Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 30 of 92

Full-Text Articles in Law

The New Intersectional And Anti-Racist Lgbtqia + Politics: Some Thoughts On The Path Ahead, Marc Spindelman May 2023

The New Intersectional And Anti-Racist Lgbtqia + Politics: Some Thoughts On The Path Ahead, Marc Spindelman

ConLawNOW

This article examines the changes to LGBTQIA+ consciousness and the politics they are producing. One result of these consciousness shifts is the increasing number of LGBTQIA+-identified people and organizations reconstituting themselves, their identities, and their politics around pro-Black, anti-racist positions, and doing so as foundational elements of their LGBTQIA+ liberation work. At the same time as these developments are unfolding, however, they are on a collision course with emergent social conservative positions and obstacles. These obstacles include developments at a Supreme Court that is increasingly deciding based on constitutional originalism. This article begins to show how the Court’s conservative originalism …


Symposium: Examining Black Citizenship From Reconstruction To Black Lives Matter: Falling Short Of The Promise Of The Thirteenth Amendment: Time For Change, Michael A. Lawrence Apr 2021

Symposium: Examining Black Citizenship From Reconstruction To Black Lives Matter: Falling Short Of The Promise Of The Thirteenth Amendment: Time For Change, Michael A. Lawrence

ConLawNOW

This Essay seeks to shine additional light on the potential of the underutilized Thirteenth Amendment (as contrasted to the much-litigated Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause) for advancing racial justice and equity. The Essay suggests the Thirteenth Amendment provides strong constitutional basis for an unapologetic embrace of the sorts of new, race-conscious measures that will be necessary to begin to achieve true racial equity in a country that for centuries has erected massive structural barriers to Black opportunity and advancement


Youth Suffrage: In Support Of The Second Wave, Mae C. Quinn, Caridad Dominguez, Chelsey Omega, Abrafi Osei-Kofi, Carlye Owens May 2020

Youth Suffrage: In Support Of The Second Wave, Mae C. Quinn, Caridad Dominguez, Chelsey Omega, Abrafi Osei-Kofi, Carlye Owens

Akron Law Review

The 19th Amendment is talked about as central to our nation’s suffrage story, with many situating women's suffrage work within feminist theory "wave" discourse. However, with this telling, scholars and others too frequently overlook young voters and efforts relating to their election law rights. This article seeks to remedy this oversight and complicate the voting rights canon, in addition to supporting efforts of today’s youth voting rights advocates. It does so by turning our attention to youth suffrage movements, which we argue also can be examined by way of a framework of "waves." The first to offer such an historical …


Felony Disenfranchisement And The Nineteenth Amendment, Michael Gentithes May 2020

Felony Disenfranchisement And The Nineteenth Amendment, Michael Gentithes

Akron Law Review

The Nineteenth Amendment and the history of the women’s suffrage movement can offer a compelling argument against felony disenfranchisement laws. These laws leave approximately six million citizens unable to vote, often for crimes wholly unrelated to the political process. They also increasingly threaten gains in female enfranchisement.

Today’s arguments in support of felony disenfranchisement laws bear striking similarities to the arguments of anti-suffragists more than a century earlier. Both suggest that a traditionally subordinated class of citizens is inherently incapable of bearing the responsibility that the right to vote entails, and that their votes are somehow less worthy than others. …


The Nineteenth Amendment And The U.S. "Women's Emancipation Policy" In Post-World War Ii Occupied Japan: Going Beyond Suffrage, Cornelia Weiss May 2020

The Nineteenth Amendment And The U.S. "Women's Emancipation Policy" In Post-World War Ii Occupied Japan: Going Beyond Suffrage, Cornelia Weiss

Akron Law Review

This paper explores the influence of the Nineteenth Amendment on U.S. military occupation policy in Post-World War II Japan. A mere 25 years after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, actions taken during the military occupation did not stop at suffrage for Japanese women. Actions included a constitution that provided for women’s “equality” (what, even 100 years after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, is still absent in the U.S. constitution). In addition to addressing women’s suffrage and constitutional equality, this paper examines the successes and failures of the Occupation to eradicate the legal enslavement of women, to eliminate the …


