Law Commons^™

Reflections On Brown And The Future, Oliver W. Hill Sr.

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Promise Of Equality: Reflections On The Post-Brown Era In Virginia, Robert R. Mehrige Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Virginia's Next Challenge: Economic And Educational Opportunity, Mark R. Warner

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Clarifying The Federal Fair Housing Act's Exemption For Reasonable Occupancy Restrictions, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

This article argues that a deceptively simple “exemption” to the 1988 Fair Housing Act Amendments (FHAA) for “reasonable” governmental occupancy standards has been misinterpreted by numerous courts, particularly by the Sixth Circuit in Affordable Housing Advocates v. City of Richmond Heights, 209 F.3d 626 (6th Cir. 2000). This misinterpretation undercuts the protection from housing discrimination that the FHAA provides for families, especially families of color. This article sorts through the confusion about the “exemption,” provides a step-by-step analysis for courts’ application of the exemption, and offers two plausible versions of a “reasonable” standard.

Discrimination In Sentencing On The Basis Of Afro-Centric Features, William T. Pizzi, Irene V. Blair, Charles M. Judd

ExpressO

For a long time, social scientists have worried about possible racial discrimination in sentencing in the United States. With a prison population that exceeds two million inmates of whom approximately 48% are African American, the worry over the fairness of the sentencing process is understandable. This article is not about discrimination between racial categories as such, but about a related form of discrimination, namely, discrimination on the basis of a person’s Afro-centric features. Section I of the article describes a line of social science research that shows that a person’s Afro-centric features have a strong biasing effect on judgment such …

Race And Equality Across The Law School Curriculum: The Law Of Tax Exemption, David A. Brennen

Scholarly Works

What is the relevance of race to tax law? The race issues are apparent when one studies a subject like constitutional law. The Constitution concerns itself explicitly with such matters as defining rights of citizenship, allocating powers of government, and determining rights with respect to property. Given the history of our country -- with slavery followed by periods of de jure and de facto racial discrimination -- these constitutional law matters obviously must have racial dimensions.

Tax law, however, does not generally concern itself explicitly with matters of race. Tax law is often thought of as completely race neutral in …

Motor Vehicles And Traffic Racial Profiling: Amend The Official Code Of Georgia So As To Require Policies That Prohibit Law Enforcement Officers From Impermissibly Using Race Or Ethnicity In Determining Whether To Stop A Motorist; Require Annual Training Of Law Enforcement Officers On Impermissible Uses Of Race And Ethnicity In Stopping Vehicles; Require Law Enforcement Officers To Document The Race, Ethnicity, And Gender Of A Motorist And Passengers; Provide For Other Matters Relative Thereto; Repeal Conflicting Laws; And For Other Purposes, Jason Sheffield

Georgia State University Law Review

In 2004, the Georgia General Assembly considered a bill to amend the portion of the Georgia Code dealing with motor vehicles and traffic. HB 1327 would have prohibited the use of race or ethnicity in forming probable cause or reasonable suspicion to stop a vehicle and would have mandated data collection for all traffic stops by state and local law enforcement officers. Law enforcement personnel would have recorded this information on a form that the Department of Motor Vehicles would have devised. The Georgia Attorney General would have then analyzed this data to test for racial profiling. Additionally, HB 1327 …

The Network Economic Effects Of Whiteness, Brant T. Lee

Akron Law Faculty Publications

In this Essay I demonstrate that a network economic analysis of race provides an important and intuitive explanation of racial inequality. In short, Whiteness is Microsoft's Windows operating system, or the QWERTY keyboard, or the standard (non-metric) measurement system, and it is difficult to dislodge for many of the same reasons. Network effects explain how (1) the establishment of a dominant market standard can be contingent on historical context, and it is not necessarily derived from superior intrinsic merit, and (2) a dominant standard exhibits strong self-reinforcing characteristics that can maintain the dominance of the standard in perpetuity, even in …

