Law and Race Commons^™

Peremptory Challenges: Free Strikes No More, H. Patrick Furman

Publications

No abstract provided.

State Responses To Task Force Reports On Race And Ethnic Bias In The Courts, Suellyn Scarnecchia

Articles

While several states have embarked on studies of race and ethnic bias in their courts, Minnesota is only the sixth to publish its report to date. As Minnesota joins the ranks of states with published reports, it is worthwhile to assess the impact of the five earlier published reports from other states. Final reports have been published in Michigan (1989), Washington (1990), New York (1991), Florida (1991) and New Jersey (1992). The published reports make findings and provide several specific recommendations for change. This article will review the published findings and recommendations of the task forces and will discuss the …

Reel Time/Real Justice, Kimberlé W. Crenshaw

Faculty Scholarship

Like the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings a few months before, the Rodney King beating, the acquittal of the Los Angeles police officers who "restrained" him and the subsequent civil unrest in Los Angeles flashed Race across the national consciousness and the gaze of American culture momentarily froze there. Pieces of everyday racial dynamics briefly seemed clear, then faded from view, replaced by presidential politics and natural disasters.

This Essay examines in more depth what was exposed during the momentary national focus on Rodney King. Two main events – the acquittal of the police officers who beat King and the civil …

Voting Rights Act Section 2: Racially Polarized Voting And The Minority Community's Representative Of Choice, Evelyn Elayne Shockley

Michigan Law Review

A much needed congressional effort to give substance to African-American suffrage resulted in the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (the Act). Although the fifteenth amendment gave African-American men the right to vote in 1870, almost a hundred years later they were still largely unable to exercise the right. This condition did not result from apathy on the part of African-American voters, but rather from their inability to overcome barriers set up by white racists. Practices whites instituted, such as "[l]iteracy and 'understanding' tests, poll taxes, the white primary, intimidation, [and] violence," prevented African-Americans from realizing their constitutional …

Batson V. Kentucky: Curing The Disease But Killing The Patient, William T. Pizzi

Publications

No abstract provided.

Mr. Justice And Mrs. Black: The Memoirs Of Hugo L. Black And Elizabeth Black, Daniel J. Meador

Vanderbilt Law Review

In addition to foreshadowing Supreme Court decisions that followed his death, some of Justice Black's dissents noted in this book, though not yet adopted by a Supreme Court majority, have played a role in lower court decisions. His dissent in Tinker v. Des Moines Community School District expressed the idea that the disruptive activities of high school students are not protected by the first amendment. This view subsequently was reflected in a Ninth Circuit decision, and his Tinker opinion has been favorably cited in other lower court opinions." Justice Black's comments during oral argument in Swann v. Board of Education …

Jury Discrimination, James Boyd White

Book Chapters

Jury discrimination was first recognized as a constitutional problem shortly after the CIVIL WAR, when certain southern and border states excluded blacks from jury service. The Supreme Court had little difficulty in holding such blatant racial discriminationinvalid as a denial of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the recently adopted Fourteenth Amendment. But, beyond such obvious improprieties, what should the principle of nondiscrimination forbid? Some kinds of ‘‘discrimination’’ in the selection of the jury are not bad but good: for example, those incompetent to serve ought to be excused from service, whether their incompetence arises from mental or …

The Force Of Irony: On The Morality Of Affirmative Action And United Steelworkers V. Weber, Richard O. Lempert

Articles

In recent years, affirmative action has posed difficult problems not only for courts and legislatures but also for individuals who puzzle over what is just. The claims made both by the proponents of programs that establish preferences on the basis of race and by their staunch opponents have an intuitive appeal. The slave society that preceded the Civil War and the Jim Crow era that endured for a century afterward are a shameful legacy for a nation that seeks to define itself in terms of justice and freedom. The proportionate underrepresentation of black people in positions of power and privilege …

The Limits Of Litigation: Putting The Education Back Into Brown V. Board Of Education, T. Alexander Aleinikoff

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Shades of Brown: New Perspectives on School Desegregation edited by Derrick Bell

Trial And Error: The Detroit School Segregation Case, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Trial and Error: The Detroit School Segregation Case by Eleanor P. Wolf

Strict Construction And Judicial Review Of Racial Discrimination Under The Equal Protection Clause: Meeting Raoul Berger On Interpretivist Grounds, Paul R. Dimond

