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Full-Text Articles in Law
How The Supreme Court Can Improve Educational Opportunities For African American And Hispanic Students By Ruling Against Harvard College’S Use Of Race Data, Genevieve Kelly
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat
Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard has not only exposed ways in which Harvard College’s admissions office unfairly assesses Asian American applicants, but it has also revealed that Harvard’s fixation on race per se can disadvantage the very African American and Hispanic students best positioned to bring instructive and underrepresented perspectives to the college. The facts show that Harvard’s “tips” and “one-pager” system values African American and Hispanic students for their ability to boost Harvard’s racial profile more than for their actual experiences confronting racial discrimination. This Comment explains how, by ruling against Harvard (and without overruling Grutter or Fisher …
The Right To Be And Become: Black Home-Educators As Child Privacy Protectors, Najarian R. Peters
The Right To Be And Become: Black Home-Educators As Child Privacy Protectors, Najarian R. Peters
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
The right to privacy is one of the most fundamental rights in American jurisprudence. In 1890, Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis conceptualized the right to privacy as the right to be let alone and inspired privacy jurisprudence that tracked their initial description. Warren and Brandeis conceptualized further that this right was not exclusively meant to protect one’s body or physical property. Privacy rights were protective of “the products and the processes of the mind” and the “inviolate personality.” Privacy was further understood to protect the ability to “live one’s life as one chooses, free from assault, intrusion or …
Mainstreaming Equality In Federal Budgeting: Addressing Educational Inequities With Regard To The States, Elizabeth K. Hinson
Mainstreaming Equality In Federal Budgeting: Addressing Educational Inequities With Regard To The States, Elizabeth K. Hinson
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
Great Society reformers targeted poverty as the defining characteristic for a novel federal education policy in the United States in 1965. Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), reincarnated within the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, distributes financial aid to disadvantaged students within public schools solely based upon students’ socioeconomic status. This Article does not dispute that financial resources improve student outcomes, but this Article argues that Title I’s funding formula is ineffective, and a new funding scheme – specifically, a mainstreaming equality funding scheme – must replace it. The implementation of this funding scheme …
Place, Not Race: Affirmative Action And The Geography Of Educational Opportunity, Sheryll Cashin
Place, Not Race: Affirmative Action And The Geography Of Educational Opportunity, Sheryll Cashin
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Ultimately, I argue that one important response to the demise of race-based affirmative action should be to incorporate the experience of segregation into diversity strategies. A college applicant who has thrived despite exposure to poverty in his school or neighborhood deserves special consideration. Those blessed to come of age in poverty-free havens do not. I conclude that use of place, rather than race, in diversity programming will better approximate the structural disadvantages many children of color actually endure, while enhancing the possibility that we might one day move past the racial resentment that affirmative action engenders. While I propose substituting …
The Quixotic Search For Race-Neutral Alternatives, Michael E. Rosman
The Quixotic Search For Race-Neutral Alternatives, Michael E. Rosman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The Supreme Court has stated that the narrow-tailoring inquiry of the Equal Protection Clause’s strict scrutiny analysis of racially disparate treatment by state actors requires courts to consider whether the defendant seriously considered race-neutral alternatives before adopting the race-conscious program at issue. This article briefly examines what that means in the context of race-conscious admissions programs at colleges and universities. Part I sets forth the basic concepts that the Supreme Court uses to analyze race-conscious decision-making by governmental actors and describes the role of “race-neutral alternatives” in that scheme. Part II examines the nature of “race-neutral alternatives” and identifies its …
States Taking Charge: Examining The Role Of Race, Party Affliation, And Preemption In The Development Of In-State Tuition Laws For Undocumented Immigrant Students , Stephen L. Nelson, Jennifer L. Robinson, Kara Hetrick Glaubitz
States Taking Charge: Examining The Role Of Race, Party Affliation, And Preemption In The Development Of In-State Tuition Laws For Undocumented Immigrant Students , Stephen L. Nelson, Jennifer L. Robinson, Kara Hetrick Glaubitz
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