The Temperance Movement's Impact On Adoption Of Women's Suffrage, Richard H. Chused May 2020

The Temperance Movement's Impact On Adoption Of Women's Suffrage, Richard H. Chused

Akron Law Review

This paper examines the nature of the Progressive Era and the Prohibition Movement and the important links between the sentiments giving rise to prohibition and those stimulating adoption of suffrage. Though each arose from a somewhat distinct array of reform impulses and overcame varying opposition groups, they were closely related in some ways, supported by overlapping groups of people, advanced by large numbers of women, and, in part, lifted to enactment by similar motivations. Indeed, without the support of many conservative citizens approving both Amendments, it is not clear what the fate of suffrage would have been after World War …


"A Woman Stumps Her State": Nellie G. Robinson And Women's Right To Hold Public Office In Ohio, Elizabeth D. Katz May 2020

"A Woman Stumps Her State": Nellie G. Robinson And Women's Right To Hold Public Office In Ohio, Elizabeth D. Katz

Akron Law Review

In recognition of the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, this essay provides an introduction to a largely overlooked yet essential component of the women’s movement: the pursuit of women’s legal right to hold public office. From the mid-nineteenth century through ratification of the federal suffrage amendment in 1920, women demanded access to appointed and elected positions, ranging from notary public to mayor. Because the legal right to hold office had literal and symbolic connections to the right to vote, suffragists and antisuffragists were deeply invested in the outcome. Courts and legislatures varied in their responses, with those in the Midwest …


Suffragist Prisoners And The Importance Of Protecting Prisoner Protests, Nicole B. Godfrey May 2020

Suffragist Prisoners And The Importance Of Protecting Prisoner Protests, Nicole B. Godfrey

Akron Law Review

This paper examines the role that public exposure to the conditions experienced by suffragist prisoners played in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Using the experience of the suffragists as an example of how prisoner protest impacted democratic debate, the paper argues that robust protection of prisoners’ First Amendment rights is fundamental to the nation’s democratic values and political discourse and debate.

The paper begins with an historical overview of the arrests, convictions, and incarceration of the Silent Sentinels, women who began picketing outside the White House in 1917. Over the course of several months, local officials in the District …


A Duty To Document, Marc Kosciejew Dec 2016

A Duty To Document, Marc Kosciejew

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Access to information is a bedrock principle of contemporary democratic governments and their public agencies and entities. Access to information depends upon these public institutions to document their activities and decisions. When public institutions do not document their activities and decisions, citizens’ right of access is ultimately denied. Public accountability and trust, in addition to institutional memory and the historical record, are undermined without the creation of appropriate records. Establishing and enforcing a duty to document helps promote accountability, openness, transparency, good governance, and public trust in public institutions. A duty to document should therefore be a fundamental component of …


What Does The Minimum Wage Have To Do With Reproductive Rights?, Terry O'Neill Jun 2016

What Does The Minimum Wage Have To Do With Reproductive Rights?, Terry O'Neill

Akron Law Review

In January of this year, I had the honor of delivering remarks at the AALS Section on Socio-Economics annual luncheon. The subject of my talk, What does the minimum wage have to do with reproductive rights?, undoubtedly struck many in the audience as attempting the impossible— linking two issues that, while each important and timely, are entirely separate. Surely, the argument goes, a woman’s right to choose abortion simply does not occupy the same analytical or policy space as a worker’s right to fair wages and terms of employment.

In this Essay, however, I will sketch out my reasons for …


Affirmative Action And The Crisis In Higher Education, Scott D. Gerber Dec 2015

Affirmative Action And The Crisis In Higher Education, Scott D. Gerber

ConLawNOW

At all but the nation’s top colleges and universities, enrollments are down and budgets are strapped. Although many offer ideas why, the heavy-headed use of racial and ethnic preferences in student admissions, financial aid, and faculty hiring is also to blame, but also nobody ever mentions that. The term “affirmative action” originated with an executive order signed by President John F. Kennedy on March 6, 1961. Fast forward five decades and, to borrow a line from Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, “We’re not in Kansas any more.” Bluntly stated, there is systemic discrimination in all three categories of affirmative …


