Law Commons^™

An Analysis Of The Supreme Court's Reliance On Racial "Stigma" As A Constitutional Concept In Affirmative Action Cases, Andrew F. Halaby, Stephen R. Mcallister

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

The Article's focus is confined to discussions of race-based affirmative action; it does not consider stigmatization arguments in the context of discrimination involving gender or disabilities, for example. Further, the Article's scope is limited to the stigmatization issue as between Whites and African Americans. Although similar issues exist with respect to other ethnic or racial groups, we view the White/African American paradigm as providing the clearest framework for analysis. Moreover, the cases of Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, joint progenitors of stigmatization as a concept having constitutional significance in interpreting the Equal Protection Clause of …

Race-Conscious Diversity Admissions Programs: Furthering A Compelling Interest, Marty B. Lorenzo

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article argues that narrowly tailored, race-conscious admissions programs can be employed to achieve a more diverse student body and consequently a more enlightened and egalitarian society. An admissions body which looks beyond traditional academic indicators and explores the whole person of each applicant will matriculate a group of students with a wide variety of race, gender, class and other backgrounds, thereby fostering a robust exchange of ideas among these students. Pointing to the enduring precedential value of Bakke as well as the ideological makeup of the Supreme Court, this Article asserts that the Courts would likely uphold a program …

Moving Ground, Breaking Traditions: Tasha's Chronicle, Angela I. Onwuachi-Willig

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Note uses a fictional dialogue to analyze and engage issues concerning stereotypes, stigmas, and affirmative action. It also highlights the importance of role models for students of color and the disparate hiring practices of law firms and legal employers through the conversations and thoughts of its main character, Tasha Crenshaw.

The Evolution Of Race In The Law: The Supreme Court Moves From Approving Internment Of Japanese Americans To Disapproving Affirmative Ation For African Americans, Reggie Oh, Frank Wu

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

As the Court suggests, the Korematsu precedent is crucial to the Adarand decision. In Adarand, the Court analyzes Korematsu in depth, acknowledging that its own judgment had been mistaken in the internment cases, instead of simply citing the decisions as it formally had done until the very recent past. The Court nevertheless fails to appreciate the differences between Korematsu and Adarand, and in particular the consequences of using "strict scrutiny" for all racial classifications. This essay explores the complex relation-ship between Korematsu and Adarand, and offers a critique of the reasoning used in both cases. The essay …

Reconsidering Strict Scrutiny Of Affirmative Action, Brent E. Simmons

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Under the artificial constraints of strict scrutiny, however, the courts are free to veto the government's choice of more effective, race-conscious means. The Supreme Court's unfortunate and ill-conceived adoption of strict scrutiny as the constitutional standard for reviewing race-conscious affirmative action should be reconsidered for several reasons. This Article examines those reasons.

The Quest For Justice, James S. Fishkin

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Affirmative Action and Justice: A Philosophical and Constitutional Inquiry by Michel Rosenfeld

Employment Equality, Affirmative Action, And The Constitutional Political Consensus, Robert A. Sedler

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Equality Transformed: A Quarter-Century of Affirmative Action by Herman Belz and A Conflict of Rights: The Supreme Court and Affirmative Action by Melvin I. Urofsky

Affirmative Action At Work: Law Politics, And Ethics, Michael K. Ross

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Affirmative Action at Work: Law Politics, and Ethics by Bron Raymond Taylor

Affirmative Action As A Majoritarian Device: Or, Do You Really Want To Be A Role Model?, Richard Delgado

Michigan Law Review

Have you ever noticed how affirmative action occupies a place in our system of law and politics far out of proportion to its effects in the real world? Liberals love talking about and sitting on committees that define, oversee, defend, and give shape to it. Conservatives are attached to the concept for different reasons: they can rail against it, declare it lacking in virtue and principle, and use it to rally the troops. Affirmative action is something they love to hate. The program also generates a great deal of paper, conversation, and jobs probably more of the latter for persons …

Progressive And Conservative Constitutionalism, Robin West

Michigan Law Review

The article's central thesis is that the understandings of the constitutional tradition most central to both paradigms are determined by sometimes implicit, but more often explicit, political dispositions toward various forms of social and private power, and the normative authority to which social and private power gives rise. Very broadly, conservative constitutionalists view private or social normative authority as the legitimate and best source of guidance for state action; accordingly, they view both the Constitution and constitutional adjudication as means of preserving and protecting that authority and the power that undergirds it against either legislative or judicial encroachment. Progressive constitutionalists, …

The Final Report: Harvard's Affirmative Action Allegory, Derrick Bell

Michigan Law Review

Harvard's affirmative action allegory written for this symposium.

Decoding Richmond: Affirmative Action And The Elusive Meaning Of Constitutional Equality, Michel Rosenfeld

Michigan Law Review

This Article first briefly considers the conceptual and constitutional framework out of which the controversy in Croson emerges. Next, the Article turns to Croson itself, and focuses on the Court's adoption of the strict scrutiny test, on the disagreement among the Justices concerning the test's meaning and implications, and on the Court's use of decontextualization to manipulate the key conceptual and factual issues at stake. Finally, drawing upon the principle of equality of opportunity, the Article endeavors to demonstrate how the adoption of particular principles of substantive equality can lead to a comprehensive and coherent constitutional resolution of the affirmative …

Finding A "Manifest Imbalance": The Case For A Unified Statistical Test For Voluntary Affirmative Action Under Title Vii, David D. Meyer