The Network Economic Effects Of Whiteness, Brant T. Lee

Brant T. Lee

In this Essay I demonstrate that a network economic analysis of race provides an important and intuitive explanation of racial inequality. In short, Whiteness is Microsoft's Windows operating system, or the QWERTY keyboard, or the standard (non-metric) measurement system, and it is difficult to dislodge for many of the same reasons. Network effects explain how (1) the establishment of a dominant market standard can be contingent on historical context, and it is not necessarily derived from superior intrinsic merit, and (2) a dominant standard exhibits strong self-reinforcing characteristics that can maintain the dominance of the standard in perpetuity, even in …

Juror First Votes In Criminal Trials, Stephen P. Garvey, Paula Hannaford-Agor, Valerie P. Hans, Nicole L. Mott, G. Thomas Munsterman, Martin T. Wells

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Our analysis of the voting behavior of over 3,000 jurors in felony cases tried in Los Angeles, Maricopa County, the District of Columbia, and the Bronx reveals that only in D.C. does a juror's race appear to relate to how he or she votes. African-American jurors in D.C. appear more apt to vote not guilty on the jury's first ballot in cases involving minority defendants charged with drug offenses. We find no evidence, however, that this effect survives into the jury's final verdict.

Grutter V. Bollinger: Setting A Path For Diversity At The University Of South Carolina School Of Law, Laurel Rosenberg

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Brown'S Legacy Then And Now: Race And Law School Admissions Debates Continue After Nearly 70 Years, Lauren M. Collins

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Next month marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education. Although this case represents a major victory in the battle for civil rights, the struggle against racism in education began some 20 years prior to Brown. During the 1930s and 1940s, at least seven African-American law school candidates aggressively challenged the unequal treatment of minority applicants in state courts, some eventually reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. Early successes in these cases lead to the more sweeping Brown decision, which then contributed to further law school admission policy reform. Discussion about the role of …

Introduction To Law, Ethics, And Affirmative Action In America, Joseph P. Tomain

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This article discusses the language of the opinion in Grutter v. Bollinger. The rhetoric and language that we use to address race is difficult, if not tortured. The article explains why Grutter should have been an easy case and a simple opinion, and the ways in which the final opinion was anything but simple.

Reform Or Retrenchment: Single Sex Education And The Construction Of Race And Gender, Verna L. Williams

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

As parents, policymakers, and educators search for solutions to the crisis in the nation's public schools, single sex education emerges time and again as a promising strategy, particularly for African American students. This article argues that, in order to comprehend fully the implications of single sex schooling in inner city schools, examining the history of sex-based and race-based segregation in education is essential.

History demonstrates that sex and racial segregation in education has supported gender and hierarchies and the attendant subordination of African Americans and white women. For example, when public education became available for Blacks, its primary purpose was …

Reparations For Apartheid's Victims: The Path To Reconciliation?, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Race And Equality Across The Law School Curriculum: The Law Of Tax Exemption, David A. Brennen

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

What is the relevance of race to tax law? The race issues are apparent when one studies a subject like constitutional law. The Constitution concerns itself explicitly with such matters as defining rights of citizenship, allocating powers of government, and determining rights with respect to property. Given the history of our country -- with slavery followed by periods of de jure and de facto racial discrimination -- these constitutional law matters obviously must have racial dimensions.

Tax law, however, does not generally concern itself explicitly with matters of race. Tax law is often thought of as completely race neutral in …

Naming The Dragon: Litigating Race Issues During A Death Penalty Trial, Andrea D. Lyon

Andrea D. Lyon

The issue of racial disparity in the administration of the death penalty is a persistent theme in modern capital jurisprudence. Starting with Furman v. Georgia and continuing on to McCleskey v. Zant courts have struggled to come to grips with this issue. This article does not attempt to explore all of the legal ramifications of race and the death penalty, nor does it speak to its political import. Rather, it tackles some of the practical problems facing a capital defense attorney in the courtroom by providing a brief overview of motions practice in this arena by using a federal capital …

Taking Conservatives Seriously: A Moral Justification For Affirmative Action And Reparations, Kim Forde-Mazrui

