Law Commons^™

Echoes From The Segregationist Past At Oral Argument, Mary Ellen Maatman

Mary Ellen Maatman

Affirmative Action And The Crisis In Higher Education, Scott D. Gerber

ConLawNOW

At all but the nation’s top colleges and universities, enrollments are down and budgets are strapped. Although many offer ideas why, the heavy-headed use of racial and ethnic preferences in student admissions, financial aid, and faculty hiring is also to blame, but also nobody ever mentions that. The term “affirmative action” originated with an executive order signed by President John F. Kennedy on March 6, 1961. Fast forward five decades and, to borrow a line from Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, “We’re not in Kansas any more.” Bluntly stated, there is systemic discrimination in all three categories of affirmative …

Not All Black And White, Alan E. Garfield

Alan E Garfield

No abstract provided.

The New Affirmative Action After Fisher V. University Of Texas: Defining Educational Diversity Through The Sixth Amendment's Cross-Section Requirement, Adam Lamparello, Cynthia Swann

Adam Lamparello

Skin color and diversity are not synonymous, and race provides no basis upon which to stereotype individuals or groups, regardless of whether the reasons are malevolent or benign.

Affirmative action policies in higher education should focus on the things that individuals have overcome, not the traits that individuals—and groups—cannot change. Currently, the opposite is true, as such policies typically equate racial diversity with educational diversity, thereby precluding consideration of factors such as family and personal background, life experience, and the overcoming of adversity that would result in true educational diversity. This is not to say that race is irrelevant, …

Agency, Equality, And Antidiscrimination Law, Tracy E. Higgins, Laura A. Rosenbury

Laura A. Rosenbury

Some commentators, perhaps a minority, have argued that the Equal Protection Clause should be read to require the use of race-conscious policies when necessary to eradicate or remedy the most serious consequences of racial inequality. Others have argued that such policies, though not required, should be permitted when duly adopted by the majority of the populace to promote the interests of an historically oppressed minority. Still others, including now a majority of the Supreme Court, take the view that the Constitution forbids virtually all explicit uses of race by the state. In this Essay, we do not enter this debate …

The Strange Persistence Of Affirmative Action Under Title Vii, Deborah C. Malamud

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The False Choice Between Race And Class And Other Affirmative Action Myths, Lisa R. Pruitt

Lisa R Pruitt

Reflections On Racism And World Order, Winston P. Nagan

Winston P Nagan

This Article is about international racism. Racism is not simply a local or national phenomenon, it is an immense global problem. Indeed, its tentacles stretch from the local to the global and back to the local. Let us put the picture of international racism into perspective by tying it to the claims made to eradicate racism in economic relations. Apart from affirmative action, there are two other approaches: either to assert the notion that reparations is a way to ameliorate the worst manifestations of racism and provide for racial justice, or to join that with the notion that there is …

Title Vii V. Seniority: The Supreme Court Giveth And The Supreme Court Taketh Away, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

Congress intended to solve the widespread problem of nonegalitarian hiring practices by enacting title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (the Act), during the apogee of the civil rights era. The Act represented a national commitment to end discrimination and to promote equality in employment. The enactment of title VII spawned extensive commentary on the effect of facially neutral employment practices that perpetuated pre-Act discrimination. Particular controversy arose concerning the application of seniority rules to blacks in jobs or seniority units from which they previously had been excluded because of their race.

The problem of accommodating seniority systems …

Affirmative Action And The Decline Of Intellectual Culture, Charles W. Collier

Charles W. Collier

No abstract provided.

The Constitutional Rhetoric Of White Innocence

Cecil J. Hunt II

This article discusses the Supreme Court’s use of the rhetoric of white innocence in deciding racially inflected claims of constitutional shelter. It argues that the Court’s use of this rhetoric reveals that it has adopted a distinctly white-centered-perspective which reveals only a one-sided view of racial reality and thus distorts its ability to accurately appreciate the true nature of racial reality in contemporary America. This article examines the Court’s habit of consistently choosing a white-centered-perspective in constitutional race cases by looking at the Court’s use of the rhetoric of white innocence first in the context of the Court’s concern with …

Replay That Tune: Defending Bakke On Stare Decisis Grounds, Charles Adside Iii

Charles adside III

No abstract provided.

