Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

The Empty Promises Of Diversity Mou's: How The Fcc Can Strengthen Commitments To Racial Equity, Jeleesa Omala

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

African Americans have been systematically disenfranchised from nearly all sectors of American society since the country’s founding. As such, African Americans do not just perceive the problem of racial discrimination as a matter of personal prejudice but also a matter of survival. Without access to fundamental resources like higher education, healthcare, and economic opportunity, the quality of Black life decreases astronomically. The nation begins to equate being Black with being “less than,” and continues to disinvest in Black populations, which signals to Black people that their lives do not matter.

Nevertheless, determined Black entrepreneurs continue to fight to expand …

Solving Crimes With 23andme: Dna Databases And The Future Of Law Enforcement, Meghan Mcloughlin

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

“It could never happen to me though, right?”

Sitting on our comfortable couches in our secure homes and watching news stories about people who have lost loved ones to the most terrible, violent crimes, we think to ourselves: “That’s awful for them, but it won’t happen to me.” But what if it did?

Becoming a victim of a violent crime or loving someone who becomes a victim of a crime in the United States is not uncommon. In 2016, 2.9 million people in the United States were victims of at least one “violent crime”—crimes defined by their inherent violence, …

Locked Out: Sora, Sara And The Need For Defense Counsel Advisals And Judicial Plea Colloquies On Sex Offense-Related Housing Consequences, Matthew Cleaver

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

On May 20, 2014, Miguel Gonzalez became eligible for conditional release from prison, having served over two years of his two-and-a-half-year sentence for statutory rape. Instead of releasing Gonzalez, the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) confined Gonzalez for an additional seven and a half months after his initial release date and over four months after his maximum sentence. On February 4, 2015, DOCCS finally released Gonzalez from New York’s Woodbourne Correctional Facility. The sole reason for Gonzalez’s additional confinement was his failure to secure housing that complied with the residency restrictions placed on individuals convicted …

The Emergency Next Time, Noa Ben-Asher

Faculty Publications

This Article offers a new conceptual framework to understand the connection between law and violence in emergencies. It is by now well-established that governments often commit state violence in times of national security crisis by implementing excessive emergency measures. The Article calls this type of legal violence “Emergency-Affirming Violence.” But Emergency Violence can also be committed through governmental non-action. This type of violence, which this Article calls, “Emergency-Denying Violence,” has manifested in the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Article offers a taxonomy to better understand the phenomenon of Emergency Violence. Using 9/11 and COVID-19 as examples, the Article proposes …

Whiteness As Contract, Marissa Jackson Sow

Faculty Publications

2020 forced scholars, policymakers, and activists alike to grapple with the impact of “twin pandemics”—the COVID-19 pandemic, which has devastated Black and Indigenous communities, and the scourge of structural and physical state violence against those same communities—on American society. As atrocious acts of anti-Black violence and harassment by law enforcement officers and white civilians are captured on recording devices, the gap between Black people’s human and civil rights and their living conditions has become readily apparent. Less visible human rights abuses camouflaged as private commercial matters, and thus out of the reach of the state, are also increasingly exposed as …

Whiteness As Guilt: Attacking Critical Race Theory To Redeem The Racial Contract, Marissa Jackson Sow

Faculty Publications

The year of racial justice awakening following George Floyd’s 2020 murder have been accompanied by a rise in attacks on Black thought, including Critical Race Theory, led by far-right activists who are invested in maintenance of a white supremacist status quo in the United States. This Essay uses artist Kara Walker’s 2014 Sugar Sphinx to contextualize the critiques on Critical Race Theory and other manifestations of Black intellectualism as a campaign for perpetual absolution of white guilt, and even redemption of white supremacy, that is openly embraced by white nationalists but also secretly nourished—and cherished—by the white liberal elite.

Why Don't We All Just Wear Robes?, Ruthann Robson

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Lawyers and law professors select our professional outfits each day, often experiencing a mix of consternation and gratification. The dread springs from our failures: to know what constitutes the “right look;” to be able to achieve that “right look;” to anticipate what the day will bring; to have prepared by doing the laundry or other tasks. The joy resides in self-expression; we fashion ourselves as works of art, even within the constraints of professional attire.