Michigan Law Review

In the face of this common understanding of the vagueness of much of the constitutional text, Berger bears the burden of proving that the equal protection clause was intended to enumerate specific, narrow protections against racial discrimination. This Article examines several contemporary sources to determine whether he has accomplished that task. It proceeds in six parts. Part I analyzes the text of the fourteenth amendment and contemporaneous congressional views on judicial review. Contrary to Berger's construction, the equal protection clause is not limited by its terms to the privileges or immunities clause or to the specific rights enumerated in the …

Racial Vote Dilution In Multimember Districts: The Constitutional Standard After Washington V. Davis, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that the effect-oriented standard for multimember-district vote-dilution claims is unaffected by the Washington intent requirement. Part I outlines the manner in which multimember districts can dilute minority voting strength. After summarizing Washington's intent requirement, Part II surveys the post-Washington vote dilution cases and demonstrates that the applicability of the intent standard to vote dilution claims is uncertain. Part III first suggests two ways in which White and Washington may be reconciled. That section then argues that White is unaffected by the intent requirement because the standard for vote dilution fits within a fundamental interest analysis …

Bakke: A Compelling Need To Discriminate, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

Two of America's most cherished values collided head-on a few months ago, when the U.S. Supreme Court began to come to grips with the most significant civil rights suit since the school desegregation cases of 1954. Arrayed on one side is the principle of governmental "color-blindness," the appealing notion that the color of a person's skin should have nothing to do with the distribution of benefits or burdens by the state. Set against it is the goal of a truly integrated society, and the tragic realization that this objective cannot be achieved within the foreseeable future unless race and color …

Higher Education: The Black Professional, Donald H. Godbold, Andrew Goodrich, William Moore, Jr.,

IUSTITIA

The black professional in the community college is a catalog of contradictions. His or her condition can only be described as tragic; and his or her plight is a travesty on the philosophy of the two-year college. The preliminary findings of one study in progress note that nearly half (409 or 47 per cent) of the 865 two-year institutions included in the sample do not have a single black faculty member or administrator. Eighty-nine of the remaining 456 colleges have only one black staff member. Similarly, there are a number of community colleges located in areas heavily populated by blacks …

Affirmative Action: Quotas And Traditional University Standards With Particular Emphasis On The Role Of The Department Chairman, William D. Wheeler

IUSTITIA

The higher educational institution is often an exclusive citadel. Students are selected after close scrutiny of past achievements. Teachers as merchants of ideas, virtues, and cosmic thoughts are invited to membership only after certain academic passports have been acquired. These eligibility criteria are established by the faculty who, presumably, are the only ones capable of assessing reasonable standards for those seeking admission. Colleges and universities are closed sub-communities. They practice discrimination while giving lip service to liberal thought, knowledge, and enlightenment. It comes, therefore, as little surprise to clear thinkers that the house of intellect leads the parade of culprits …

Equal Protection, Economic Legislation,And Racial Discrimination, William Silverman

Vanderbilt Law Review

The drive to end racial discrimination now extends beyond blatant racial distinctions to less obvious and less intentional forms of unequal treatment; nonetheless, there still exist laws and governmental programs that are racially neutral on their face but that may have a racially discriminatory impact in practice. Such discrimination can take place when economic and social welfare legislation, lacking a sound economic grounding, attacks symptoms rather than causes and thereby unintentionally compounds the problems facing black people. At the same time, laws that are at the root of unequal treatment seem to go unchallenged. From the point of view of …

Litigation Versus Mediation Under Title Vii Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1964, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

Report of the 1969 Proceedings of the Section of Labor Relations Law, American Bar Association.

Corporations-Nonprofit Corporations-Expulsion Of Member By Board Of Directors, Paul W. Eaton, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

The board of directors of defendant, a nonprofit corporation, passed a resolution that persons should not be denied membership on racial, religious or political grounds. Plaintiff, a branch member of defendant, had enacted by-laws denying Negroes admission to its group. Defendant's board declared plaintiff's by-laws were in conflict with the resolution and threatened to expel plaintiff branch if its by-laws were not amended. Plaintiff brought suit to enjoin defendant from carrying out its threat. Held, injunction granted. No national by-law required admission of all races to membership in branches, nor did the national directors have power to expel a …