Affirmative Action, Reverse Discrimination Bratton V. City Of Detroit, John T. Dellick

Akron Law Review

In Bratton v. City of Detroit, the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals examined charges of reverse discrimination' arising from a voluntary affirmative action plan adopted by the City of Detroit. These reverse discrimination claims were presented as alleged violations of Title VIP and the fourteenth amendment. The Bratton court reviewed the leading Title VII reverse discrimination case, United Steelworkers of America v. Weber, and the leading fourteenth amendment reverse discrimination case, Regents of University of California v. Bakke. From these cases, the court in Bratton extracted the major guidelines of each, comingled them, and developed …

Affirmative Action: Alive And Well After Stotts, Ralph J. Conrad

Akron Law Review

This comment examines the current state of affirmative action in light of the special protection that the Supreme Court grants seniority systems. This comment also discusses the future of affirmative action and how the changes in affirmative action will affect collective bargaining agreements and consent decrees.

Mugwump, Mediator, Machiavellian, Or Majority? The Role Of Justice O'Connor In The Affirmative Action Cases, Thomas R. Haggard

Akron Law Review

The purpose of this article is to provide a critical analysis of Justice O'Connor's affirmative action opinions. It will show that while her early record provides justification for all three characterizations, her more recent decisions suggest the emergency of a more favorable image. Her opinions in Croson and Media Broadcasting reflect the realization that a narrow, hair-splitting approach to this critical social and constitutional crisis will do little to hasten its resolution; that there is apparently no form of affirmative action that the liberal wing of the Court is unwilling to endorse, making her consensus by compromise approach a futile …

Giving Effect To Equal Protection: Adarand Constructors, Inc. V. Pena, Leslie Gentile

Akron Law Review

This Note will examine affirmative action jurisprudence, and explore the broader implications of the Court's present narrow course. Section II presents a brief historical background of the cases preceding Adarand, and traces the Court's fragmented approach to this issue and its deep divisiveness over the correct standard of review. Section IV examines the tension between the colorblind approach and the requirements of equal protection within the in escapable reality of our racist society. Finally, Section V calls for a focus by the Court on outcome, rather than a myopic fixation on process, toward the larger end of the realization of …

A Historical Review Of Affirmative Action And The Interpretation Of Its Legislative Intent By The Supreme Court, Carl E. Brody Jr.

Akron Law Review

In Part I, I will discuss the history of pre-affirmative action programs. This involves an analysis of the original intent of the Fourteenth Amendment, its related remedial legislation, as well as several of the New Deal Acts prohibiting employment discrimination. Part II will analyze the advent of affirmative action, from its inception with the 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Acts, and trace its development through Executive Orders 12250 and 12259, which constitute the last major expansion in affirmative action doctrine. Part III will examine the period between 1978 and 1991, where the Supreme Court's attempts to find a consistent interpretation …

A Current Perspective: The Erosion Of Affirmative Action In University Admissions, Corinne E. Anderson

Akron Law Review

This comment examines the recent trend towards anti-affirmative action in the context of university admissions policies. First, the comment will trace some of the formative history of affirmative action, including the Bakke decision. It will then review and analyze specific judicial and legislative events which suggest a trend towards anti-affirmative action. Finally, the comment will explore the different rationales for affirmative action and suggest some alternatives to racial preferences in admissions policies.

White Privilege And Affirmative Action, Sylvia A. Law

Akron Law Review

Since 1996, many authoritative voices challenge the legitimacy of affirmative efforts to achieve racial integration. The Supreme Court has struck down many affirmative action programs. The Court has not upheld any affirmative action program since 1989, when, by a 5-4 decision, it approved a narrowly targeted Congressional program to encourage minority ownership of broadcast licences. In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 209, broadly prohibiting any form of affirmative action on the basis of race or gender. In the same year, in the Hopwood decision, the Fifth Circuit held that the University of Texas could not give any consideration to race …

Affirmative Action For The Master Class: The Creation Of The Proslavery Constitution, Paul Finkelman

Akron Law Review

The Constitution of 1787 was a proslavery document, designed to prevent any national assault on slavery, while at the same time structured to protect the interests of slaveowners at the expense of African Americans and their antislavery white allies. To understand this earliest form of affirmative action, I begin with a view of the Constitution first articulated by the great abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, and then turn to an examination of the Convention that wrote the Constitution and the document that convention produced.

