new drug specifically designed to eliminate this kind of problem is approved. You take this drug, but notice no change. With your doctor's encouragement, you continue to take the drug, hoping that its cumulative effect will achieve the desired result. Twenty years go by with no relief. Then, your doctor tells you that a much stronger …

Viewpoint Discrimination In Law School Clinics: Teaching Students When And How To Just Say No, Jason A. Kempf

Missouri Law Review

In 1996, the American Bar Association ("ABA") amended its law school accreditation standards and required that all ABA-approved law schools offer "live-client or other real-life practice experience. '' In doing so, the ABA confirmed the increasingly important role of law school clinics in legal education. This unique teaching environment moves students and professors out of the classroom and into real-world courtrooms. As these "student-lawyers" work on behalf of live clients, they "experience the legal ethics issues lawyers face every day, such as client confidentiality, conflict of interest, and competency issues." Not surprisingly, with these ethical issues come difficult decisions for …

Educational Athletic Employment And Civil Rights: Examining Discrimination Based On Disability, Age, And Race, Diane Heckman

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

"No Drinking, No Drugs, No Lesbians": Sexual Orientation Discrimination In Intercollegiate Athletics, Barbara Osborne

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.