Kim Forde-Mazrui

Underlying the debate over affirmative action and reparations for black Americans is a dispute about the extent to which American society is responsible for present effects of past racial discrimination. Although much has been written on the subject, the scholarship too often sheds more heat than light, and tends to be dominated by extreme positions incapable of taking opposing claims seriously. This Article weighs in on this debate in a novel and constructive manner. The Article defends a societal obligation to remedy past discrimination by accepting, rather than dismissing, principles of conservatives who oppose affirmative action and reparations. Taking conservatives …

Race, Corporate Law, And Shareholder Value, Thomas W. Joo

Thomas W Joo

Racial justice is becoming a taboo subject, which often has to be explained and justified in nominally “race-neutral” terms. The rhetorical strategy of linking diversity to the bottom line is potentially powerful in the current political and cultural climate. But the strategy also has limitations and costs. It is not clear that diversity and improved corporate performance always go hand in hand. Furthermore, as a matter of corporate law doctrine, even strong evidence of a correlation between the two would not necessarily constitute a basis to compel corporations to take any action to further racial justice. Finally, there is a …

Setting The Record Straight: Maryland's First Black Women Law Graduates, Taunya Lovell Banks

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Race, Immigration, And The Department Of Homeland Security, Victor C. Romero

Journal Articles

Despite the wisdom of separating the service and enforcement functions of our immigration bureau, the new tripartite system under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security risks fueling the "immigrant Arab as terrorist" stereotype, rather than helping to re-establish the reality that noncitizen terrorists, like U.S. citizen ones, are a rare species.

Retooling The Intent Requirement Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Henry L. Chambers, Jr.

Law Faculty Publications

Racial classifications carry the largest taint and require the most justification. Strict scrutiny-the level of scrutiny with which the remainder of the article will be concerned-requires that race-based differentiation serve a compelling state interest and be narrowly tailored to serve that interest, guaranteeing that the reason for the differentiation is extremely important and that the link between the means chosen to meet the ends is extremely tight. Though strict scrutiny is difficult to survive, it is triggered only when a state actor engages in intentional or purposeful racial discrimination. Controversy surrounds whether such a trigger is necessary. However, rather than …

Race, Face, And Rawls, Anita L. Allen

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Lessons From La Morenita Del Tepeyac, Ana M. Novoa

Faculty Articles

The concept that the powerful and wealthy have the absolute obligation to offer political, financial, and social liberation to those at the margins of society should have special importance to those who are lawyers and professionals of color. People spend considerable time working through, working in, and centered in the dominant, or caucasian European culture. The legal system regularly fails to see, accept, realize, or believe when truth is presented at the margins. Nonetheless, it is at the margins that true legal and personal reform take place. Even in a friendly environment, where people are encouraged to step outside the …

Workplace Mediation: The First-Phase, Private Caucus In Individual Discrimination Disputes, Emily M. Calhoun

Publications

No abstract provided.

Two Wrongs Make A Right: Hybrid Claims Of Discrimination, Ming Hsu Chen

Publications

This Note reinterprets and recontextualizes the pronouncement in Employment Division v. Smith (Smith II) that exemptions from generally applicable laws will not be granted unless claims of free exercise are accompanied by the assertion of another constitutional right. It argues that when Arab American Muslims, and others who are of minority race and religion, bring claims for exemption from generally applicable laws on the basis of free exercise and equal protection principles, they ought to be able to invoke Smith II's hybridity exception, thus meriting heightened judicial scrutiny and increased solicitude from courts.

United States' Trade Policy And The Exportation Of United States' Culture, Beverly I. Moran

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The United States Trade Representative and the policies that he (or she) attempt to impose on our trading partners have the serious and perhaps unintended effect of destroying local culture particularly in the area of film production.

University Dons And Warrior Chieftains: Two Concepts Of Diversity, Thomas H. Lee

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Race And Ethnicity, Race, Labor, And The Fair Equality Of Opportunity Principle, Seana Valentine Shiffrin

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Race And Ethnicity, Race, Face, And Rawls, Anita L. Allen

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.