It could have been different. We could have sacrificed the satisfaction of self-expression for the complacency of conformity; we could wear robes. Judges—at least …

How To Look Like A Lawyer, Ann Juliano

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Law schools often claim that they are teaching students “how to think like a lawyer.” What is less touted, however, is that students are learning how to look like a lawyer. They receive this message from multiple sources (faculty, alumni, peers, the career office) concerning a variety of situations: class, interviews, moot court, trial team, symposia and conferences. For law students who are first generation, these sources may be the only avenue (apart from the entertainment industry) of determining how to look like a lawyer. For law students who are transgender or gender non-binary, dress code advice dispensed along …

Model Dress Code: Promoting Genderless Attire Rules To Foster An Inclusive Legal Profession, Rebekah Hanley, Malcolm Macwilliamson

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

I knew that my likelihood of being able to wear a dress to court was pretty slim. I wasn’t that naïve. At the same time, I resented the notion that at no time in my future legal career would I be able to acknowledge, honor, or share the full complexity of my identity—that, by choosing law, I was relinquishing the right to ever be fully myself in my professional career.

I came out as transgender at age eighteen. Shortly thereafter, I began to transition socially and medically. I quickly realized how much of my “self” I had been unable …

When Your Identity Is Inherently "Unprofessional": Navigating Rules Of Professional Appearance Rooted In Cisheteronormative Whiteness As Black Women And Gender Non-Conforming Professionals, Shannon Cumberbatch

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Several years ago, I attended my first large-scale career fair as a recruiter where I screened a mass of aspiring lawyers for staff attorney positions at my legal organization. During our brief break from marathon interviewing, my white colleagues shut down their tables to enjoy their downtime and as I prepared to do the same, I looked up to find a critical mass of Black women excitedly converging upon my interview station. Forming a half circle around my table, they began exclaiming how enamored they were by my appearance and how it countered much of the counseling they had …

Is There A “Mulatto Escape Hatch” Out Of Racism?: A Reflection On Multiracial Exceptionalsim During A Time Of #Blacklivesmatter, Tanya Katerí Hernández

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

To have a symposium organized to review the ideas in my book, Multiracials and Civil Rights: Mixed-Race Stories of Discrimination, is an honor, and the JCRED editors, along with their dynamic Faculty Advisors Elaine Chiu and Rosa Castello, have my gratitude for pulling it all together. Having each symposium contributor take the time to deeply engage the ideas in the book is an incredible gift, and exactly what every author dreams of—being read and provoking reflection. Without readers, ideas do not have an opportunity to matter. Thank you Taunya Lovell Banks, Nancy Chi Cantalupo, and Jasmine Mitchell, for …

“I Think You Didn't Get It Because They Misidentified You As Latina”: A Commentary On Multiracials And Civil Rights: Mixed-Race Stories Of Discrimination, Nancy Chi Cantalupo

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Liz was interviewing for a tenure-track, entry-level law faculty position at Law School X, “ranked” (in that year) around 100. She had heard a rumor that the law school was determined to hire a person who would add to the diversity of the faculty, which was both White- and male-dominated.

Liz’s “job talk,” a presentation on a current article that she was writing, used Liz’s own multiracial identification to illustrate a point relevant to her research, which utilized both critical race theory and feminist legal theory. In the course of explaining her illustration, Liz mentioned that she was often …

Personal Identity Equality And Racial Misrecognition: Review Essay Of Multiracials And Civil Rights: Mixed-Race Stories Of Discrimination, Taunya Lovell Banks

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

There is a growing body of social science literature documenting multiracials as an “emergent minority group. . . who . . . have not always been recognized as either a separate racial group or as legitimate members of racial groups.” Tanya Hernández has been writing about aspects of American multiracialism for twenty years. Her 1998 article in the MARYLAND LAW JOURNAL focused on the multiracial discourse about racial categories on the 2000 U.S. census. In that article, she analyzes the multiracial identity movement’s effort to get a multiracial category on the U.S. census. Although that movement failed, the 2000 …

Commentary And Book Review: Multiracials And Civil Rights: Mixed-Race Stories Of Discrimination, Jasmine Mitchell

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Can a drop of whiteness or “looking white” save someone from anti-Blackness? Are mixed-race peoples special, and should they be a protected class under the law? Did Loving v. Virginia’s legalization of interracial marriage lead to race becoming insignificant? Tanya Hernández’s Multiracials and Civil Rights: Mixed-Race Stories of Discrimination debunks persistent myths that racial mixture will eradicate racism and heal the racial wounds of the United States. Using cases and other legal sources, Hernández persuasively argues that multiracials are not exempt from racial discrimination. Multiracials and Civil Rights crystalizes the pervasiveness of white supremacy while offering a sociopolitical lens …

Strengthening Section 14141: Using Pattern Or Practice Investigations To End Violence Between Police And Communities, Sigourney Norman

