Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Sexuality and the Law Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Civil Rights and Discrimination

Selected Works

Equality

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Sexuality and the Law

Conjuring "Equal Dignity": Mapping The Constitutional Dialogue To And From Same-Sex Marriage, Julie Nice Dec 2014

Conjuring "Equal Dignity": Mapping The Constitutional Dialogue To And From Same-Sex Marriage, Julie Nice

Julie A. Nice

What a long, strange trip it’s been from Bowers v. Hardwick to Obergefell v. Hodges. Less than thirty years after the Supreme Court notoriously upheld the criminalization of same-sex sexuality, the Court now has declared that laws may not exclude gays and lesbians from marriage. How did the majority in Obergefell conjure this “equal dignity” for same-sex couples that they insist the Constitution requires? This essay analyzes the Court's approach by closely examining the majority and dissenting opinions and then providing a synthesis of trends reflected, rationales rejected, issues ignored, and opportunities opened. 

First, as to trends reflected, the majority …

Go to article

How Equality Constitutes Liberty: The Alignment Of Cls V. Martinez, Julie Nice Dec 2010

How Equality Constitutes Liberty: The Alignment Of Cls V. Martinez, Julie Nice

Julie A. Nice

Across the constitutional doctrines protecting individual liberty from governmental interference, judicial inquiry often focuses on the unequal infringement of liberty. Many of the most important individual rights have emerged from the synergy between equality and liberty. But the Court has not yet provided any framework for understanding the various ways that liberty and equality interrelate. Neither has any consensus developed around any scholarly attempt to understand the relationship between liberty and equality. Without any grand theory, the search for understanding this important relationship is thus left to induction, as scholars examine one case at a time to glean both specific …

Go to article

On Equality: The Anti-Interference Principle, Donald J. Kochan Dec 2010

On Equality: The Anti-Interference Principle, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

This Essay introduces the “Anti-Interference Principle” – a new term on the meaning of equality, or at least one not yet so-named in the equality lexicon – as a necessary foundation for achieving the goal of true equality. Equality has a long-standing place in the discussion of politics and jurisprudence and remains a struggle of definition today. Rather than rehash the mass of scholarship, this Essay seeks to summarize the general equality concept, and propose that the legal discourse on equality center on a requirement that governmental power must protect and respect equal treatment and opportunity, unconstrained, not equal outcomes. …

Go to article

Equal Protection And Sexual Orientation, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee Dec 1994

Equal Protection And Sexual Orientation, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee

Jack Tsen-Ta LEE

Equality is the thread running through the fundamental liberties enshrined in our Constitution. ... Equality, expressed in Art 12 of the [Singapore] Constitution, is also a specific right enforceable by the court. The difficulty comes in applying this deceptively simple concept to real-life situations. ... In considering the validity of legislation, Singapore and Malaysian courts have generally favored rational review, a modest conception of equal protection, unlike their American counterparts which have adopted a more expansive reading in the form of strict and intermediate review. This article examines how these three levels of equal protection review operate, and argues that …

Go to article