Law Commons^™

Civil Rights And Legal Order: The Work Of A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Donald P. Kommers, Eugenia S. Schwartz

Journal Articles

On October 11-12, 1978, Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr.' delivered the Notre Dame Law School's Seventh Annual Civil Rights Lecture under the general title, "From Thomas Jefferson to Bakke: Race and the American Legal Process." It seems to us appropriate, therefore, on the occasion of the Higginbotham lecture, to consider his work as both historian and judge. Specifically, this article will serve the threefold purpose of (1) reviewing Matter of Color, (2) illustrating the author's use of history in two judicial opinions dealing with the rights of black Americans, and (3) reflecting upon the implications of Higginbotham's work in legal …

Civil Rights And Civil Liberties, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

More than most lawsuits, school desegregation cases touch basic economic interests and deep-seated psychic sensitivities of entire communities. In this context, legal notions of the "intent" of governmental bodies and the "effect" of their actions on massive, intricate social processes seem eerily abstract. Though limited and necessarily artificial, these legal concepts are nonetheless the jurisprudential links by which courts must legitimize their efforts to define "rights" worthy of recognition in desegregating schools in large urban areas.

This article focuses primarily on this term's decisions of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit involving desegregation of the Milwaukee …

Bias In Housing: Toward A New Approach, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

The problem of racial discrimination in housing is the product of several factors. Among these is racial prejudice on the part of private land owners, real estate brokers, builders and mortgage finance institutions.

Federal Public-Accommodations Law: A Dissent, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

Discrimination in public accommodations presents the most appealing case for compulsory civil-rights legislation. In practical terms, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has eliminated much of the existing segregation in public accommodations, and, with continued enforcement, the job should be soon completed even in the most hostile areas of the South. The public-accommodations problem, therefore, is no longer a live issue. It is useful, however, to touch upon it, for those who would restrain federal power are often challenged by the taunt, "What would you do about public accommodations? Would you leave it up to the states? How would you …

Voting Rights Act Of 1965: Some Dissenting Observations, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

On March 7, 1966, the Supreme Court of the United States, over the partial dissent of Mr. Justice Black, sustained the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In the mode of its adoption, the reach of its provisions, and the strength of the reactions it aroused, the act was extraordinary. And the decision which sustained it was no less so in its legitimation of expanded administrative power and in its effect upon the balance of federal and state powers. In order to assess the act, and incidentally the ruling which sustained it, it will be helpful to sketch the basic voting …

A Supplementary State Civil Rights Act, Robert E. Rodes

Journal Articles

Under the following statute, civil rights groups, with the approval of the state civil rights commission, may enter into agreements with employers, labor organizations, school authorities, or other public or private agencies, for a direct attack on de facto segregation through a deliberate mixing of races in a desired proportion. Professor Rodes characterizes his draft as "a suggestion for controlled concessions to the principle of direct mixing of the races" in such a manner as to be "philosophically consistent with an ultimate commitment to a society in which racial considerations play no part."

Sit-Ins: Proceed With Caution, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

In the current racial contentions, the sit-in demonstration has proved to be an effective and disturbing weapon against segregation by privately-owned business establishments. It is effective because the imposition of economic loss, through monopolizing the seats in a restaurant to the exclusion of potential customers, can break down a proprietor's pattern of segregation more relentlessly than persuasion. It is disturbing because the sit-in poses a direct challenge to accustomed understanding of private property rights.

Introduction, Joseph O'Meara

Journal Articles

A symposium was held on February 29, 1964, devoted to the constitutional amendments proposed by the Council of State Governments. Very briefly these amendments would (1) vest power to amend the Constitution in State legislatures; (2) set up a "Court of the Union," composed of the chief justice of the supreme court of each of the 50 states, which would have authority to review "any judgment of the Supreme Court relating to the rights reserved to the states or to the people by this Constitution"; (3) take from the federal courts all jurisdiction over the apportionment of representation in State …

The Legality Of De Facto Segregation, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

There are three basic fields with which a discussion of racial segregation must deal: education, employment and housing. Opinions will vary as to which, if any, is paramount, but none will deny that they are interrelated. In all three areas, the engines of legal proscription have been brought to bear to eliminate affirmative, legally-sanctioned segregation. But there remains the stubborn fact that the removal of legal discrimination has not been attended by either a resultant improvement in the living conditions of minority groups or a substantial integration of the races. The lack of causal connection between the elimination of legal …

Book Review, William Burns Lawless

Journal Articles

Reviewing: Civil Justice and the Jury by Charles W. Joiner (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1962).