Law Commons^™

Hair Me Out: Why Discrimination Against Black Hair Is Race Discrimination Under Title Vii, Alexis Boyd

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

In May 2010, Chastity Jones sought employment as a customer service representative at Catastrophe Management Solutions (“CMS”), a claims processing company located in Mobile, Alabama. When asked for an inperson interview, Jones, a Black woman, arrived in a suit and her hair in “short dreadlocks,” or locs, a type of natural hairstyle common in the Black community. Despite being qualified for the position, Jones would later have her offer rescinded because of her hair. CMS claimed that locs “tend to get messy” and violated the “neutral” dress code and hair policy requiring employees to be “professional and business-like.” Therefore, CMS …

The Ripple Effects Of Dobbs On Health Care Beyond Wanted Abortion, Maya Manian

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The Supreme Court’s momentous decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn fifty years of precedent on the constitutional right to abortion represents a sea of change, not only in constitutional law, but also in the public health landscape. Although state laws on abortion are still evolving after Dobbs, the decision almost immediately wreaked havoc on the delivery of medical care for both patients seeking abortion care and those not actively seeking to terminate a pregnancy.

This Article also argues that focusing the public’s attention on the deleterious consequences of abortion bans for health care beyond wanted abortion …

In Defense Of The Juggernaut: The Ethical And Constitutional Argument For Prosecutorial Discretion, David A. Lord

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Within days of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, progressive prosecutors throughout the country announced that if their jurisdictions enacted restrictions on abortion, they would not prosecute the individuals who had these procedures or the doctors who performed them. This is the latest example of situations, like drug crimes, illegal gun possession, and other offenses, where prosecutors have declined to enforce a state law as a matter of public policy. Critics of this broad use of prosecutorial discretion have argued that it violates the constitutional separation of powers.

This Article argues that prosecutorial discretion is well-founded in American …

Deeply Rooted Or Deeply Flawed? A Constitutional Criticism Of Dobbs And Roe's Potential Resurrection, Julian Whitley

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Abortion has been a divisive issue in this country for decades. Some believe that abortion should be illegal under any circumstance, others believe that abortion under certain circumstances should be legal, and still others believe that abortion should be legal in all circumstances. The issue of abortion was initially decided by the Court in 1973 under Roe v. Wade, where the Court devised a trimester approach.

Pro-Choice (Of Law): Extraterritorial Application Of State Law Using Abortion As A Case Study, Marnie Leonard

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Madison Underwood was scheduled to receive a life-saving abortion at a clinic in Tennessee when her doctor told her the procedure had been canceled. The Supreme Court had overturned the constitutional right to abortion a few days prior. Although Underwood’s abortion was still legal in Tennessee, her doctor felt performing the procedure was too risky with the law changing so quickly.

Unlocking The Beauty From Within Title Vii: Arguing For An Expansive Interpretation Of Title Vii To Protect Against Attractiveness Discrimination, Michael Conklin

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Beauty may only be skin deep, but discrimination against the unattractive runs far deeper. Research emphatically demonstrates that attractiveness discrimination affects nearly every aspect of life, including hiring and promotion decisions. For example, personal injury attorneys utilize economists as expert witnesses for how their clients’ reduced attractiveness will negatively affect their future earnings. Attractiveness discrimination is just as prevalent as discrimination based on ethnicity. Unfortunately, current interpretations of federal antidiscrimination legislation do not offer protections from attractiveness discrimination. This Article offers a comprehensive framework for providing such protections under an expansive interpretation of Title VII.

Sexual Abuse Of Female Inmates In Federal Prisons, Brenda Smith

Congressional and Other Testimony

This Article discusses the modest aspirations of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (“PREA”) that passed unanimously in the United States Congress in 2003. The Article posits that PREA created opportunities for holding correctional authorities accountable by creating a baseline for safety and setting more transparent expectations for agencies’ practices for protecting prisoners from sexual abuse. Additionally, the Article posits that PREA enhanced the evolving standards of decency for the Eighth Amendment and articulated clear expectations of correctional authorities to provide sexual safety for people in custody.