Private Problem, Public Solution: Affirmative Action In The 21st Century, Darlene C. Goring

Akron Law Review

This Article will explore the origins of the Court’s color-blind interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the role that this interpretation plays in the development of new barriers against challenges to race-based affirmative action programs. Part II of this Article traces the development and application of the strict scrutiny test to evaluate the constitutionality of both invidious and benign racial classifications. Part III examines Justice Powell’s position that racial classifications used as remedial measures may overcome the presumption of constitutional invalidity associated with the use of race-based classifications. In this context, the Court recognizes that the continued impact of past …

Protecting Diversity In The Ivory Tower With Liability Rules, Ting Wang

Pace Law Review

The two sides of the debate over race-based affirmative action in higher education tell two distinct stories – one of diversity’s benefits and the other of affirmative action’s burdens. In Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003), the Supreme Court found the benefits to be so compelling to society that they were deemed to outweigh the burdens. Voters in Michigan and other states found otherwise and the Court in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, 572 U.S. — (2014) upheld their right to ban race-conscious admissions. Paradoxically, since the use of race as a “plus factor” by selective universities …

Racial Profiling: Driving While Mexican And Affirmative Action, Victor C. Romero

Victor C. Romero

This Essay will focus on "racial profiling" not just in the way people think about the term - that is, with respect to stopping motorists for traffic violations based solely on their race, so-called "Driving While Mexican" or "Driving While Black" - but also in the context of "affirmative action - namely, using race as a factor in employment and educational decisions. More broadly, then, I want us to think of "racial profiling" as simply "the use of race to develop an understanding of an individual" which moves us slightly away from more pejorative notions of the phrase that have …

Are Filipina/Os Asians Or Latina/Os?: Reclaiming The Anti-Subordination Objective Of Equal Protection After Grutter And Gratz, Victor C. Romero

Victor C. Romero

In this piece, I explore two avenues of political action - self-identification for affirmative action purposes and longer-term solutions to educational inequity - in an attempt to develop a coherent and effective post-Grutter and Gratz strategy for promoting equal educational opportunities consistent with the demands of equal protection. I use the experiences of Filipina/o-Americans as a vehicle for exploring these issues. I hope to show that diversity as the underlying goal of affirmative action fails to capture the core of modern equal protection jurisprudence implicit in Brown v. Board of Education and Loving v. Virginia: that treating all races equally …

Critical Race Theory In Three Acts: Racial Profiling, Affirmative Action, And The Diversity Visa Lottery, Victor C. Romero

Victor C. Romero

The usual debates surrounding multiculturalism pit individual rights against group grievances in a variety of contexts including racial profiling, affirmative action, and the diversity visa lottery, often with seemingly contradictory results. Liberals often favor affirmative action but decry both racial profiling and the diversity visa lottery, while many conservatives hold the opposite view. Critical race theory provides a unique alternative to stock liberal and conservative arguments, allowing one to draw meaningful and persuasive distinctions among these seminal issues surrounding law enforcement, education, and immigration policy.

Broadening Our World: Citizens And Immigrants Of Color In America, Victor C. Romero

Victor C. Romero

This article was originally presented at a symposium. The article discusses affirmative action and ways of increasing diversity in higher education.

Grutter V. Bollinger/Gratz V. Bollinger: View From A Limestone Ledge, Gerald Torres

Gerald Torres

No abstract provided.

Grutter V. Bollinger/Gratz V. Bollinger: View From A Limestone Ledge, Gerald Torres

Gerald Torres

No abstract provided.

Fisher V. Texas: The Limits Of Exhaustion And The Future Of Race-Conscious University Admissions, John Powell, Stephen Menendian

john a. powell

This Article investigates the potential ramifications of Fisher v. Texas and the future of race-conscious university admissions. Although one cannot predict the ultimate significance of the Fisher decision, its brief and pregnant statements of law portends an increasingly perilous course for traditional affirmative action programs. Part I explores the opinions filed in Fisher, with a particular emphasis on Justice Kennedy’s opinion on behalf of the Court. We focus on the ways in which the Fisher decision departs from precedent, proscribes new limits on the use of race in university admissions, and tightens requirements for narrow tailoring. Part II investigates the …

Judicial Decision-Making, Social Science Evidence, And Equal Educational Opportunity: Uneasy Relations And Uncertain Futures, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.