Digital Commons Network^™

Faith In Community: Representing "Colored Town", Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

Separate And Unequal: Federal Tough-On-Guns Program Targets Minority Communities For Selective Enforcement, Bonita R. Gardner

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article examines the Project Safe Neighborhoods program and considers whether its disproportionate application in urban, majority- African American cities (large and small) violates the guarantee of equal protection under the law. This Article will start with a description of the program and how it operates-the limited application to street-level criminal activity in predominately African American communities. Based on preliminary data showing that Project Safe Neighborhoods disproportionately impacts African Americans, the Article turns to an analysis of the applicable law. Most courts have analyzed Project Safe Neighborhoods' race-based challenges under selective prosecution case law, which requires a showing by the …

Time To Step Up: Modeling The African American Ethnivestor For Self-Help Entrepreneurship In Urban America, Roger M. Groves

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

When the United States Congress passed legislation in late 2000 to revitalize the urban core with incentives for equity investors, African Americans were inconspicuously absent as stakeholders in the enterprise. Subsidies in the form of tax credits were instead gobbled up by investor groups who developed upscale hotel-convention centers, high priced condominiums, and symphony orchestra venues that the pre-existing poor residents could not afford. The focus of this Article is not to blame those investors who took advantage of the opportunity, though they perverted the purpose of the subsidy. Rather, this Article seeks to identify a new substrata of the …

Diversity On The Bench And The Quest For Justice For All, Theresa M. Beiner

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

New Frameworks For Racial Equality In The Criminal Law, Jeffery Fagan, Mukul Bakhshi

Faculty Scholarship

This Symposium, " Pursuing Racial Fairness in the Administration of Justice: Twenty Years After McClesky v. Kemp," was conceived and inspired by Theodore Shaw, Director-Counsel and President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. Ted Shaw and his staff worked with Columbia Law School Professor Jeffrey Fagan to recruit an outstanding group of scholars and activists who met on March 2-3, 2007 to hear and comment on the articles appearing in this Symposium. In addition to the authors whose work appears in this issue, many others made important contributions to the Symposium through their commentaries and presentations. These …

Disparity Rules, Olatunde C.A. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

In 1992, Congress required states receiving federal juvenile justice funds to reduce racial disparities in the confinement rates of minority juveniles. This provision, now known as the disproportionate minority contact standard (DMC), is potentially more far-reaching than traditional disparate impact standards: It requires the reduction of racial disparities regardless of whether those disparities were motivated by intentional discrimination orjustified by "legitimate" agency interests. Instead, the statute encourages states to address how their practices exacerbate racial disadvantage.

This Article casts the DMC standard as a partial response to the failure of constitutional and statutory standards to discourage actions that produce racial …

Public Interest Drift Revised: Tracing The Sources Of Social Change Commitment Among Black Harvard Law Students, Jenee Desmond-Harris

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

Although "public interest drift"-the phenomenon of law students' interest in public interest careers decreasing over the course of legal education-has been studied extensively, author Jene Desmond- Harris argues that rates among black law students deserve a specially tailored analysis because of the black community's longstanding faith in the law and lawyers as instruments of social change. Through a study of current black Harvard Law students, admitted students, and alumni, she investigates the interactions between the Harvard Law School experience and the development of black law students' attitudes about pursuing careers aimed at affecting social change. Incorporating her own research with …

Providing Race Discrimination In Criminal Cases Using Statistical Evidence, Marc Price Wolf

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

Proving race discrimination in a criminal case using statistical evidence has been a difficult endeavor since the Supreme Court's rulings in McCleskey and Armstrong. In those cases, the Court set a high threshold for using statistics to prove constitutional violations. This note argues that this threshold is not insurmountable. Studies can be crafted to overcome the strict guidelines set out in McCleskey and Armstrong. Additionally, lower courts have interpreted these cases too broadly, such that validly presented statistical studies have unfairly been brushed aside. This note also argues that the Court analyzes social scientific studies differently when those studies are …

Innocence, Race, And The Death Penalty, Barry Scheck

Articles

The article argues that the death penalty in the United States is deeply flawed due to systemic issues such as wrongful convictions, racial disparities, and procedural failures. It emphasizes the critical role of DNA exonerations in revealing these injustices and advocates for reforms to address the root causes of wrongful convictions, including inadequate legal representation and flawed forensic science. The article also highlights the moral and financial costs of capital punishment, urging its abolition.

Criminal Justice And The 1967 Detroit 'Riot', Yale Kamisar

Articles

Forty years ago the kindling of segregation, racism, and poverty burst into the flame of urban rioting in Detroit, Los Angeles, Newark, and other U.S. cities. The following essay is excerpted from a report by Professor Emeritus Yale Kamisar filed with the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commission) regarding the disorders that took place in Detroit July 23-28, 1967. The report provided significant material and was the subject of one article in the series of pieces on the anniversary of the disturbances that appeared last summer in The Michigan Citizen of Detroit. Immediately after the disturbances ended, …

A Reader's Companion To Against Prediction: A Reply To Ariela Gross, Yoram Margalioth, And Yoav Sapir On Economic Modeling, Selective Incapacitation, Governmentality, And Race, Bernard E. Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

