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Full-Text Articles in Law
Sffa V. Harvard College: Closing The Doors Of Equality In Education, Ediberto Roman
Sffa V. Harvard College: Closing The Doors Of Equality In Education, Ediberto Roman
Seattle University Law Review
The United States Supreme Court’s recent combined decision ending affirmative action in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina was hailed in conservative circles as the beginning of “the long road” towards racial equality. Others declared that “the opinion may begin the restoration of our nation’s constitutional colorblind legal covenant.” Another writer pronounced, “Affirmative action perpetuated racial discrimination. Its end is a huge step forward.” A Washington-based opinion page even declared: “[T]he demise of race-based affirmative action should inspire renewed commitment to the ideal of equal opportunity in America.” Despite …
The Sffa V. Harvard Trojan Horse Admissions Lawsuit, Kimberly West-Faulcon
The Sffa V. Harvard Trojan Horse Admissions Lawsuit, Kimberly West-Faulcon
Seattle University Law Review
Affirmative-action-hostile admissions lawsuits are modern Trojan horses. The SFFA v. Harvard/UNC case—Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina, et. al., decided jointly—is the most effective Trojan horse admissions lawsuit to date. Constructed to have the distractingly appealing exterior façade of a lawsuit seeking greater fairness in college admissions, the SFFA v. Harvard/UNC case is best understood as a deception-driven battle tactic used by forces waging a multi-decade war against the major legislative victories of America’s Civil Rights Movement, specifically Title VI and Title VII …
Reparations And The International Law Origin Story, John Linarelli
Reparations And The International Law Origin Story, John Linarelli
Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity
No abstract provided.
Equality's Understudies, Aziz Z. Huq
Equality's Understudies, Aziz Z. Huq
Michigan Law Review
Review of Robert L. Tsai's Practical Equality: Forging Justice in a Divided Nation.
Public Law, Precarity, And Access To Justice, Amnon Lev
Public Law, Precarity, And Access To Justice, Amnon Lev
Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies
In the first part, I examine Thomas Hobbes' theory of commonwealth to see how it situates subjects in relation to justice. Hobbes famously founds his commonwealth on the equal subjection of all to the Leviathan, which is the equal subjection of all to law. We need to understand why he nevertheless needs to accommodate the diversity of society-the basic fact that some are weak while others are not-into the operation of the public law machine. As we shall see, the accommodation of social diversity is tied to a proto-liberal distinction between social spheres that relegates much of human life to …
Privacy At 50: The Bedroom, The Courtroom, And The Spaces In Between, Judith A. Baer
Privacy At 50: The Bedroom, The Courtroom, And The Spaces In Between, Judith A. Baer
Maryland Law Review
No abstract provided.
Globally Speaking—Honoring The Victims' Stories: Matsuda's Human Rights Praxis, Berta Esperanza Hernández-Truyol
Globally Speaking—Honoring The Victims' Stories: Matsuda's Human Rights Praxis, Berta Esperanza Hernández-Truyol
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
Globally speaking, international law and the vast majority of domestic legal systems strive to protect the right to freedom of expression. The United States' First Amendment provides an early historical protection of speech-a safeguard now embraced around the world. The extent of this protection, however, varies among states. The United States stands alone in excluding countervailing considerations of equality, dignitary, or privacy interests that would favor restrictions on speech. The gravamen of the argument supporting such American exceptionalism is that free expression is necessary in a democracy. Totalitarianism, the libertarian narrative goes, thrives on government control of information to the …
Toward A Multiple Consciousness Of Language: A Tribute To Professor Mari Matsuda, Shannon Gilreath
Toward A Multiple Consciousness Of Language: A Tribute To Professor Mari Matsuda, Shannon Gilreath
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
I am thrilled to be part of this commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Professor Matsuda's influential article Public Response to Racist Speech: Considering the Victim's Story. I first read Matsuda's essay as a law student when, I must confess, the mind-numbing one-dimensionality of the law-as one must learn it in the prevailing method-drove me a little crazy. Law school is an environment where the Socratic method reduces people's stories-the stuff of which law is made-to something lawyers like to call "the facts," and where real-life people, in whom I saw so much of myself-people like Michael Hardwick, for example-get …
Outing The Majority: Gay Rights, Public Debate, And Polarization After Doe V. Reed, Marc Allen
Outing The Majority: Gay Rights, Public Debate, And Polarization After Doe V. Reed, Marc Allen
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
In 2010, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Doe v. Reed that Washington citizens who signed a petition to eliminate legal rights for LGBT couples did not have a right to keep their names secret. A year later, in ProtectMarriage.com v. Bowen, a district court in California partially relied on Reed to reject a similar request from groups who lobbied for California Proposition 8-a constitutional amendment that overturned the California Supreme Court's landmark 2008 gay marriage decision. These holdings are important to election law, feminist, and first amendment scholars for a number of reasons. First, they flip the traditional …
On Equality: The Anti-Interference Principle, Donald J. Kochan
On Equality: The Anti-Interference Principle, Donald J. Kochan
University of Richmond Law Review
This essay seeks to summarize the general equality concept and proposes that equality requires that the government engage in anti-interference with individual choices and activities, so long as these things create no negative externalities for others. If we are serious about respecting equality, such interference actions should be avoided. Adopting an "anti-interference principle" is a necessary foundation for achieving the goal of true equality. The primary point is that equality matters. The purpose of this essay is not to survey the vast political, jurisprudential, and academic debate on equality, but instead, to take a broad look at the philosophical concept …
Recognition Of Group Rights As Requisite To Substantive Equality Goals, Kathrina Szymborski
Recognition Of Group Rights As Requisite To Substantive Equality Goals, Kathrina Szymborski
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
Courts, legislatures, and scholars are increasingly turning away from traditional Aristotelian thinking in favor of a substantive, pro-active approach to equality. Under the substantive approach, the identification and eradication of systematic discrimination replace an adherence to neutral principles. This Comment argues that while a substantive approach is the most effective way to bring about true equality, it will not succeed unless it centers on protecting group rights. State decision-makers and international human rights advocates must focus on group experiences in order to create societies where no one is favored based on immutable characteristics.