Part I of this Article details both the legislative and legal history of undocumented immigrants’ access to education in the United States. Part II then describes the current U.S. state laws in effect regarding in-state tuition for undocumented immigrant students at state-funded colleges and universities. Part III further explores the development of laws and policies with a keen focus on potential correlations between (1) the racial composition of state legislatures and the passage of in-state tuition policies; (2) the race of governors and the passage of in-state tuition policies; (3) partisan composition of state legislatures and the passage of in-state …
Thinking Hard About 'Race-Neutral' Admissions, Richard H. Sander, Aaron Danielson
Thinking Hard About 'Race-Neutral' Admissions, Richard H. Sander, Aaron Danielson
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Our exploration is organized as follows. In Part I, we sympathetically consider the very difficult dilemmas facing higher education leaders. Understanding the often irreconcilable pressures that constrain university administrators is essential if we are to envision the plausible policies they might undertake. In Part II, we draw on a range of data to illustrate some of the “properties” of admissions systems and, in particular, the ways in which race, SES, and academic preparation interact dynamically both within individual schools and across the educational spectrum. Partly because the questions we examine here have been so little studied, ideal data does not …
The 'Compelling Government Interest' In School Diversity: Rebuilding The Case For An Affirmative Government Role, Philip Tegeler
The 'Compelling Government Interest' In School Diversity: Rebuilding The Case For An Affirmative Government Role, Philip Tegeler
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
How far does Justice Kennedy’s “moral and ethical obligation” to avoid racial isolation extend? Does the obligation flow primarily from Supreme Court case law, does it derive from an evolving consensus in the social sciences, or does it also have a statutory basis in Title VI and other federal law? In addition to its value as a justification for non-individualized, race-conscious remedial efforts by state and local governments, does the compelling interest identified in Parents Involved also suggest an affirmative duty on the part of the federal government? And if so, how far does this affirmative duty extend, and how …
Fisher V. Texas: The Limits Of Exhaustion And The Future Of Race-Conscious University Admissions, John A. Powell, Stephen Menendian
Fisher V. Texas: The Limits Of Exhaustion And The Future Of Race-Conscious University Admissions, John A. Powell, Stephen Menendian
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article investigates the potential ramifications of Fisher v. Texas and the future of race-conscious university admissions. Although one cannot predict the ultimate significance of the Fisher decision, its brief and pregnant statements of law portends an increasingly perilous course for traditional affirmative action programs. Part I explores the opinions filed in Fisher, with a particular emphasis on Justice Kennedy’s opinion on behalf of the Court. We focus on the ways in which the Fisher decision departs from precedent, proscribes new limits on the use of race in university admissions, and tightens requirements for narrow tailoring. Part II investigates the …
Doing Affirmative Action, Stephen Clowney
Doing Affirmative Action, Stephen Clowney
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
Sometime this year the Supreme Court will announce its holding in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, a case that asks whether colleges may continue to consider race when making admissions decisions. Most Court watchers predict that the five conservative justices will vote to curtail the use of racial preferences. Lost in the weighty discussions about the scope of the Equal Protection Clause and the meaning of the Civil Rights struggle is any clear and concise explanation of how selective colleges actually make admissions decisions and how they work to fulfill the goals of affirmative action. This Essay seeks …
The Promise Of Grutter: Diverse Interactions At The University Of Michigan Law School, Meera E. Deo
The Promise Of Grutter: Diverse Interactions At The University Of Michigan Law School, Meera E. Deo
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
In Grutter v. Bollinger, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld affirmative action at the University of Michigan Law School on the grounds of educational diversity. Yet the Court's assumption that admitting diverse students into law school would result in improved race relations, livelier classroom conversations, and better professional outcomes for students has never been empirically tested. This Article relies on survey and focus group data collected at the University of Michigan Lav School campus itself in March 2010 to examine not only whether, but how diversity affects learning. The data indicate both that there are sufficient numbers of students of color …
Leveling Localism And Racial Inequality In Education Through The No Child Left Behind Act Public Choice Provision, Erika K. Wilson
Leveling Localism And Racial Inequality In Education Through The No Child Left Behind Act Public Choice Provision, Erika K. Wilson
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
