Law and Gender Commons^™

Women Defenders On Television: Representing Suspects And The Racial Politics Of Retribution, Joan W. Howarth

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This Essay is about Ellenor Frutt, Annie Dornell, Joyce Davenport, and other women criminal defense attorneys of prime time television. It examines how high-stakes network television presents sympathetic stories about women working as criminal defense attorneys while simultaneously supporting the popular thirst for the harshest criminal penalties. Real women who choose to represent criminal defendants are fundamentally out of step with angry and unforgiving attitudes toward crime and criminals. Indeed, women defenders have chosen work that puts them in direct opposition to the widespread public willingness to incarcerate record numbers of Americans, often young African-American and Latino men, for longer …

Without Narrative: Child Sexual Abuse, Lynne Henderson

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No abstract provided.

Suppressing Memory, Lynne Henderson

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No abstract provided.

Representing Black Male Innocence, Joan W. Howarth

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This Article is a case study of a California capital case. Drawing on cultural studies, the first part develops the social construction of Black male gang member, especially as that identity is understood within white imaginations. The powerful and frightening idea of a Black man who is a gang member, even gang leader, captured the imagination and moral passion of the decisionmakers in this case, recasting and reframing the evidence in furtherance of this idea. In fundamental ways, this idea or imposed identity is fundamentally inconsistent with any American concept of innocence.

The second part uses the case to investigate …

Because I Am Black, Because I Am Woman: Remedying The Sexual Harassment Experience Of Black Women, Andrea L. Dennis

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This Note examines the intersection of race and gender in the context of sexual harassment jurisprudence. Since the arrival in this country of the first female African slaves, Black women have experienced sexual harassment on the job. This Note discusses the failure of sexual harassment theory to acknowledge the unique sexual harassment experience of Black women. From the very earliest discussions of sexual harassment, the impact of the race of the victim on the experience and resulting legal claim was ignored. Feminist legal theorists, leaders in issues affecting women, have been slow to acknowledge and integrate the role of race …

Whose Justice? Which Victims?, Lynne Henderson

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No abstract provided.

The Paradox Of The Fresh Complaint Rule, Kathryn M. Stanchi

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This Article explores the paradox of the fresh complaint rule, evaluates the proposed solutions, and suggests a modified rule as an interim solution. Part II of this Article explores the fresh complaint rule, from its historical roots in the English common law to its evolution in the United States, with special attention to the rationale for the rule, the requirement of freshness, and the standards for the rule's application. Parts III and IV examine the paradox raised by the need for and effectiveness of the rule and its concurrent harmful effects. Part V describes proposed solutions to the paradox and …

First And Last Chance: Looking For Lesbians In California's Fifties Bar Cases, Joan W. Howarth

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Do all of us who choose members of our own sex as objects of desire and as sexual partners share some meaningful common identity, such as “homosexual,” “gay” or perhaps “queer”? The classifications “homosexual” and “gay” claim for themselves just that kind of inclusiveness; that is, that the gay world includes people of all races, all classes and any possible gender identity. You, me, James Baldwin, Gertrude Stein, J. Edgar Hoover: we are all gay together. In this way “homosexual” or “gay” is a generic term, like, for example, “human being.” But we know that the alleged inclusiveness masks just …

Deciding To Kill: Revealing The Gender In The Task Handed To Capital Jurors, Joan W. Howarth

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Day after day, across this country, ordinary people are summoned to court for a selection process that ultimately leaves them in a room deciding, with other jurors, whether a criminal defendant should be killed. The task handed to these jurors is an awesome, personal, moral decision, encased within the complex legal standards and procedures that constitute modern capital jurisprudence. The doctrine that created and sustains this moment of conscience reflects an ongoing struggle of rule against uncertainty, reason against emotion, justice against mercy, and thus, at one level, male against female. Capital jurisprudence -- the law for deciding whether to …

Condescending Contradictions: Richard Posner's Pragmatism And Pregnancy Discrimination, Ann C. Mcginley, Jeffrey W. Stempel

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Richard Posner’s, the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, judicial actions have been criticized, primarily for inconsistently commingling economic analysis with other approaches to decisionmaking in an effort to reach personally pleasing results that are at odds with Posner's professed commitment to methodological rigor. Although criticism of Posner's judging is diverse, a common theme is that he too frequently marshals his argumentative force merely to uphold the economic rights of the powerful. In other words, according to the critics, after the rush of intellectual excitement subsides, litigants and the justice system are left …

Getting To Know: Honoring Women In Law And In Fact, Lynne Henderson

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No abstract provided.

Review Essay: Feminism, Lawyering, And Death Row, Joan W. Howarth

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Representing men on death row is confounding, but not without reward. This lawyering work has taught me at least two lessons, the subjects of this essay. First, capital punishment--our attempt to use legal procedures to kill people fairly--is a feminist issue, or should be. Second, death row representation is too big a job for lawyers; we need to recruit poets. To develop these ideas, and perhaps to convince you without requiring you to undertake the same path to these conclusions, I am appropriating novelist Beverly Lowry's stunning new book, Crossed Over: A Murder, A Memoir. Crossed Over is the story …

Law's Patriarchy, Lynne Henderson

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No abstract provided.

Reflections On Identity, Diversity And Morality, Deborah W. Post

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The author reflects over events in her life that helped her define herself and her ethical identity, a black woman teacher.

Whose Nature? Practical Reason And Patriarchy, Lynne Henderson

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No abstract provided.

Response, [To Kathryn Abrams, Hiring Woman], Thomas B. Mcaffee

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This article is a response to an article by Professor Kathryn Abram about the recruitment and hiring of women law professors. Professor McAffee confronts an issue that Professor Abrams does not—that of giving women a “preference” in hiring. Professor McAffee also adds to Professor Abrams’ reflections about the question of how law schools should go about hiring more women.

What Makes Rape A Crime?, Lynne Henderson

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No abstract provided.

Electoral Folklore: An Empirical Examination Of The Abortion Issue, Jeffrey W. Stempel

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Though partisans on both sides claim credit for electoral victories and defeats, and politicians treat both groups with deference, few studies have attempted to gauge the impact of the abortion issue in more than an anecdotal manner. In 1976, NARAL noted that of the 13 members of the U.S. Representatives that lost re-election bids, nine were pro-life, and four were pro-choice. A study conducted by the Alan Guttmacher Institute of the 1974 House races found that, in “competitive” districts, 92 percent of the pro-choice candidates studied were re-elected while only 61 percent of the pro-life candidates were returned to Congress, …

Norris V. Arizona Governing Committee: Titile Vii's Applicability To Arizona's Deferred Compensation Plan, Mary E. Berkheiser

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Analysis of Norris v. Arizona Governing Comm., 671 F.2d 330 (9^th Cir. 1982).

Equal Protection For Juveniles: The Present Status Of Sex-Based Discrimination In Juvenile Court Laws, Samuel M. Davis, Susan C. Chaires

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The authors of this Article are concerned with sex-based discrimination in juvenile court laws. They first analyze those state laws that are sexually discriminatory and then explore the possibility of attacking these laws under the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. Finally, the potential impact of the Equal Rights Amendment upon these laws is discussed.