Denouncing The Revival Of Pre-Roe V. Wade Abortion Bans In A Post-Dobbs World Through The Void Ab Initio And Presumption Of Validity Doctrines, Nora Greene

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

The United States Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in a leaked draft of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Written by Justice Alito and joined by four of the other conservative justices, the decision describes Roe as “egregiously wrong from the start” and blatantly overrules the landmark holding and its prodigy, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In their state codes, nine states—Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin— have unrepealed criminal abortion bans enacted before Roe. These bans prohibit abortion at any point in pregnancy unless to preserve the life of the pregnant person …

Closeted Or Credible: How Misinterpretation Of The Real Id Act Prevents Closeted Lgbtq+ Applicants From Establishing Credible Asylum Claims, Mary Kate O'Connell

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Porn Wars: Serious Value, Social Harm, And The Burdens Of Modern Obscenity Doctrine, P. Brooks Fuller, Kyla P. Garrett Wagner, Farnosh Mazandarani

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

During the 1980s, anti-pornography ideologues—an unlikely alliance of feminist activists and right-wing evangelical Christians—waged an open war against pornography and the anti-censorship feminists who supported legal protection for pornographic works. Following a pivotal defeat of an anti-pornography ordinance in federal court, the ideologies constituted in the so-called “Porn Wars” continued to guide obscenity doctrine. These ideologies have informed lower courts’ understanding of the harms and values associated with sexually explicit content more than constitutional scholars recognize, at least explicitly. Although courts recognize core feminist values such as sexual autonomy and privacy in sexually explicit content, they have built doctrine that …

Sexual Contact Between A Suspect And Police Officers: How Far Should Police Go To Prove Prostitution?, Paula Del Valle Torres

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Intersection Between Disability And Lgbt Discrimination And Marginalization, Victoria M. Rodríguez-Roldán

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

In The Right Direction, Family Diversity In The Inter-American System Of Human Rights, Macarena Sáez

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This Article argues that the Inter-American System of Human Rights has contributed to a family system that embraces gender equality and non-heterosexual and gender non-conforming families. It argues that the system had, from its inception, an expansive idea of the family that included associations outside marriage. This was the basis for a robust development of the concepts of equality and non-discrimination by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Although the IACtHR has only decided a handful of cases related to the non-heterosexual family, its rich case law on equality and the right to …

Mitigating The "Lgbt Disconnect": Title Ix's Protection Of Transgender Students, Birth Certificate Correction Statutes, And The Transformative Potential Of Connecting The Two, Kyle Velte

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Mitigating The "Lgbt Disconnect": Title Ix's Protection Of Transgender Students, Birth Certificate Correction Statutes, And The Transformative Potential Of Connecting The Two, Kyle Velte

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Contemporary Aspects Of Female Genital Mutilation Prohibitions In The United States, Limor Ezioni

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Sexual Exploitation And Abuse In Conflict: An International Crime?, Clare Brown

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Intersexuales En Estado De Excepción: Violencias Contra Las Corporeidades Diversas, Olga Lucia Camacho

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Accommodating Competition: Harmonizing National Economic Commitments, Jonathan Baker

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article shows how the norm supporting governmental action to protect and foster competitive markets was harmonized with economic rights to contract and property during the 19th century, and with the development of the social safety net during the 20th century. It explains why the Constitution, as understood today, does not check the erosion of the entrenched but threatened national commitment to assuring competitive markets.

Emerging Best Practices For The Management And Treatment Of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, And Intersex Youth In Juvenile Justice Settings, Brenda V. Smith, Hayley Gorenberg, J. Rhodes Perry, Lisa Belmarsh, Shaena Johnson, Steven Jett, Rebecca Walters, Macarena Saez, Dana Shoenberg, Terry Schuster, Josh Delaney, Karen Bachar, Mykel Selph, Mark Seymour, Sharita Gruberg, Chris Daley, Mark Yarhouse

Reports

In 2016 according to the U.S. Department of Justice, 856,130 youth were arrested and 45,567 juveniles were held in 1,772 residential juvenile facilities across the country. Detained and confined youth share many characteristics: most are from poor communities and lack access to quality health care. Mental illness and sexually transmitted infections are prevalent. Compared to their non-confined counterparts, incarcerated youth also experience higher rates of substance abuse and homelessness, are educationally behind their peers, are disproportionately identified as needing special education services, and are more likely to have had traumatic experiences (including sexual and emotional abuse) and injuries including traumatic …

"The Way I Felt": Creating A Model Statute To Address Sexual Offenses Which Utilize Virtual Reality, Ryan Esparza

Criminal Law Practitioner

No abstract provided.