From Nipples To Powder, Marian Kousaie Nov 2015

From Nipples To Powder, Marian Kousaie

Akron Law Review

Working moms are a force to be reckoned with. They often balance demanding jobs with equally demanding familial obligations. They pack lunches, schedule play dates, and head the soccer team carpool while juggling client needs and prepping for board meetings. But sometimes, when a new mother is ready to jump back into the workforce, she is met with a difficult decision—whether or not to continue breastfeeding her baby. Even though she is a force to be reckoned with, does her workplace provide the support that she needs to continue to provide breast milk to her baby? Questions present themselves about …


Employment Equality In A Color-Blind Society, Earl M. Curry Jr. Aug 2015

Employment Equality In A Color-Blind Society, Earl M. Curry Jr.

Akron Law Review

The purposes of this article are first, to look at the rights of Negroes, under law, to bring economic pressure to bear for employment equality, including the demand for a quota, and secondly to see how that law is satisfying today's social needs. To achieve this latter purpose, perhaps we must ask whether our society can afford to be legally color-blind? We shall look first to the private self-help devices that have been used by minorities, and then to one area of governmental intervention that has dealt directly with minority employment and the use of quotas or goals to achieve …


Divorce - Pendente Lite Awards - Counsel Fees - Costs - Alimony - Effect Of Equal Rights Amendment; Wiegand V. Wiegand, Joseph M. Donley Aug 2015

Divorce - Pendente Lite Awards - Counsel Fees - Costs - Alimony - Effect Of Equal Rights Amendment; Wiegand V. Wiegand, Joseph M. Donley

Akron Law Review

THE PENNSYLVANIA SUPERIOR COURT, in Wiegand v. Wiegand,struck out at one of the true bastions of sex discrimination incorporated into the Anglo-American legal system. The legislated discrimination of the Pennsylvania Divorce Law was the object of the court's scrutiny. Appellee Sara Wiegand had filed a complaint in divorce a mensa et thora, a petition for alimony, and an initial petition for alimony pendente lite, counsel fees, and expenses. On August 14, 1967, the Court of Common Pleas, Allegheny County, ordered appellant Myron Wiegand to pay $875 per month alimony pendente lite and $250 preliminary counsel fees. Subsequently, appellee filed additional …


The Vicarious Liability Of Public Officials Under The Civil Rights Act, James R. Schirott, Sherry K. Drew Aug 2015

The Vicarious Liability Of Public Officials Under The Civil Rights Act, James R. Schirott, Sherry K. Drew

Akron Law Review

Lawsuit Involving Labor Disputes filed in the United States district courts in 1961 totaled 2,484. In the same year, the number of civil rights cases filed was only 296. Within the next decade, however, the number of civil rights cases filed in the district courts had risen to 6,133 in 1972, a dramatic percentage increase of 1,972. The only area of civil litigation in the federal courts registering a higher tally in 1972 was the closely related area of prisoner petitions. From the briefest perusal of these startling statistics, it becomes readily apparent that civil rights litigation is not only …


Standing; Assertion Of Jus Tertii; Sex Discrimination; Equal Protection; Twenty-First Amendment; Craig V. Boren, Anthony Sadowski Aug 2015

Standing; Assertion Of Jus Tertii; Sex Discrimination; Equal Protection; Twenty-First Amendment; Craig V. Boren, Anthony Sadowski

Akron Law Review

"A PPELLANTS brought an action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. The complaint charged that the operation of two Oklahoma statutes, which prohibited the sale of 3.2% beer to males under the age of 21 while allowing females over the age of 18 to purchase the commodity, violated the fourteenth amendment to the Federal Constitution. The three-judge court held that the gender-based classification did not violate the equal protection clause. In Craig v. Boren, on direct appeal, the United States Supreme Court reversed, finding that the gender-based classification could …


The Federal Power Commission, Job Bias, And Naacp V. Fpc, John N. Kennedy Aug 2015

