Law Commons^™

Ochoa, Big Ten Law Deans Pledge Support For Diversity Ahead Of Scotus Affirmative Action Ruling, The Indiana Lawyer

Christiana Ochoa (7/22-10/22 Acting; 11/2022-)

s the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hand down a decision that could fundamentally alter affirmative action, a group of law school deans — including Dean Christiana Ochoa of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law — has issued a statement affirming the deans’ commitment to diversity.

The group of 15 deans represent Big Ten law schools, including IU Maurer. In their statement — which IU Maurer posted to its official Facebook page — the deans say they are “joining together to affirm our commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion through legally permissible means, regardless of the outcome of …

Conditions Of Participation: Incorporating The History Of Hospital Desegregation, Sallie Sanford

Articles

Our students ought to know about the history of formal hospital segregation and desegregation. To that end, this article urges those who teach foundational health law and policy courses to do three things. First, to teach the Simkins case. Second, to swap out the usual Medicare signing ceremony picture for one that includes W. Montague Cobb, M.D., Ph.D. Third, to highlight how the implementation of that program for the elderly led, in a matter of months, to the desegregation of hospitals throughout the country.

Griggs V. Duke Power Co., Angela Onwuachi-Willig, David Simson

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Race Inequity Fifty Years Later: Language Rights Under The Civil Rights Act Of 1964, Jasmine Gonzales Rose

Faculty Scholarship

As Latinos have become the largest racialized minority in the United States, we should ask whether the civil rights laws of yesterday are equipped to address the race problems of today. Half a century after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, racial discrimination still exists, but it manifests itself differently. Rather than explicitly barring someone from employment, education, public accommodations, or civic participation on the basis of his or her race, racially discriminatory exclusion is often couched in seemingly race-neutral terms. English language requirements are one example of this. A sign outside a restaurant stating, “No Mexicans, …

The "Nixon Sabotage": The Political Origins Of The Equal Protection Challenge To The Voting Rights Act, Danieli Evans

Articles

Critics of the Voting Rights Act argue that the anti-discrimination law requires states to engage in unconstitutional discrimination, as state decisionmakers must be conscious of race in order to ensure that voting policies do not weaken minority representation. This argument relies on the idea that subjective racial motivation is the essence of unconstitutional discrimination (even if benevolent, or to promote racial inclusion). The conventional understanding among constitutional scholars is that this “search for the bigoted decisionmaker” developed in employment and housing discrimination decisions between 1976 and 1979. Previous accounts have not recognized the role that the 1971 school desegregation decision …

From Wards Cove To Ricci: Struggling Against The Built-In Headwinds Of A Skeptical Court, Melissa Hart

Publications

When the Supreme Court in 1971 first recognized disparate impact as a legal theory under Title VII, the Court explained that the "absence of discriminatory intent does not redeem employment procedures or testing mechanisms that operate as ‘built-in headwinds’ for minority groups and are unrelated to measuring job capability." Forty years later, it is the built-in headwinds of a Supreme Court skeptical of - perhaps even hostile to - the goals of disparate impact theory that pose the greatest challenge to continued movement toward workplace equality. The essay examines the troubled trajectory that disparate impact law has taken in the …

The Missing Minority Judges, Pat K. Chew, Luke T. Kelley-Chew

Articles

This essay documents the lack of Asian-American judges and considers the consequences.

Social Movements And Judging: An Essay On Institutional Reform Litigation And Desegregation In Dallas, Texas, Darren L. Hutchinson

Faculty Articles

This Article discusses the political and legal barriers that have surfaced to undermine the ability of courts to fashion remedies that offer justice to aggrieved individuals and to render rights-based institutional reform liti­gation a judicial relic. Part II examines the historical development of in­stitutional reform litigation and examines the political factors that created the opportunity for dramatic changes in legal approaches to the issue of racial inequality. Part III examines litigation challenging segregation in Dallas public schools. It also discusses cases filed in the immediate post­-Brown era and contrasts those cases with Judge Sanders's rulings on the subject. In …

Presenter, “The Bca And The Ncaa: How Title Vii May Level The Playing Field In The Collegiate Coaching Ranks”, N. Jeremi Duru

Presentations

In January 2007, only 5% of the 119 head coaches in Division I-A college football teams were minorities. This number is startling in light of the fact that in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football teams 55% of the student-athletes are from minority groups. Even the president of the NCAA, Myles Brand, has stated that this organization has had a “dismal record of hiring people of color into head coaching positions, especially in the sport of football.” The disparity between the numbers of coaches and players has prompted an action brought by the Black Coaches & Administrators (BCA). The BCA …

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other: Analogizing Ageism To Racism In Employment Discrimination Cases, Rhonda M. Reaves

Journal Publications

The development of anti-discrimination law in the employment context was designed and applied with the elimination of race discrimination in mind. The expansion of anti-discrimination law to older workers has taken place within a legal system that encourages groups to present themselves as "similar to" African Americans. This article explores the difficulty of applying general anti-discrimination principles to the uniquely positioned group of older workers.

Because I Am Black, Because I Am Woman: Remedying The Sexual Harassment Experience Of Black Women, Andrea L. Dennis

Scholarly Works

This Note examines the intersection of race and gender in the context of sexual harassment jurisprudence. Since the arrival in this country of the first female African slaves, Black women have experienced sexual harassment on the job. This Note discusses the failure of sexual harassment theory to acknowledge the unique sexual harassment experience of Black women. From the very earliest discussions of sexual harassment, the impact of the race of the victim on the experience and resulting legal claim was ignored. Feminist legal theorists, leaders in issues affecting women, have been slow to acknowledge and integrate the role of race …

The Force Of Irony: On The Morality Of Affirmative Action And United Steelworkers V. Weber, Richard O. Lempert

Articles

In recent years, affirmative action has posed difficult problems not only for courts and legislatures but also for individuals who puzzle over what is just. The claims made both by the proponents of programs that establish preferences on the basis of race and by their staunch opponents have an intuitive appeal. The slave society that preceded the Civil War and the Jim Crow era that endured for a century afterward are a shameful legacy for a nation that seeks to define itself in terms of justice and freedom. The proportionate underrepresentation of black people in positions of power and privilege …

The Unresolved Problems Of Reverse Discrimination, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

The current widespread use of remedial affirmative action programs makes the legitimacy of reverse discrimination a pragmatic social concern. That alone, however, would not explain the intense interest generated by Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. The question posed in the case compels our attention because it forces a choice between two values that occupy a high place in the liberal conception of justice and claim substantial support in the equal protection clause. On the one hand, justice requires that groups that have previously suffered gross discrimination be given truly equal opportunity in American life; on the other, …