School district boundary lines play a pivotal role in shaping students' educational opportunities. Living on one side of a school district boundary rather than another can mean the difference between being able to attend a high-achieving resource-enriched school or having to attend a low-achieving resource-deprived school. Despite the prominent role that school district boundary lines play in dictating educational opportunities for students, remedies formulated by the federal judiciary-the institution frequently looked upon to address issues of school segregation and inequality-are ineffective in ameliorating disparities between school districts. They are ineffective because the federal judiciary evidences a doctrinal preference for localism …
Determining The (In)Determinable: Race In Brazil And The United States, D. Wendy Greene
Determining The (In)Determinable: Race In Brazil And The United States, D. Wendy Greene
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
In recent years, the Brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro, So Paulo, and Mato Grasso du Sol have implemented race-conscious affirmative action programs in higher education. These states established admissions quotas in public universities for Afro-Brazilians or afrodescendentes. As a result, determining who is "Black'' has become a complex yet important undertaking in Brazil. Scholars and the general public alike have claimed that the determination of Blackness in Brazil is different than in the United States; determining Blackness in the United States is allegedly a simpler task than in Brazil. In Brazil it is widely acknowledged that most Brazilians are …
From Pedagogical Sociology To Constitutional Adjudication: The Meaning Of Desegregation In Social Science Research And Law, Anne Richardson Oakes
From Pedagogical Sociology To Constitutional Adjudication: The Meaning Of Desegregation In Social Science Research And Law, Anne Richardson Oakes
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
In the United States following the case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) federal judges with responsibility for public school desegregation but no expertise in education or schools management appointed experts from the social sciences to act as court advisors. In Boston, MA, educational sociologists helped Judge W. Arthur Garrity design a plan with educational enhancement at its heart, but the educational outcomes were marginalized by a desegregation jurisprudence conceptualized in terms of race rather than education. This Article explores the frustration of outcomes in Boston by reference to the differing conceptualizations of desegregation in law and social science. …
Affirmative Action & Negative Action: How Jian Li's Case Can Benefit Asian Americans, Adrian Liu
Affirmative Action & Negative Action: How Jian Li's Case Can Benefit Asian Americans, Adrian Liu
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
In October 2006, Asian American student Jian D filed a civil rights complaint against Princeton University claiming that Princeton's affirmative action policies were discriminatory. Li argues that affirmative action gives preferences to non-Asian minorities at the expense of Asian students. Li's case aligns the interests of Asian Americans with Whites who challenge affirmative action and suggests that such policies are inherently discriminatory because they exclude students based on race and sacrifice merit. This Article argues that Li's exclusion is not due to affirmative action but is likely due to "negative action," the unfavorable treatment of Asian Americans relative to Whites. …
Can Michigan Universities Use Proxies For Race After The Ban On Racial Preferences?, Brian T. Fitzpatrick
Can Michigan Universities Use Proxies For Race After The Ban On Racial Preferences?, Brian T. Fitzpatrick
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
In 2003, the Supreme Court of the United States held that public universities—and the University of Michigan in particular--had a compelling reason to use race as one of many factors in their admissions processes: to reap the educational benefits of a racially diverse student body. In 2006, in response to the Supreme Court's decision, the people of Michigan approved a ballot proposal--called the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative ("MCRI")-that prohibits public universities in the state from discriminating or granting preferential treatment on the basis of race. Shortly after the MCRI was approved, a number of Michigan universities suggested that they were …
Without Color Of Law: The Losing Race Against Colorblindness In Michigan, Khaled Ali Beydoun
Without Color Of Law: The Losing Race Against Colorblindness In Michigan, Khaled Ali Beydoun
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Essay examines affirmative action, while discussing its fall in California, Washington State, and ultimately Michigan.
The Diversity Rationale: Unprovable, Uncompelling, Brian N. Lizotte
The Diversity Rationale: Unprovable, Uncompelling, Brian N. Lizotte
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
Student body diversity-and the purported educational benefits diversity bestows- is the final Supreme Court-endorsed justification for affirmative action by public universities. Are the benefits of diversity indeed "substantial," as the Grutter majority claimed? The author analyzes the social scientific research upon which the Court relied in articulating the diversity interest. By critiquing its theory and methodology, the author shows how the research fails to prove educational benefits; and by considering the logic underlying social science generally, he shows how the causal relationship is, technically, not provable. The author questions, then, how the diversity interest can possibly be compelling.