Negotiated Rulemaking: A Method For Addressing Ambiguity Of Title Ix's Applicability To Transgender And Gender Non-Conforming Students, Greta Allardyce

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

The #Metoo Movement: An Invitation For Feminist Critique Of Rape Crisis Framing, Jamie Abrams

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article invites feminists to leverage the #MeToo Movement as a critical analytical tool to explore the longevity of the enduring rape crisis framing of victim services. For nearly half a century, victims have visited rape crisis centers, called rape crisis hotlines, and mobilized rape crisis response teams to provide services and support. This enduring political and social framing around rape as a crisis is opaque, has prompted a political backlash, and risks distorting hard-fought feminist legal, social, and political battles. It has yielded underreporting, underutilization, and recurring risks of budgetary cuts. This model and terminology have gone virtually unchanged …

The Polarization Of Reproductive And Parental Decision-Making, Jamie Abrams

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Women’s abortion decision-making and parental decision-making in child rearing are constructed as polarized methods of decision-making. Women’s abortion decision-making is understood as myopic and individualistic. Parental decision-making is understood as sacrificial and selfless. This polarization leaves reproductive decision-making isolated, marginalized, and vulnerable while parental decision-making is essentialized, protected, and revered. Both framings are inaccurate and problematic. A unified family decision-making framework that aligns abortion decision-making and parental decision-making reveals that both forms of decision-making are more multi-dimensional, relational, and family-centered than currently understood. This article exposes the ground to be gained by crossing longstanding boundaries in family law and reproductive …

How Does A Radical Lesbian Feminist Who Just Knows How To Holler Somehow Become A Noted Legal Scholar, Nancy Polikoff

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

"[R]Elegated Through No Fault Of Their Own To A More Difficult" System: Applying The Obergefell Opinion To Custody Principles, Melanie Kalmanson

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Teenage Pregnancy, Parenting, And Abortion: Legal Limits On Adolescents' Reproductive Rights, Maya Manian

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

As numerous scholars have noted, the law takes a strikingly incoherent approach to adolescent reproduction. States overwhelmingly allow a teenage girl to independently consent to pregnancy care and medical treatment for her child, and even to give up her child for adoption, all without notice to her parents, but require parental notice or consent for abortion. This chapter argues that this oft-noted contradiction in the law on teenage reproductive decision-making is in fact not as contradictory as it first appears. A closer look at the law's apparently conflicting approaches to teenage abortion and teenage childbirth exposes common ground that scholars …

Side Effects Of The Abortion Wars, Maya Manian

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Over the last several decades, as part of the movement against abortion rights, abortion has become increasingly stigmatized and isolated in women's health. The current segregation of abortion from the rest of women's medical needs brings us full circle back to questions raised by Roe v. Wade. Although Roe was rightly criticized as over-medicalizing the abortion decision and empowering doctors rather than women, we have now shifted to the opposite extreme of severing abortion completely from the realm of women's health. While it remains important to understand abortion access as necessary to sustaining women's right to equal citizenship, the public's …

Employment Discrimination: Have The Federal Courts Reached A Consensus On How To Interpret Title Vii Claims Alleged By Plaintiffs Who Identify As Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Or Transgender?, Larkin Nicholas

Labor & Employment Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Policy Review And Development Guide: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, And Intersex Persons In Custodial Settings, 3rd Ed., Brenda V. Smith, Jaime M. Yarussi

Reports

The Project on Addressing Prison Rape (the Project) at American University’s Washington College of Law (WCL) has had a cooperative agreement with the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) to provide training and technical assistance to high-level correctional decisionmakers on key issues in preventing and addressing staff sexual misconduct since 1999. In 2003, with the enactment of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), the Project’s focus shifted to addressing prison rape—both staff sexual misconduct and inmateon- inmate sexual abuse. Beginning in 2006, Smith Consulting began a collaborative effort with the Project and NIC to focus efforts on providing technical assistance to …