Law Commons^™

[Introduction To] Rap On Trial: Race, Lyrics, And Guilt In America, Erik Nielson, Andrea L. Dennis, Killer Mike

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A groundbreaking exposé about the alarming use of rap lyrics as criminal evidence to convict and incarcerate young men of color

“If you believe that I’m a cop killer, you believe David Bowie is an astronaut.” —Rapper Ice-T, on the persona he adopted in the song “Cop Killer”

Should Johnny Cash have been charged with murder after he sang, “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die”? Few would seriously subscribe to this notion of justice. Yet in 2001, a rapper named Mac whose music had gained national recognition was convicted of manslaughter after the prosecutor quoted …

[Chapter 1 From] Hollow Justice: A History Of Indigenous Claims In The United States, David E. Wilkins

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This book, the first of its kind, comprehensively explores Native American claims against the United States government over the past two centuries. Despite the federal government's multiple attempts to redress indigenous claims, a close examination reveals that even when compensatory programs were instituted, native peoples never attained a genuine sense of justice. David E. Wilkins addresses the important question of what one nation owes another when the balance of rights, resources, and responsibilities have been negotiated through treaties. How does the United States assure that guarantees made to tribal nations, whether through a century old treaty or a modern day …

The "Actual State Of Things": Teaching About Law In Political And Historical Context, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Vine Deloria, Jr., the most prolific Native writer and one of the most gifted intellectuals in American history, left a deep imprint in many of the fields he so artfully plowed, including: education, religion, politics, cultural critic, history, and indigenous knowledge. His scholarship on specific subjects came in waves, with each wave building upon the previous one before reaching its remarkable crest.

Deloria's scholastic and pragmatic legacy in federal Indian law and policy and indigenous governance is one that has produced several major books and numerous articles, which, in the pantheon of Deloria's prodigious body of works, rank highly in …

Visionary Thinker And Wordsmith Par Excellence, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

I was part of a small cohort of Native students, thrilled at the possibility of studying with a man we affectionately, and with some trepidation, referred to as "the Godfather" of Indian politics, policy and law. We called ourselves "Vine's Disciples," not because he was a religious figure, but because we sensed that in having the privilege and opportunity studying with the individual we all considered the most gifted of our time, that we would receive profound lessons in what was required of us as we sought to become active and informed defenders of indigenous nationhood.

What an influence he …

African Americans And Aboriginal Peoples: Similarities And Differences In Historical Experiences, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

In August of 2003, Harvard University hosted a major conference, organized by the Civil Rights Project, titled Segregation and Integration in America's Present and Future. The conference was appropriately subtitled the Color Lines Conference, in reference to W.E.B. Du Bois's classic 1903 study The Souls of Black Folk. This sprawling conference brought together some of the more significant actors in the Civil Rights arena—including Gary Orfield, Julian Bond, Antonia Hernandez, Glenn Loury, William Julius Wilson, and Gerald Torres—to reflect on the dynamics of residential segregation, racial identity, institutional barriers to racial integration, inequalities in higher education, and, or …

A Constitutional Conundrum: The Resilience Of Tribal Sovereignty During American Nationalism And Expansion: 1810-1871, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Judge Michael Hawkins addresses a number of important issues in his essay on John Quincy Adams' evolving understanding and relationship with slavery and the variegated role that law played in the politics of slavery and the slavery of politics. The essay demonstrates the importance of human personality in influencing and being influenced by political and legal processes. At its heart, the Article is a legal and historical study of the moral dimension and inherent contradictions facing Adams, in particular, and the American Republic, in general, regarding the existence and persistence of the institution of slavery in a nation built upon …

The Indigenous Peoples Of The Usa: Issues And Challenges Of Native Americans, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Vine Deloria, Jr., the most important Indian chronicler of indigenous political, legal, and religious experience in the U.S. in the last thirty years, noted recently that Indian life, particularly the experience of reservation-based tribal peoples, "has only the slightest resemblance to the conditions of three decades ago, and the current situation has elements of hope and portents of disaster." This observation is even more realistic as we sit at the dawn of the new millennium. The 560 indigenous polities in the U.S.—374 Indian nations, tribes, bands, communities, and Pueblos in the lower 48 states; 226 are Alaska Native villages and …

Convoluted Essence: Indian Rights And The Federal Trust Doctrine, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

In recent years there has been growing resentment from what one might term, for lack of a better phrase, the "anti-trust" segment. These commentators have offered a host of arguments to support their position: the trust doctrine has been and is still used primarily to "give moral color to depredations of tribes;" it is "an assertion of unrestrained political power over Indians, power that may be exercised without Indian consent and without substantial legal restraint;" and it is really a "metaphor for federal control of Indian affairs without signifying any enforceable rights of the tribal `beneficiaries.'" Yet others suggest that …

[Introduction To] Diné Bibeehaz'aanii: A Handbook Of Navajo Government, David E. Wilkins

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The Diné (Navajos) inhabit a vast land of beauty and grace. It is a sprawling territory, bounded by sacred mountains and great rivers. The Navajo Reservation, first delineated in the 1868 treaty, has nearly quadrupled in size since then through some twenty-five additions. Today, the Diné land base is some 25,000 square miles (sixteen million acres roughly), encompassing a large portion of northeastern Arizona, a part of northwester New Mexico, and some 1,900 square miles in southeastern Utah. This tremendous stretch of land, the largest Indian reservation in the county, is slightly larger than the state of West Virginia.

Navajo …