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Imagine you are on your way home from work and driving your usual route. You hear police sirens getting louder and louder. You realize you are the subject of their chase, but you cannot imagine why. You slow down and pull over, not wanting to cause confrontation. The officer beats on your car door. You roll down your window and ask why you have been pulled over. The officer informs you that your tail light is broken. Next, the officer orders you out of the car. Your heart races as the officer pats you down. You wonder if the …

Sexual Misconduct By Law Enforcement: A New Meaning To Stop And Frisk?, Anastasia Cassisi

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Turn on the television at any time during the day and you are likely to find at least one channel playing an episode of Law and Order, Special Victims Unit (S.V.U.). If you catch the opening sequence, after a few moments of catchy music, an ominous narrator recites the above words. The fictional show is about a group of New York City detectives who investigate sex crimes and the attorneys who prosecute the offenders. The show portrays sex crimes as egregious offenses committed by heinous criminals. However, what the show fails to depict is what happens when these dedicated …

Navigating Surrogacy Law In The Non-United States: Why All States Should Adopt A Uniform Surrogacy Statute, Stephanie Canner

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

“My water broke; the baby is coming! Come now!” Normally, a woman in labor makes this frantic phone call to her partner, who would immediately drop whatever they were doing to be by her side at the local hospital and be present to welcome their child into the world. However, this scenario is not the reality for many couples across the United States. For example, there is a New York couple who have a different story to tell their daughter about her birth. Brad Hoylman and David Sigal received a phone call a month before their baby’s due date …

Our Collective Work, Our Collective Strength, Renee Nicole Allen

Faculty Publications

This essay considers the collective strength of women of color in two contexts: when we are well represented on law school faculties and when we contribute to accomplishing stated institutional diversity goals. Critical mass is broadly defined as a sufficient number of people of color. Though the concept has been socially appropriated, its origins are scientific. While much of the academic literature encourages diversity initiatives designed to reach a critical mass, social change is not a science. Diversity in numbers may positively benefit individual experiences for women of color, however, diversity alone will not change social norms at the root …

Rejecting Honorary Whiteness: Asian Americans And The Attack On Race-Conscious Admissions, Philip Lee

Faculty Publications

Since the 1960s, Asian Americans have been labeled by the dominant society as the “model minority.” This status is commonly juxtaposed against so-called “problem” minorities such as African Americans and Latinx Americans. In theory, the model minority narrative serves as living proof that racial barriers to social and economic development no longer exist in America. If Asians can succeed against all odds, the reasoning goes, so can everyone else. Further, if a member of a minority group fails, it is because of their own lack of diligence and ambition, and not some supposed systemic unfairness. However, the model minority narrative …

Reframing The Monuments: How To Address Confederate Statues In The United States, Jillian Fitzpatrick

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

This Note was written between September 2018 and March 2019 as part of St. John’s University School of Law’s two-semester Perspectives on Justice class. At the time that this Note was written, there was a growing urgency to address the Confederate monuments around the United States, but little had been done by states or the federal government. At the time, many states, including Virginia, had in place Heritage Protection Acts which made the removal or relocation of such monuments punishable under criminal law, thus tying the hands of the localities where the monuments were located. However, in just two …

Coming To Terms: Using Contract Theory To Understand The Detroit Water Shutoffs, Marissa Jackson Sow

Faculty Publications

After the City of Detroit underwent financial takeover and filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history in 2013, the city’s emergency manager encouraged mass water shutoffs as a way of making the city’s water utility a more attractive asset for sale— and for privatization—by ridding the water department of its association with bad debt. The sale never took place, but the water shutoff, too, became the largest ever in American history, with over 141,000 homes subjected to water disconnections over a period of over six years. The governor of the State of Michigan ordered that the shutoffs be temporarily …

Trauma-Centered Social Justice, Noa Ben-Asher

Faculty Publications

This Article identifies a new and growing phenomenon in the American legal system. Many leading agendas for gender, racial, and climate justice are centered on emotional trauma as the primary injury of contemporary social injustices. By focusing on three social justice movements–#BlackLivesMatter; #MeToo, and Climate Justice–the Article offers the first comprehensive diagnosis and assessment of how emotional trauma has become an engine for legal and policy social justice reforms. From a nineteenth century psychoanalytic theory about repressed childhood sexual memories that manifest in female hysteria, through extensive medicalization and classification in the twentieth century, emotional trauma has evolved and expanded …

The Right Family, Noa Ben-Asher, Margot J. Pollans

Faculty Publications

The family plays a starring role in American law. Families, the law tells us, are special. They merit many state and federal benefits, including tax deductions, testimonial privileges, untaxed inheritance, and parental presumptions. Over the course of the twentieth century, the Supreme Court expanded individual rights stemming from familial relationships. In this Article, we argue that the concept of family in American law matters just as much when it is ignored as when it is featured. We contrast policies in which the family is the key unit of analysis with others in which it is not. Looking at four seemingly …