Subordination And The Fortuity Of Our Circumstances, Sergio J. Campos
Subordination And The Fortuity Of Our Circumstances, Sergio J. Campos
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The antisubordination principle exists at the margins of equality law. This Article seeks to revive the antisubordination principle by taking a fresh look at its structure and underlying justification. First, the Article provides an account of the harm of subordination that focuses on one's position in society, rejecting the focus on groups popular in the existing antisubordination literature. Second, it argues for a theory of state obligation that goes beyond both the existing state action doctrine of the Equal Protection Clause and the failure to protect doctrine associated with Charles Black. The Article argues instead that the antisubordination principle mandates …
Trade And Inequality: Economic Justice And The Developing World, Frank J. Garcia
Trade And Inequality: Economic Justice And The Developing World, Frank J. Garcia
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article attempts to lay the foundation for such a framework in the area of international trade law. More specifically, this Article develops the argument that the principle of special and differential treatment, a key element of the developing world's trade agenda, plays a central role in satisfying the moral obligations that wealthier states owe poorer states as a matter of distributive justice. Seen in this light, the principle of special and differential treatment is more than just a political accommodation: it reflects a moral obligation stemming from the economic inequality among states.
Women And Contracts: No New Deal, Elizabeth S. Anderson
Women And Contracts: No New Deal, Elizabeth S. Anderson
Michigan Law Review
A Review of The Sexual Contract by Carole Pateman
Democracy And Its Critics, Cary Coglianese
Democracy And Its Critics, Cary Coglianese
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Democracy and Its Critics by Robert A. Dahl
Defending Equality: A View From The Cave, James S. Fishkin
Defending Equality: A View From The Cave, James S. Fishkin
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism and Equality by Michael Walzer
How Radical Is Liberalism?, Virginia L. Warren
How Radical Is Liberalism?, Virginia L. Warren
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Justice, Equal Opportunity, and the Family by James S. Fishkin
Injustice, Inequality And Ethics, Michigan Law Review
Injustice, Inequality And Ethics, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Injustice, Inequality, and Ethics by Robin Barrow
In Defense Of Equality: A Reply To Professor Westen, Erwin Chemerinsky
In Defense Of Equality: A Reply To Professor Westen, Erwin Chemerinsky
Michigan Law Review
Part I of this essay analyzes Professor Westen's arguments that the concept of equality is unnecessary. My contention is that Professor Westen never demonstrates that equality is meaningless; his arguments only prove the obvious, that equality by itself is insufficient. Part II argues that equality is a necessary principle: It is the only concept that tells us that different treatment of people does matter. Part III addresses Professor Westen's suggestion that equality is misleading and points out that none of his criticisms of the idea of equality are in any way inherent to that concept. Finally, Part IV demonstrates that …
Is Equality A Totally Empty Idea?, Anthony D'Amato
Is Equality A Totally Empty Idea?, Anthony D'Amato
Michigan Law Review
Professor Peter Westen's essay asserting that the concept of equality has no substantive content whatsoever usefully brushes aside much of the equal-protection rhetoric that, as Westen carefully explains, appropriately belongs to substantive due process. However, his absolutist position is open to challenge. I would like to posit one hypothetical case that I used in my classes when I taught Constitutional Law that I think contradicts Professor Westen's thesis. If it does, then there will be other cases as well, and his position cannot stand as the logically tight construct that he repeatedly asserts that it is.
The Meaning Of Equality In Law, Science, Math, And Morals: A Reply, Peter Westen
The Meaning Of Equality In Law, Science, Math, And Morals: A Reply, Peter Westen
Michigan Law Review
I shall set forth my thesis in Part I, using the Declaration of Independence ("all men are created equal") to illustrate that the emptiness of equality inheres in its very meaning, and that the confusions of equality result from neglecting its meaning. In Part II, I respond to Professors Chemerinsky's and D' Amato's reasons for believing that equality has independent normative content of its own. In Part III, I respond to Professor Chemerinsky's separate reasons for believing that equality is rhetorically useful.
Philosophical Perspectives On Affirmative Action, Kenneth W. Simons
Philosophical Perspectives On Affirmative Action, Kenneth W. Simons
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Equality and Preferential Treatment: A Philosophy & Public Affairs Reader edited by Marshall Cohen, Thomas Nagel, and Thomas Scanlon
The Subjects Of A Modern Law Of Nations, Philip C. Jessup
The Subjects Of A Modern Law Of Nations, Philip C. Jessup
Michigan Law Review
International law is generally defined or described as law applicable to relations between states. States are said to be the subjects of international law and individuals only its "objects." Treatises on international law accordingly usually proceed at the very outset to examine the nature and essential characteristics of the fictitious jural person known as the state.