Law Commons^™

Fighting For The High Ground: Race, Class, Markets And Development Done Right In Post Katrina Recovery , Audrey Mcfarlane

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Taking Voting Rights Seriously: Race And The Integrity Of Democracy In America, Steven Ramirez, Aliza Organick

Northern Illinois University Law Review

In the end, democratic theory rests upon notions of market efficiency. Elections, like markets, involve the expression of preferences by numerous participants in the hope that collective judgments are a superior means of choosing policies, and ultimately laws, that will best serve the common weal. Yet, like markets, elections can yield distorted outcomes if the fundamental mechanisms of democracy are distorted. In the United States today democracy suffers from manifold distortions. Among these distortions are the role of money in our democracy, the ability of those who govern to manipulate the governed (even to the point of representatives selecting voters …

Bearing Witness To Economic Injustices Of Undocumented Immigrant Families: A New Class Of "Undeserving" Poor, Francine J. Lipman

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Volunteer Discrimination, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

Part I of this Essay describes the new NBA dress code and then lays the framework for the discussions that ensued after the implementation of the code. Part II examines how some Blacks' defense of the allegedly discriminatory NBA appearance policy does not in itself negate claims of racial discrimination. In so doing, this Part explicates the various ways in which Blacks are pressured to perform their racial identity in order to advance in society - in particular, the ways in which outsiders often must conform to traditional standards of appearance and must distinguish themselves from the "bad outsiders" or …

Some Learning Opportunities From The Imus Affair, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

The author discusses the broader issues of free speech under the surface of the Don Imus affair, where that commentator made a gratuitous slur about the Rutgers women's basketball team. He balances this gaff against the good deeds of the same personality, comparing this with similar provocative remarks made by other well-known public figures. The media is cited for an overreaction to the Imus incident, and all these components are discussed in light of what free speech means.

Indigenous Peoples And Environmental Justice: The Impact Of Climate Change, Rebecca Tsosie

The Climate of Environmental Justice: Taking Stock (March 16-17)

Presenter: Rebecca Tsosie, Professor of Law, Arizona State University

1 page.

After 150 Years, Worst Supreme Court Decision Ever Continues To Haunt, F. Michael Higginbotham

All Faculty Scholarship

In 1857, the Supreme Court rendered a decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, declaring that it had no jurisdiction to hear Dred Scott's claim to freedom because he was black and, therefore, not a citizen of the United States. This article argues that not only was the decision morally reprehensible, it was also based on an erroneous interpretation of the Constitution.

Racism, Unreasonable Belief, And Bernhard Goetz, Stephen P. Garvey

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

How should the law respond when one person (D) kills another person (V), who is black, because D believes that V is about to kill him, but D would not have so believed if V had been white? Should D be exonerated on grounds of self-defense? The canonical case raising this question is People v. Goetz. Some commentators argue that norms of equal treatment and anti-discrimination require that D’s claim of self-defense be rejected. I argue that denying D’s claim of self-defense would be at odds with the principle that criminal liability should only be imposed on an actor if …

Education And Labor Relations: Asian Americans And Blacks As Pawns In The Furtherance Of White Hegemony, Xiaofeng Stephanie Da

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Asian Americans and Blacks have been, and continue to be, racialized relative to each other in our society. Asian Americans and Blacks have come to occupy marginalized positions as the polarized ends on the economic spectrums of education and labor relations, with an expanding "Whiteness" as the filler in the middle as Whites manipulate the differing interests of both subordinated groups to align with White (the dominant group's) interests. Although Whites purport to champion the interests of one subordinate group over the other, in reality the racialization of Asian Americans and Blacks in our country is rooted in the preservation …

Toward A Sui Generis View Of Black Rights In Canada? Overcoming The Difference-Denial Model Of Countering Anti-Black Racism, Lolita Buckner Inniss

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Storm Between The Quiet: Tumult In The Texas Supreme Court, 1911-21, Michael S. Ariens

Faculty Articles

The Texas Supreme Court from 1911–1921 is best known not for the law it made or the opinions it wrote, but for its failure to decide cases. Although the supreme court’s difficulty in clearing its docket existed before 1911, the number of outstanding cases exploded during the second decade of the twentieth century.

Arguably, the issue of statewide prohibition and the divergent views held on that issue by members of the Texas Supreme Court was the driving force behind the disharmony and dysfunctionality of the court during this decade. Statewide prohibition explains why elections of candidates to the court were …

Truth Matters: A Call For The American Bar Association To Acknowledge Its Past And Make Reparations To African Descendants, Adjoa A. Aiyetoro

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Toward A New Civil Rights Framework, Guy-Uriel Charles

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

There’S Just One Hitch, Will Smith: Examining Title Vii, Race, Casting, And Discrimination On The Fortieth Anniversary Of Loving V. Virginia, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

In this Symposium Essay, I use Loving v. Virginia as a backdrop for exploring why our society allows, without legal challenge, customer preference or discrimination to unduly influence casting decisions for actors paired in romantic couples in movies and television. In so doing, I examine how existing anti-discrimination law in employment can and should be used to address these improper influences within the entertainment industry. In Part I of the Essay, I first survey the growing practice of casting intraminority couples casting in films and television and examine how such casting, despite its appeal on the surface, may work to …

Derrick Bell's Narratives As Parables, George H. Taylor

Articles

Use of the narrative form in law and legal analysis remains controversial, especially by advocates of critical race theory. Critics maintain that narratives can distort if they are not sufficiently based on empirical fact or reason. Narratives, the claim goes, must be evaluated on the basis of objective standards. My Article argues that this posture critical of narrative is mistaken. I contend that to comprehend how narratives should be interpreted, their literary character must first be understood.

The Article examines the narratives of Derrick Bell, the preeminent critical race and narrative scholar, and maintains that Bell's narratives should be read …

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 Storm Between The Quiet: Tumult In The Texas Supreme Court, 1911-21., Michael S. Ariens

St. Mary's Law Journal

The Texas Supreme Court from 1911–1921 is best known not for the law it made or the opinions it wrote, but for its failure to decide cases. Although the supreme court’s difficulty in clearing its docket existed before 1911, the number of outstanding cases exploded during the second decade of the twentieth century. Arguably, the issue of statewide prohibition and the divergent views held on that issue by members of the Texas Supreme Court was the driving force behind the disharmony and dysfunctionality of the court during this decade. Statewide prohibition explains why elections of candidates to the court were …