Reading, Writing, And Reparations: Systemic Reform Of Public Schools As A Matter Of Justice, Verna L. Williams
Reading, Writing, And Reparations: Systemic Reform Of Public Schools As A Matter Of Justice, Verna L. Williams
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Article analyzes Virginia's effort to remedy massive resistance and posits that, under reparations theory, a broader remedy is necessary to redress the scope of the state's wrongdoing. To do this, Part I briefly examines reparations theory, which provides the tools to identify the proper scope of the injury to be addressed, and, in turn, informs the proper choice of remedy. With this background, Part II discusses the Brown Fund Act and the massive resistance it seeks to remedy. In this connection, the Article demonstrates that the school shutdowns were part of a statewide decision to defy Brown and maintain …
Urban Legends, Desegregation And School Finance: Did Kansas City Really Prove That Money Doesn't Matter?, Preston C. Green Iii, Bruce D. Baker
Urban Legends, Desegregation And School Finance: Did Kansas City Really Prove That Money Doesn't Matter?, Preston C. Green Iii, Bruce D. Baker
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Article examines whether conservative critics are correct in their assertion that the Kansas City, Missouri School District (KCMSD) desegregation plan clearly establishes that no correlation exists between funding and academic outcomes. The first section provides a summary of public education in KCMSD prior to 1977, the beginning of the Missouri v. Jenkins school desegregation litigation. The second and third sections analyze whether the Jenkins desegregation and concurrent school finance litigation (Committee for Educational Equality v. State) addressed these problems. The fourth section provides an overview of school finance litigation and explains how KCMSD desegregation plan has been …
A History Of Hollow Promises: How Choice Juisprudence Fails To Achieve Educational Equality, Anita F. Hill
A History Of Hollow Promises: How Choice Juisprudence Fails To Achieve Educational Equality, Anita F. Hill
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Article combines analysis of case law at state and federal levels as well as federal educational policy in an effort to formulate a framework for addressing educational inequalities, of which the achievement gap is only one result. As individual rights concepts control the discourse of equal educational opportunity, community injury continues to be ignored. Because educational policy aimed at ending educational inequities is governed by equal protection analysis and guided by court decisions, limitations in legal opinions drive such policies. The lack of attention to community harm in law and educational policy limits the ability of education legal reforms …
Challenging The Bounds Of Education Litigation: Castaneda V. Regents And Daniel V. California, Alan E. Schoenfeld
Challenging The Bounds Of Education Litigation: Castaneda V. Regents And Daniel V. California, Alan E. Schoenfeld
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Note argues that by combining the normative suasion of educational finance litigation with the political imperatives manifested in affirmative action law and practice, those who seek to improve the quality of secondary education and expand access to higher education would likely effect greater change than they would working independently. Under the appropriate political and legal circumstances, access to public higher education ought to be treated as something akin to a fundamental right, the unequal distribution of which constitutes a violation of equal protection for students of color and for economically disadvantaged students. Using the Castaneda and Daniel lawsuits to …
Multiracial Identity, Monoracial Authenticity & Racial Privacy: Towards An Adequate Theory Of Mulitracial Resistance, Maurice R. Dyson
Multiracial Identity, Monoracial Authenticity & Racial Privacy: Towards An Adequate Theory Of Mulitracial Resistance, Maurice R. Dyson
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Article is divided into five parts. Part I briefly places the significance of the Supreme Court's affirmative action ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger in context, particularly the implications of its recommended twenty-five year timeframe in recognizing racial diversity. Part II examines the dangerous consequences of implicit assumptions underlying the RPI. More specifically, I investigate the potential ramifications the RPI would have had upon multiple sectors of our society, including healthcare, education, and law enforcement. In the process, I attempt to demonstrate that the concept of racial privacy is a strategic misnomer intended not to protect one's privacy, but rather …
Locked In Inequality: The Persistence Of Discrimination, Daria Roithmayr
Locked In Inequality: The Persistence Of Discrimination, Daria Roithmayr
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
In this Article, the author argues that the practice of charging school fees to attend public school is an example of locked-in discrimination that persists over time, even in the absence of intentional discrimination. Exploring the lock-in model of discrimination in the unique context of South Africa, Roithmayr makes two central points. First, discriminatory practices often become locked into institutional structures because high switching costs-the costs of moving from a discriminatory practice to an inclusive one—make it too difficult for an institution to discontinue discriminating. Even when institutional actors are fully committed to eradicating racial disparity, they may be constrained …
Foreword, Separate But Unequal: The Status Of America's Public Schools, James Foreman Jr.