The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master's House: Kavanaugh's Confirmation Hearing And The Perils Of Progressive Punitivism, Hadar Aviram

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

This essay proceeds in four parts. In Part I, I problematize the idea of the accused’s demeanor as evidence of guilt, remorse, or entitlement, arguing that we tend to overestimate our ability to deduce internal states of mind from people’s behavior and expressions. Part II assesses the potential (or lack thereof) of public performances of reckoning to produce a valuable expression of remorse, discussing the value of contingent apologies. Part III expands the framework to examine the way our politically fractured field responds to partisan efforts to excoriate culprits, arguing that “starting a national conversation” on the basis of …

But, Men And Women Are Equally Compensated, Right? An Examination Of Why An Equal Rights Amendment In New York's Constitution Will End The Wage Gap, Amanda B. Slutsky

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

This Note proposes an ERA for New York’s constitution to end the wage gap between men and women, and uses language from H.J. Res 52 and S.B. No. 1919. To demonstrate why New York needs the amendment, this Note will discuss Maryland’s and California’s ERAs and equal pay laws to establish the benefits of an ERA and how both ERAs and equal pay laws, together, help shrink the wage gap in those states. With an ERA, New York’s courts will analyze sex-based discrimination claims with strict scrutiny, which provides heightened protection because women will be considered a suspect class. …

Fool Me Once... The Need For Federal Legislation To Remedy Fraud And Misrepresentation In Ballot Initiatives That Negatively Affect Minority Communities, Jessica George

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

This Note proposes new federal legislation to provide relief for voters who might be negatively affected by fraud and deception at any phase of a ballot initiative, including the signature-gathering process. Ballot initiatives are a significant part of the democratic process. They must be protected from fraud, especially when those practices result in initiatives that harm specific minority group interests. This legislation will give deceived voters a cause of action to stop the effect of a ballot initiative before it negatively impacts them. Voters can bring a civil action in federal court for preventive relief, including a permanent or …

Misogyny And Lawlessness In Afghanistan: The Women's Fight For Equal Rights, Susan Farooqi, Esq

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

This Note examines some important areas where Afghan women face discrimination and explores how legislation, such as a Civil Rights Act, could ensure the protection of women’s rights. Part II.A of this Note provides a historical perspective on Afghan women before the Taliban regime. Part II.B provides a brief history of the power struggle in Afghanistan that lead to the rise of the Taliban, a group solely responsible for creating the misogynistic culture in Afghan society today. Part II.C discusses five basic fundamental rights that Afghan women have been deprived of under the Taliban regime and explains that the …

First Race, Then Sex, Now Disability: The Fight Towards Increased And Equal Employment Of Individuals With Disabilities, Wallis Levy Granat

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Think about a typical morning. 7:00 a.m.: You hear the dreaded alarm and moan as “Superstition” plays. You somehow manage to hit snooze and buy yourself another ten minutes of peaceful bliss. 7:10 a.m.: You roll over, turn the alarm off, and instinctually grab your iPhone. You check Facebook, your email, your Instagram, and your Chase bank account to make sure nothing has changed since you went to sleep. 7:15 a.m.: You reluctantly get out of bed and turn the lights on. 7:20 a.m.: You grab your favorite Tommy Hilfiger shirt and finish getting dressed. 7:25 a.m.: You turn …

A Wall Of Hate: Eminent Domain And Interest-Convergence, Philip Lee

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Donald Trump is no stranger to eminent domain. In the 1990s, Trump wanted land around Trump Plaza to build a limousine parking lot. Many of the private owners agreed to sell, but one elderly widow and two brothers who owned a small business refused. Trump then got a government agency—the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA)—to take the properties through eminent domain, offering them a quarter of what they had previously paid or been offered for their land.

The property owners fought back and finally won. Although the CRDA named several justifications, from economic development to traffic alleviation and additional …

Examining The School-To-Prison Pipeline: Sending Students To Prison Instead Of School, Fatema Ghasletwala

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Juvenile delinquents are often thought of as intrinsically evil. These youths are blamed for their own plight, believed to be a result of innate character flaws. However, such an obtuse perception is problematic. In many cases, these juvenile delinquents were made delinquents by a faulty system, namely, the School-to-Prison Pipeline. The School-to-Prison Pipeline is a troubling phenomenon in which students are suspended, expelled or even arrested for minor offenses instead of being sent simply to an administrator’s office. Often, these students have backgrounds of poverty, abuse, neglect, and may even have learning disabilities. Instead of being offered counseling, “unruly” …