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Full-Text Articles in Law
Reflections On Arlington Heights: Fifty Years Of Exclusionary Zoning Litigation And Beyond, Robert G. Schwemm
Reflections On Arlington Heights: Fifty Years Of Exclusionary Zoning Litigation And Beyond, Robert G. Schwemm
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Fifty years ago, when I was two years out of law school, I began work on a case—Metropolitan Housing Development Corp. v. Village of Arlington Heights—that was destined to take on epic proportions in the housing discrimination field. The case started with a complaint filed in 1972, shortly before I joined the plaintiffs’ legal team, and was not finally resolved until 1980, after I’d left that team to become a law professor. During the seven years that I worked on the Arlington Heights case, it produced a major Supreme Court decision on standing and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause3 …
What Is Sexual Orientation?, Mary Ziegler
What Is Sexual Orientation?, Mary Ziegler
Kentucky Law Journal
At a time when the Supreme Court seems closer than ever before to treating sexual orientation as a suspect classification, consideration of the legal definition of sexual orientation is both timely and important. The Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell recognizes two guideposts for defining sexual orientation: its immutability and normalcy. While other scholars offer rich and nuanced accounts of the fight for gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual rights, they do not fully analyze the history of sexual orientation as a legal category. This Article closes that gap, illuminating the hidden costs of the definition of sexual orientation that Obergefell endorses. …
Discretionary Pricing, Mortgage Discrimination, And The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm, Jeffrey L. Taren
Discretionary Pricing, Mortgage Discrimination, And The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm, Jeffrey L. Taren
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
For generations, mortgage lending has always been the gateway to the American dream of homeownership, and, historically, has also been characterized by widespread discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities and their communities. Mortgage discrimination in the modem era has often been accomplished through a technique known as discretionary pricing, in which lenders allow their loan officers and brokers to increase borrowers' costs from an objectively determined base rate. In the past decade alone, discretionary pricing has cost minority homeowners billions of dollars in extra payments, which, in tum, has led these minorities to suffer higher foreclosure rates than whites and …
Performing Discretion Or Performing Discrimination: An Analysis Of Race And Ritual In Batson Decisions In Capital Jury Selection, Melynda J. Price
Performing Discretion Or Performing Discrimination: An Analysis Of Race And Ritual In Batson Decisions In Capital Jury Selection, Melynda J. Price
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Research shows the mere presence of Blacks on capital juries--on the rare occasions they are seated--can mean the difference between life and death. Peremptory challenges are the primary method to remove these pivotal participants. Batson v. Kentucky developed hearings as an immediate remedy for the unconstitutional removal of jurors through racially motivated peremptory challenges. These proceedings have become rituals that sanction continued bias in the jury selection process and ultimately affect the outcome of capital trials. This Article deconstructs the role of the Batson ritual in legitimating the removal of African American jurors. These perfunctory hearings fail to meaningfully interrogate …
Civil Rights For Whom?: Gay Rights Versus Religious Freedom, George W. Dent Jr.
Civil Rights For Whom?: Gay Rights Versus Religious Freedom, George W. Dent Jr.
Kentucky Law Journal
No abstract provided.
For The Rest Of Their Lives: Seniors And The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm, Michael Allen
For The Rest Of Their Lives: Seniors And The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm, Michael Allen
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
America's population is growing older. According to the 2000 census, more than 35 million people in the United States (12% of the total population) are over 65 years old. These figures are expected to grow dramatically in the early decades of the twenty-first century as the "Baby Boom" generation reaches retirement age and as improvements in health care make it possible for more people to live to an advanced age.
Providing housing for this segment of the American population is already a massive industry and one that will certainly grow as the number of, older persons increases. One of the …
Oral Argument In Meyer V. Holley (No. 01-1120), Robert G. Schwemm, Douglas G. Benedon, Malcolm L. Stewart
Oral Argument In Meyer V. Holley (No. 01-1120), Robert G. Schwemm, Douglas G. Benedon, Malcolm L. Stewart
Law Faculty Advocacy
The matter of Meyer v. Holley, 537 U.S. 280 (2003) was argued before the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday, December 3, 2002. Professor Robert G. Schwemm argued on behalf of the Respondents. This document is a transcript of the oral argument.
A New Look At Sexual Harassment Under The Fair Housing Act: The Forgotten Role Of §3604(C), Robert G. Schwemm, Rigel C. Oliveri
A New Look At Sexual Harassment Under The Fair Housing Act: The Forgotten Role Of §3604(C), Robert G. Schwemm, Rigel C. Oliveri
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Sexual harassment in housing is a significant national problem. Although less visible than the comparable problem in employment, sexual harassment in housing may be as prevalent and probably more devastating to its victims.