Foreword, Separate But Unequal: The Status Of America's Public Schools, James Foreman Jr.
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Symposium, convened by the Michigan Journal of Race & Law, was designed to address many of the issues raised by Donny Gonzalez, a student at a Washington, D.C. high school, on the subject of poverty and race and its effects on school-aged youth. Bringing together a diverse group of speakers and attracting a broad cross-section of the university and Ann Arbor communities, the Separate but Unequal Symposium addressed a range of issues, including: the ongoing relevance of integration, the role of charter schools and other alternative programs, and promising strategies for achieving greater educational equality. A theme linking …
Separate But Unequal: The Status Of America's Public Schools, Michigan Journal Of Race & Law
Separate But Unequal: The Status Of America's Public Schools, Michigan Journal Of Race & Law
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
Transcript of the symposium, which took place at the University of Michigan Law School on Saturday, February 9, 2002 in Hutchins Hall.
Putting Black Kids Into A Trick Bag: Anatomizing The Inner-City Public School Reform, Wilbur C. Rich
Putting Black Kids Into A Trick Bag: Anatomizing The Inner-City Public School Reform, Wilbur C. Rich
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
Part I of this Article discusses the history of Brown, and the legal and political barriers that prevented the nation from fulfilling Brown's promise. Part II, will examine the phenomenon of White flight, which resulted from the efforts to implement the court-ordered desegregation of public schools. The political and economic effects of White flight on school reform efforts will also be examined. Part III will provide the reader with possible explanations for why school desegregation failed. The author will argue that the unexpected complexity of the task of desegregation, the lack of a unified direction among the judiciary, and …
The State Judiciary's Role In Fulfilling Brown's Promise, Quentin A. Palfrey
The State Judiciary's Role In Fulfilling Brown's Promise, Quentin A. Palfrey
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
After a brief overview of school finance litigation since Rodriguez and school desegregation cases since Brown, Part I argues that the "adequacy" model of reform addresses many of the underlying concerns of the equity model without sharing its methodological and strategic shortcomings. Part II focuses in more detail on Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State ("CFE"). Part III argues that education reform that is implemented after a finding that a state has violated a state constitutional duty should: (1) equalize funding to the extent necessary to guarantee certain minimum necessary inputs such as qualified teachers, small class …
Conscious Use Of Race As A Voluntary Means To Educational Ends In Elementary And Secondary Education: A Legal Argument Derived From Recent Judicial Decisions, Julie F. Mead
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This paper provides an in-depth examination of the ten recent court decisions concerning race-based student selection processes. As these cases will illustrate, school districts face increasing demands to justify any race-conscious selection process. The significance of meeting the demands and the implications for what appears to be an evolving legal theory is national in scope and broad in application. Some have even argued that some of these cases mark a departure away from the Court's thinking in Brown v. the Board of Education. It should also be noted that each of the cases mentioned above occurred in the context …
The Children Left Behind: How Zero Tolerance Impacts Our Most Vulnerable Youth, Ruth Zweifler, Julia De Beers
The Children Left Behind: How Zero Tolerance Impacts Our Most Vulnerable Youth, Ruth Zweifler, Julia De Beers
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
The Michigan Journal of Race & Law Symposium, February 8th and 9th, 2002, at the University of Michigan examined the issue: Separate but Unequal: The Status of America's Public Schools. In the past, children of color were expressly denied an equal education on the basis of their race. Today's policies deny many children of color access to educational programs and supports, for reasons that are neutral on their face, with devastating consequences to the students, their families and their communities. The following article explores the concerns and experiences of a public service agency with the growing application of "Zero Tolerance" …