Michigan Law Review

This Note analyzes the "manifest imbalance" standard developed in Weber and Johnson and the various approaches the lower courts have taken in trying to apply the test. Part I examines the Weber and Johnson opinions in some detail, and argues that the Court intended to permit affirmative action aimed at remedying the evident effects of past discrimination, regardless of whether the employer or society at large is to blame. Section I.A describes the diverging constitutional and statutory standards for evaluating voluntary affirmative action programs, and the policies behind the divergence. Sections I.B and I.C take a closer look at the …

Empowerment And Achievement In Minority Law Student Support Programs: Constructing Affirmative Action, Leslie G. Espinoza

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Article reviews the findings of the LSAC Report. The LSAC Report is a good beginning for an understanding of the structure of current minority academic support programs. The data provided by the Report, particularly regarding student selection criteria, demonstrates the link between support programs and affirmative action. Part II explores the stigma exacerbated by many academic support programs and the prejudice that stigma perpetuates. Part III examines law school myopia in approach and design of academic support programs. Academic support should do more than reiterate, albeit at a slow and studied pace, earlier classroom material. Students …

Affirmative Action On Law Reviews: An Empirical Study Of Its Status And Effect, Frederick Ramos

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note discusses the issues involved in affirmative action on law reviews. Part I examines law review affirmative action admissions schemes and alternative types of affirmative action programs. Part II considers the arguments supporting and opposing the implementation of affirmative action programs by law reviews. Part III presents the results of a survey of law reviews concerning affirmative action. This Note concludes that affirmative action programs are the most effective means of increasing minority membership on law reviews, but that law reviews may increase minority membership through other methods.

The 1986 And 1987 Affirmative Action Cases: It's All Over But The Shouting, Herman Schwartz

Michigan Law Review

For the moment, the affirmative action wars are over. In a ten-year set of decisions, culminating in five during the last two terms, the Court has now legitimated almost all types of race and gender preferences, even if they benefit nonvictims, including voluntarily adopted preferences in hiring, promotion, university admissions, and government contracting; hiring and promotion preferences in consent decrees; and court-ordered hiring and promotions. It has approved preferences by both public and private bodies, and for both racial-ethnic minorities and women. It has barred only layoffs of white (and presumably male) employees who have more seniority than employees hired …

Bakke & The Politics Of Equality, Paul V. Timmins

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Bakke & the Politics of Equality by Timothy J. O'Neill

Of Cultural Determinism And The Limits Of Law, Paul R. Dimond, Gene Sperling

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality? by Thomas Sowell

Point/Counterpoint: A Debate On Irony And Interpretation, Richard Lempert, Peter Westen

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

Can irony play a role in the construction of statutes? In the following articles, legal scholars Richard Lempert and Peter Westen debate the point, taking, as their context, the Supreme Court decision in United Steelworkers v. Weber, a 1979 affirmative action case that brings to the fore the moral dilemmas posed by such programs.

Professor Lempert's initial article originally appeared in Ethics 95 (October 1984), published by the University of Chicago Press. Professor Westen's response, and Lempert's rejoinder to it, were written especially for Law Quadrangle Notes.

Richard Lempert is a graduate of Oberlin College and the University of …

Point/Counterpoint: A Debate On Irony And Interpretation, Richard Lempert, Peter Westen

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

Can irony play a role in the construction of statutes? In the following articles, legal scholars Richard Lempert and Peter Westen debate the point, taking, as their context, the Supreme Court decision in United Steelworkers v. Weber, a 1979 affirmative action case that brings to the fore the moral dilemmas posed by such programs.

Professor Lempert's initial article originally appeared in Ethics 95 (October 1984), published by the University of Chicago Press. Professor Westen's response, and Lempert's rejoinder to it, were written especially for Law Quadrangle Notes.

Richard Lempert is a graduate of Oberlin College and the University of …

The Self-Critical Analysis Privilege And Discovery Of Affirmative Action Plans In Title Vii Suits, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that plaintiffs should have access to affirmative action plans in discovery. Part I describes the "self-critical analysis" or "self-evaluative" privilege that employers have advanced to block discovery of such plans. Part II examines the conflicting interests of society, employers and employees in allowing or denying discovery. Part III evaluates the application of a self-critical analysis privilege in light of these conflicting interests and concludes that the privilege should not be applied to affirmative action plans.

Affirmative Action In The Electoral Process: The Constitutionality Of The Democratic Party's Equal Division Rule, Timothy J. Hoy

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Note traces the history of affirmative action in the Democratic Party and the events preceding adoption and implementation of the equal division rule. Part II establishes that the equal division rule is subject to constitutional review. Part III presents constitutional and state statutory challenges to the equal division rule. The Note concludes that use of the equal division rule "quota" in the delegate selection process is unconstitutional.

Philosophical Perspectives On Affirmative Action, Kenneth W. Simons

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Equality and Preferential Treatment: A Philosophy & Public Affairs Reader edited by Marshall Cohen, Thomas Nagel, and Thomas Scanlon

The Cost Of Equality: Civil Rights During Periods Of Economic Stress, Harry T. Edwards

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

Many minority workers, only recently hired under affirmative action programs, have been laid off during the present recession under "last hired, first fired " seniority systems. Thus it has been claimed that the gains in equal opportunity employment that have been made over the last ten years are in danger of being lost through layoffs in the recession of the '70's.

Preferential Remedies For Employment Discrimination, Harry T. Edwards, Barry L. Zaretsky

Michigan Law Review

A basic thesis of this article is that much of the current concern about alleged "reverse discrimination" in employment ignores the reality of the situation. In Part I it will be contended that although color blindness is a laudable long-run objective, it alone will not end discrimination; thus, it will be argued that some form of "color conscious" affirmative action must be employed in order to achieve equal employment opportunity for minorities and women. The most effective form of affirmative action is temporary preferential treatment, and it will be asserted in Part II that such relief can be justified under …