Nevertheless, relatively little attention has been paid to this issue or to the law that should govern it. Indeed, the law of sexual harassment in housing developed well after and in virtual lock-step with the law of sexual harassment in employment. Thus, courts have simply interpreted the Fair Housing Act (FHA) to prohibit sexual harassment to the same degree—and only to the same degree—as it is prohibited …
Discriminatory Housing Statements And §3604(C): A New Look At The Fair Housing Act’S Most Intriguing Provision, Robert G. Schwemm
Discriminatory Housing Statements And §3604(C): A New Look At The Fair Housing Act’S Most Intriguing Provision, Robert G. Schwemm
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Today, more than three decades after the 1968 Fair Housing Act ("FHA") banned such behavior, blatant discrimination—often accompanied by racist slurs and other explicitly discriminatory statements—continues to plague America's housing markets. The FHA not only outlawed discrimination in most housing transactions on the basis of race, color, religion, and national origin, but also contained a specific prohibition, § 3604(c), banning all discriminatory housing statements. Unlike the FHA's more traditional prohibitions against discriminatory refusals to deal and discriminatory terms and conditions, § 3604(c)'s ban on discriminatory statements has not been the subject of much litigation or debate.
Part I of the …
Tax Expenditures, Social Justice And Civil Rights: Expanding The Scope Of Civil Rights Laws To Apply To Tax-Exempt Charities, David A. Brennen
Tax Expenditures, Social Justice And Civil Rights: Expanding The Scope Of Civil Rights Laws To Apply To Tax-Exempt Charities, David A. Brennen
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
In recent years, courts have decided a number of cases in which private organizations discriminated against people based solely on their race, gender, sexual orientation, or other immutable traits. For example, in 2000, the Boy Scouts of America revoked a New Jersey man's membership in the Boy Scouts because he was gay. New Jersey's supreme court held that the Boy Scouts' action violated New Jersey's anti-discrimination law. Notwithstanding the state court's holding, the United States Supreme Court concluded that the First Amendment prevented any court from forcing the Boy Scouts to keep a gay man as a member of its …
Private Enforcement And The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm
Private Enforcement And The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
The first section of the Fair Housing Act declares that "[i]t is the policy of the United States to provide, within constitutional limitations, for fair housing throughout the United States." If the United States has been officially committed to providing for fair housing for the past 20 years, why is segregated housing still the prevailing norm throughout our nation? Why does discrimination still regularly occur when minority homeseekers venture into white areas? Why are the opportunities for living in stable, integrated neighborhoods only marginally better now than they were a generation ago in the days of Lyndon Johnson, Everett McKinley …
Privacy And The Sex Bfoq: An Immodest Proposal, Carolyn S. Bratt
Privacy And The Sex Bfoq: An Immodest Proposal, Carolyn S. Bratt
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Since the adoption of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, courts have been called upon to determine whether an employer can avoid liability for refusing to hire employees of one sex by invoking the privacy rights of its customers. Two recent court decisions are illustrative of the question and its resolution. In Backus v. Baptist Medical Center, the defendant employer's policy of excluding male nurses from the labor and delivery section of its obstetrics and gynecology department was challenged. The defendant established that most of the duties of a labor and delivery nurse involve exposure to …
Compensatory Damages In Federal Fair Housing Cases, Robert G. Schwemm
Compensatory Damages In Federal Fair Housing Cases, Robert G. Schwemm
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
The federal fair housing laws became effective in 1968. Since then, courts have often awarded damages to victims of housing discrimination, but their decisions have provided little guidance for assessing the amount of such awards. There is a great range of awards, with some courts awarding only nominal damages of $1 and others setting awards of over $20,000. Compounding the problem is the difficulty of measuring the principal element of damages claimed by most plaintiffs in fair housing cases, noneconomic emotional harm or other forms of intangible injury.
Rarely is the basis for the amount of the court's award satisfactorily …
Standing To Sue In Fair Housing Cases, Robert G. Schwemm
Standing To Sue In Fair Housing Cases, Robert G. Schwemm
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Few procedural issues have commanded more attention from the Supreme Court in recent years than standing. The question of who is a proper party to bring a particular claim has arisen in a variety of contexts, but the Court has been especially active in addressing standing problems in cases concerning allegations of housing discrimination. The recent decision of Gladstone Realtors v. Village of Bellwood marked the fifth time in the past decade that the justices have decided a fair housing case on standing grounds.
The Supreme Court's determination to emphasize standing issues in many of its early fair housing opinions …
Discriminatory Effect And The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm
Discriminatory Effect And The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
This article addresses the question of whether housing practices that produce discriminatory effects violate the Fair Housing Act. The language and legislative history of the statute are examined, the analogy to employment discrimination law is explored, and the principal Title VIII cases are considered in an effort to determine just what racial discrimination is under the Fair Housing Act. This analysis leads to a suggested approach for evaluating Title VIII cases that are based on discriminatory effect, including how such an effect may be shown by the plaintiff and what significance such a showing should have in terms of the …
From Washington To Arlington Heights And Beyond: Discriminatory Purpose In Equal Protection Litigation, Robert G. Schwemm
From Washington To Arlington Heights And Beyond: Discriminatory Purpose In Equal Protection Litigation, Robert G. Schwemm
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
When the Supreme Court decided Washington v. Davis on June 7, 1976, it began a new era in civil rights law. Rejecting the contention that state action is unconstitutional solely because it operates to injure more blacks than whites, the Court held that proof of discriminatory purpose is necessary to establish a claim of racial discrimination under the equal protection clause. In two cases decided the following term—Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp. and Castaneda v. Partida—the Court reaffirmed its commitment to the discriminatory purpose requirement, but was badly divided on how to apply the …