Law Commons^™

Sex-Segregation, Economic Opportunity, And Roberts V. U.S. Jaycees, Elizabeth Sepper

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Unhappy Meals: Sex Discrimination In Toy Choice At Mcdonald’S, Ian Ayres, Antonia Rose Ayres-Brown

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This Essay reports on a commonplace form of sex discrimination that we unsuccessfully challenged in a lawsuit before the Connecticut Human Rights Commission. In a small-scale pilot study that we conducted 5 years ago (which was the basis of our initial complaint) and in a follow-up study conducted in 2013, we found that McDonald’s franchises, instead of asking drive-through customers ordering a Happy Meal about their toy preference, asked the customer for the sex of the customer’s child (“Is it for a boy or a girl?”) and then gave different types of toys for each sex. Moreover, our 2013 visits …

Social Framework Studies Such As Women Don’T Ask And It Does Hurt To Ask Show Us The Next Step Toward Achieving Gender Equality—Eliminating The Long-Term Effects Of Implicit Bias—But Are Not Likely To Get Cases Past Summary Judgment, Andrea Doneff

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Lawyers and judges long have relied on outside evidence—usually studies or empirical research—to help them better understand the impact or meaning of the facts in certain cases. In employment cases, lawyers have used studies that show statistical variance in hiring or promotion between men and women to prove discrimination. They have used studies that talk about implicit bias, the kind of bias that we apply without even knowing we are biased, perhaps the kind of bias we apply even when we are doing our best not to be biased, to understand that comments like “You should go to charm school” …

Transforming Transsexual And Transgender Rights, L. Camille Hebert

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

State and federal employment anti-discrimination statutes have failed to adequately protect transsexual and transgendered individuals in the workplace. Although advancements have been made in recent years regarding the protection of sexual minorities, transsexual and transgendered employees continue to receive sporadic and noncomprehensive protection. Various approaches have been taken to extend protection against discrimination to these individuals, including the utilization of disability protection statutes, the expansion of anti-discrimination statutes, and the protection of transsexual and transgendered individuals as a class; however, these approaches have proven flawed in providing adequate protection.

An examination of anti-discrimination law shows that these measures, while perhaps …

Reconstructing The Race-Sex Analogy, Serena Mayeri

William & Mary Law Review

In the standard account, American sex equality law rests on a partial and imperfect analogy to race, developed in the 1970s by feminists intent on establishing formal equality between men and women, and embraced, albeit selectively and uneasily, by lawmakers and judges. But this account, although containing important elements of truth, obscures the creative ways that advocates turned the tables, arguing that principles developed in sex equality jurisprudence could expand the availability of remedies for racial injustice. This Article explores one example of this phenomenon: efforts, led by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to use the emerging constitutional distinction between detrimental and …

Discrimination And Outrage: The Migration From Civil Rights To Tort Law, Martha Chamallas

William & Mary Law Review

It is not always appreciated that proven discrimination on the basis of race or sex may not amount to a tort and that even persistent racial or sexual harassment may not be enough to qualify for tort recovery. This Article explores the question of whether discriminatory and harassing conduct in the workplace is or should be considered outrageous conduct, actionable under the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress. In recent years, courts have taken radically different approaches to the issue, from holding that such claims are preempted to treating the infliction tort as a reinforcement of civil rights principles. …

Legal Work And The Glass Cliff: Evidence That Women Are Preferentially Selected To Lead Problematic Cases, Julie S. Ashby, Michelle K. Ryan, S. Alexander Haslam

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Recent archival and experimental research by Ryan and Haslam has revealed the phenomenon of the glass cliff whereby women are more likely than men to be appointed to risky or precarious leadership positions in problematic organizational circumstances. This paper extends research on the glass cliff by examining the precariousness of the cases women are assigned in a legal context. An experimental study conducted with law students (N = 114) investigated the appointment of a candidate to lead a legal case that was defined as either low-risk or high-risk. Commensurate with patterns observed in other domains, results indicated that a male …

Yet Another Gender Study? A Critique Of The Harvard Study And A Proposal For Change, Morrison Torrey

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

"Fire Where There Is No Flame:" The Constitutionality Of Single-Sex Classrooms In The Commonwealth, Frances Elizabeth Burgin

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Disability And Employment Discrimination At The Rehnquist Court, Anita Silvers, Michael E. Waterstone, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Disability, Disparate Impact, And Class Actions, Michael Ashley Stein, Michael E. Waterstone

Faculty Publications

Following Title VII's enactment, group-based employment discrimination actions flourished due to disparate impact theory and the class action device. Courts recognized that subordination that defined a group's social identity was also sufficient legally to bind members together, even when relief had to be issued individually. Woven through these cases was a notion of panethnicity that united inherently unrelated groups into a common identity, for example, Asian Americans. Stringent judicial interpretation subsequently eroded both legal frameworks and it has become increasingly difficult to assert collective employment actions, even against discriminatory practices affecting an entire group. This deconstruction has immensely disadvantaged persons …

Disability, Equal Protection, And The Supreme Court: Standing At The Crossroads Of Progressive And Retrogressive Logic In Constitutional Classification, Anita Silvers, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

This Article compares current disability jurisprudence with the development of sex equality jurisprudence in the area of discrimination. It demonstrates that current disability law resembles the abandoned, sexist framework for determining sex equality and argues that disability equality cases should receive similar analysis as the more progressive, current sex equality standard. As such, the Article attempts to synthesize case law (l4th Amendment Equal Protection jurisprudence) and statutory law (Title VII and the ADA) into a comprehensive overview of the state of current disability law viewed within the context of discrimination law in general.

Gender Bias In The Courts Of The Commonwealth Final Report, Gender Bias In The Courts Task Force

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Civil Rights Without Remedies: Vicarious Liability Under Title Vii, Section 1983, And Title Ix, Catherine Fisk, Erwin Chemerinsky

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The Supreme Court has taken an inconsistent approach to allowing vicarious liability under major civil rights statutes. In recent cases, the Court has permitted qualified vicarious liability for supervisors' sexual harassment under Title VII, but rejected vicarious liability under Title IX. Earlier, the Court rejected vicarious liability for local governments sued under Section 1983. In this Article, Professors Fisk and Chemerinsky describe the Court's inconsistent approaches and argue that they cannot bejustfied by the text or legislative history of these statutes. Professors Fisk and Chemerinsky argue that each of these statutes is meant to achieve the same purpose, deterring civil …

More Than A Congressional Joke: A Fresh Look At The Legislative History Of Sex Discrimination Of The 1964 Civil Rights Act, Robert C. Bird

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Separate But Equal Revisited, Kathryn R. Urbonya

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Diversity: The Emerging Modern Separate But Equal Doctrine, Robert N. Davis

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Inward Turn In Outsider Jurisprudence, Richard Delgado

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Gender Justice And Its Critics, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Sex-Based Wage Discrimination Under Title Vii: Equal Pay For Equal Work Or Equal Pay For Comparable Work?, Faith D. Ruderfer

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.