The Federal Power Commission, Job Bias, And Naacp V. Fpc, John N. Kennedy

Akron Law Review

FREE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM has long been used to describe the structure of the American economy. Yet in a critical sense this characterization is a misnomer, because for many Americans the system has always been anything but free. Indeed, racial and sex discrimination are commonplace even today among the employment practices of a frightening number of employers. Gradually, however, the justice of equal employment opportunity is at last beginning to be recognized, even if it is not yet being universally administered, and many Americans are fast becoming genuinely committed to its realization. Because of this, a recent decision by the United …


Civil Rights In The Burger Court Era, Janice Gui Aug 2015

Civil Rights In The Burger Court Era, Janice Gui

Akron Law Review

THE DECADE OF the sixties was a turbulent one. It began in a spirit of hope. In the midst of a period of sustained prosperity, John Kennedy created the Peace Corps, Lyndon Johnson launched his Great Society, and Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 so that everyone could participate in the good life. Under Earl Warren the United States Supreme Court complemented the liberal legislation by championing the rights of the individual who had been neglected by the mainstream of society-the criminal suspect, the member of a minority group, and the poor. But the dream was not fulfilled, …


Seniority Layoffs: The Bitter Fruits Of Victory, Andrea Krill Aug 2015

Seniority Layoffs: The Bitter Fruits Of Victory, Andrea Krill

Akron Law Review

IT IS UNDENIABLE that the inertia of the civil rights laws has speeded the progress of equal employment opportunity. Minorities and women at last have enjoyed some measure of increased job entries and upward mobility. The current recession threatens to reverse this process. Seniority is the ambrosia of the working classes conferring a kind of employment immortality in return for their efforts. Those who have drunk deeply from the cup are secure, for their longer service renders them impervious to the furies of economic change. In many instances, those who have merely whetted their thirst are the more recently hired …


Civil Rights In The Burger Court Era, Janice Gui Aug 2015

Civil Rights In The Burger Court Era, Janice Gui

Akron Law Review

THE DECADE OF the sixties was a turbulent one. It began in a spirit of hope. In the midst of a period of sustained prosperity, John Kennedy created the Peace Corps, Lyndon Johnson launched his Great Society, and Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 so that everyone could participate in the good life. Under Earl Warren the United States Supreme Court complemented the liberal legislation by championing the rights of the individual who had been neglected by the mainstream of society-the criminal suspect, the member of a minority group, and the poor. But the dream was not fulfilled, …


Seniority Layoffs: The Bitter Fruits Of Victory, Andrea Krill Aug 2015

Seniority Layoffs: The Bitter Fruits Of Victory, Andrea Krill

Akron Law Review

IT IS UNDENIABLE that the inertia of the civil rights laws has speeded the progress of equal employment opportunity. Minorities and women at last have enjoyed some measure of increased job entries and upward mobility. The current recession threatens to reverse this process.

Seniority is the ambrosia of the working classes conferring a kind of employment immortality in return for their efforts. Those who have drunk deeply from the cup are secure, for their longer service renders them impervious to the furies of economic change. In many instances, those who have merely whetted their thirst are the more recently hired …


A Jurisprudence Of Equality: The Fourteenth Amendment And School Desegregation, Stewart Graham Aug 2015

A Jurisprudence Of Equality: The Fourteenth Amendment And School Desegregation, Stewart Graham

Akron Law Review

This paper will deal with the meaning of equality in legal discourse and the social context which underlies that meaning.


Bona Fide Occupation Qualifications And The Military Employer: Opportunities For Females And The Handicapped, Tim M. Callaghan Aug 2015

Bona Fide Occupation Qualifications And The Military Employer: Opportunities For Females And The Handicapped, Tim M. Callaghan

Akron Law Review

This article explores the hiring and job placement policies of the United States military departments' in light of the concept of the bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ). In essence a BFOQ criterion is a requisite to the actual performance of an employment task; a potential employee may be refused a position if he lacks an ability or characteristic which can be labeled as a BFOQ.

