Law and Race Commons^™

Actively Achieving Greater Racial Equity In Law School Classrooms, Catherine Bramble, Rory Bahadur

Cleveland State Law Review

2020 illustrated the ongoing pervasiveness of implicit and explicit racism in our society. Less well-acknowledged and recognized is the extent to which Socratic pedagogy also reflects those pervasive racist realities while simultaneously resulting in inferior learning based on a teaching method invented 150+ years ago. Despite this racist and outdated reality, the legal academy has been reluctant to alter the traditional method of teaching. Tangible, empirical evidence obtained from data-driven cognitive learning science research demonstrates that active learning not only improves learning outcomes for all students, but also mitigates the structural effects of racism in the classroom thereby increasing racial …

How To Protect Special Education During Covid-19: From The Courts To The Capitol, Sarah Coleman

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced students around the country out of brick-and-mortar schools and into virtual classrooms. While the switch to remote learning has helped keep students and teachers safe from contracting the virus, students with disabilities have largely been deprived of a meaningful education and in person services mandated under federal law. This essay will explain how students have been denied a free appropriate public education (FAPE) under the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), how litigation has been unsuccessful in creating systemic change for these students, and how public policy by U.S. legislators can offer a solution.

Examining The Bar Exam: An Empirical Analysis Of Racial Bias In The Uniform Bar Examination, Scott Devito, Kelsey Hample, Erin Lain

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The legal profession is among the least diverse in the United States. Given continuing issues of systemic racism, the central position that the justice system occupies in society, and the vital role that lawyers play in that system, it is incumbent upon legal professionals to identify and remedy the causes of this lack of diversity. This Article seeks to understand how the bar examination—the final hurdle to entering the profession— contributes to this dearth of diversity. Using publicly available data, we analyze whether the ethnic makeup of a law school’s entering class correlates to the school’s first-time bar passage rates …

Trek To Triumph, Briaunna Buckner

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

I was screaming in the stairwell of my home, holding a dead baby. The air was so thick that I could barely breathe. Tears were racing down my face as her twin sister, Zola, was screeching at the top of her lungs. “WHY LORD, don't take my baby!” Every emotion, every word, and every second after that moment felt black. All the sweet memories from just eight days of being able to hold her, kiss her, and love her fell in a black pit along with the dreams I had for my life. As I looked down at my sweet …

Not White Enough, Not Black Enough: Reimagining Affirmative Action Jurisprudence In Law School Admissions Through A Filipino-American Paradigm, Joseph D. G. Castro

Pepperdine Law Review

Writing the majority opinion upholding the use of racial preferences in law school admissions in 2003, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor anticipated that racial preferences would no longer be necessary in twenty-five years. On the contrary, 2021 has seen the astronomic rise of critical race theory, the popularity of race-driven “diversity” initiatives in higher education, and the continued surge of identity politics in the mainstream. So much has been written on affirmative action—what else could this Comment add to the conversation? Analyzing the Court’s application of strict scrutiny through a Filipino- American paradigm, this Comment ultimately concludes that affirmative action in …

Reflective Journal: Curricular Deficits, Pedagogical Challenges And Constructing Community In A Non- Traditional Law School Class, Rita A. Sethi

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Putting The Bar Exam On Constitutional Notice: Cut Scores, Race & Ethnicity, And The Public Good, Scott Johns

Seattle University Law Review

Nothing to see here. Season in and season out, bar examiners, experts, supreme courts, and bar associations seem nonplussed, trapped by what they see as the facts, namely, that the bar exam has no possible weaknesses, at least when it comes to alternative licensure mechanisms, that the bar exam is not to blame for disparate racial impacts that spring from administration of this ritualistic process, and that there are no viable alternatives in the harsh cold world of determining minimal competency for the noble purpose of protecting the public from legal harms. All a lie, of course.

But rather than …

Robert Cover And Critical Race Theory, Gabriel J. Chin

Touro Law Review

Professor Robert Cover is recognized as a leading scholar of law and literature; decades after his untimely passing, his works continue to be widely cited. Because of his interest in narrative, he is credited as a contributor to the development of Critical Race Theory. This essay proposes that in addition to narrative, some of his other, substantive works about race were also important precursors to a more sophisticated appreciation of U.S. race relations. Professor Cover is also entitled to credit for understanding racism as a pervasive system, and one which went beyond Black and White.

Foreword, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Foreward

Honoring Lutie A. Lytle And John Mercer Langston With Our Words, Carliss Chatman

Washington and Lee Law Review

The recent attacks on critical race theory make one fact very clear: the lack of Black voices in public discourse creates distortion and exploitation. This inaugural Black Scholars Book, the first of its kind published annually, is not about defining or justifying critical race theory—as some scholars in this book would not deem themselves to be critical race theorists. Instead, it is about righting the wrongs that enable the weaponization of scholarship by and about Black people. The goal of the W&L Law Review is to hold space for scholarship of historically marginalized and silenced voices. This inaugural book contains …