Although the study of military employment practices may induce emotional argumentation, this article avoids any conclusions based upon traditional roles of potential employees and deals with two classes of potential employees. The first class of …


The Right Of The Physically And Mentally Handicapped: Amendments Necessary To Guarantee Protection Through The Civil Rights Act Of 1964, Patrick T. Ryan Jul 2015

The Right Of The Physically And Mentally Handicapped: Amendments Necessary To Guarantee Protection Through The Civil Rights Act Of 1964, Patrick T. Ryan

Akron Law Review

SINGLE STROKES of the government's pen can seldom alone accomplish social goals. To insure vitality, legislation requires review, revision and amendment. Though worthy of praise for initial and continuing contributions towards social betterment, the Civil Rights Act of 19641 falls into this classification. Its scope is too narrow because it fails to include a significant group of persons sorely in need of its protection. This legislation needs the depth evoked by its title rather than the limitations of its present language. Amendment is required to protect the rights of the physically and mentally handicapped.


Racial Credit Steering As A Discriminatory Credit Practice Under The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Warren L. Dennis, Charles G. Field Jul 2015

Racial Credit Steering As A Discriminatory Credit Practice Under The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Warren L. Dennis, Charles G. Field

Akron Law Review

This article will explore the possible application of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act with its multiple remedies and enforcement methods to racial credit steering practices as described above.


Seniority Systems And Title Vii, Arthur J. Marinelli Jul 2015

Seniority Systems And Title Vii, Arthur J. Marinelli

Akron Law Review

Seniority provisions frequently work to the disadvantage of minorities because earlier employment discrimination, prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,1 leaves them with fewer years of service. A conflict is thus created between the tradition of seniority and the goals of equal opportunity and affirmative action. The applicability of Title VII to seniority systems and the affirmative action tools for achieving the national policy of equal opportunity will be the focus of this article.


A Fresh Look At The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Gail R. Reizenstein Jul 2015

A Fresh Look At The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Gail R. Reizenstein

Akron Law Review

The subsequent material will illustrate that despite the fact that women have been required to meet both a different and a higher standard for them to be deemed creditworthy, studies have shown that they (especially single women) are in fact better credit risks than men. Nevertheless, in an investigation of special problems concerning the availability of credit, the National Commission on Consumer Finance identified difficulties that women in particular faced in obtaining consumer, as well as mortgage, credit.


Container Legislation, Equal Protection, Commerce Clause, Minnesota V. Clover Leaf Creamery Company, Craig B. Paynter Jul 2015

Container Legislation, Equal Protection, Commerce Clause, Minnesota V. Clover Leaf Creamery Company, Craig B. Paynter

Akron Law Review

The problems of litter, solid waste, and natural resource depletion are often inexorably linked to the liquid manufacturing and packaging industry. Legislative efforts to ameliorate these problems may therefore involve various controls of containers. When states enact container legislation, however, terms must be carefully chosen to avoid conflict with both state and federal constitutions.


Title Vii, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Disclosure Policy, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission V. Associated Dry Goods Corp, Kenneth L. Wittenauer Jul 2015

Title Vii, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Disclosure Policy, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission V. Associated Dry Goods Corp, Kenneth L. Wittenauer

Akron Law Review

Amid judicial turmoil, the EEOC developed procedural guidelines to best effectuate its interpretation of Title VII policies. The Commission's procedural regulations permit the disclosure of the investigative files of the individual and of individuals with similar charges against the same employer even before a lawsuit has been filed. However, the EEOC has been forced to restrict access to its files in those jurisdictions which follow Sears while maintaining a more liberal disclosure policy in the remaining jurisdictions.


Affirmative Action, Reverse Discrimination Bratton V. City Of Detroit, John T. Dellick Jul 2015

Affirmative Action, Reverse Discrimination Bratton V. City Of Detroit, John T. Dellick

Akron Law Review

In Bratton v. City of Detroit, the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals examined charges of reverse discrimination' arising from a voluntary affirmative action plan adopted by the City of Detroit. These reverse discrimination claims were presented as alleged violations of Title VIP and the fourteenth amendment. The Bratton court reviewed the leading Title VII reverse discrimination case, United Steelworkers of America v. Weber, and the leading fourteenth amendment reverse discrimination case, Regents of University of California v. Bakke. From these cases, the court in Bratton extracted the major guidelines of each, comingled them, and developed …