From parole prediction instruments and violent sexual predator scores to racial profiling on the highways, instruments to predict future dangerousness, drug-courier profiles, and IRS computer algorithms to detect tax evaders, the rise of actuarial methods in the field of crime and punishment presents a number of challenging issues at the intersection of economic theory, sociology, history, race studies, criminology, social theory, and law. The three review essays of "Against Prediction" by Ariela Gross, Yoram Margalioth, and Yoav Sapir, raise these challenges in their very best light. Ranging from the heights of poststructuralist and critical race theory to the intricate details …

¿ La Raza Latina?: Multiracial Ambivalence, Color Denial, And The Emergence Of A Tri-Ethnic Jurisprudence At The End Of The Twentieth Century, Tom I. Romero Ii

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Spirit Of 1968: Toward Abolishing Terry Doctrine, Frank Rudy Cooper

Scholarly Works

In this essay, Professor Frank Rudy Cooper summarizes how the Terry opinion's refusal to apply the probable cause standard made Fourth Amendment doctrine more conservative. He then suggests that the result has gone largely unchallenged because whites have been willing to trade decreases in the civil liberties of blacks for perceived increases in crime control. Prof Cooper concludes by calling on us to consider returning to the spirit of the beginning of 1968 by abolishing Terry doctrine.

Racial Justice And Equity For African-American Males In The American Educational System: A Dream Forever Deferred, Floyd D. Weatherspoon

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

Adding Fuel To The Fire: United States V. Booker And The Crack Versus Powder Cocaine Sentencing Disparity, Briton K. Nelson

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Eyewitness Identification, Democratic Deliberation, And The Politics Of Science, Andrew E. Taslitz

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The article examines the intersection of social science and legal policy in eyewitness identification, focusing on the role of prosecutors and the American Bar Association (ABA) Eyewitness Resolution. It argues that while social science provides critical insights to improve identification accuracy, the translation of these insights into legal policy involves normative judgments that balance competing values, such as protecting the innocent and ensuring public safety. The author critiques the limitations of internal deliberative processes within law enforcement and prosecutorial offices, advocating for more transparent and inclusive deliberative structures to address systemic errors and promote justice.

Asymmetrical Attitudes And Participatory Justice, Michael Giudice

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The article explores the asymmetry in attitudes toward law between legal officials and citizens, arguing that this disconnect leads to deficiencies in moral justice. It suggests that participatory justice practices, inspired by Aboriginal legal traditions, can bridge this gap by emphasizing context-sensitive, individualized approaches to dispute resolution.

This Bridge Called Our Backs: An Introduction To “The Future Of Critical Race Feminism”, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

On April 1, 2005, the U.C. Davis Law Review hosted in its annual symposium an extremely distinguished group of scholars, who addressed central theories of Critical Race Feminism (“CRF”) in a daylong series of inspiring, thought-provoking, cutting-edge, and captivating presentations. The panelists at the symposium — in front of a packed room of students, professors, and local residents — delved into issues as diverse as the unique role of immigrant women in community economic development, societal failure to deal with domestic violence from a multidimensional perspective, the proposal of a contractual good faith claim based on Professors Devon Carbado and …

Living By The Sword: The Free Exercise Of Religion And The Sikh Struggle For The Right To Carry A Kirpan, Rishi S. Bagga

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Colorblind Must Not Mean Blind To The Realities Facing Black Children, Zanita E. Fenton

Articles

No abstract provided.

I Am Certain He Is The Man...I Think, Tim Harris

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Cash: Are Banks Guilty Of Racial Profiling In Implementing The United States Patriot Act?, Cheryl R. Lee

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article begins by comparing the concerns of American racial profiling to current terrorism concerns. Part II is an overview of the Bank Secrecy Act and its role in privacy issues concerning bank customers (as the predecessor to the USA Patriot Act). Here, the value of traditional reporting devices, specifically CTRs and SARs used by banks to alert law enforcement to possible terrorist activities, are discussed and evaluated. The facts suggest these reports have been ineffective in identifying terrorists, and have not only greatly infringed upon First Amendment privacy rights, but also diminished the Fourth Amendment protection against warrant-less searches …

Dislocated And Deprived: A Normative Evaluation Of Southeast Asian Criminal Responsibility And The Implications Of Societal Fault, Jason H. Lee

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Note argues that certain Southeast Asian defendants should be able to use their families' refugee experience as well as their own economic and social marginalization in the U.S. as a partial excuse for their criminal acts. This argument draws its strength from both the socioeconomic deprivation of much of the Southeast Asian community and the linking of this reality to a careful analysis of the moral foundations of the criminal law. In essence, the American criminal justice system, which draws much of its moral force to punish from the theory of retributivism, cannot morally justify the full punishment of …

The Usa Patriot Act: A Policy Of Alienation, Kam C. Wong

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article provides a brief overview of how Muslims were treated after 9/11. It documents how the USAPA and related measures have been used to monitor, investigate, detain, and deport Muslim U.S. citizens in violation of their civil rights. Of particular importance, is how the life circumstances of the Muslims in America have changed for the worse as a result of zealous enforcement and discriminatory application of the USAPA. In so doing, this Article seeks to provide concrete facts and a rich context to ascertain the implications of 9/11 on American society.

On Justitia, Race, Gender, And Blindness, I. Bennett Capers

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Essay focuses on Justitia's more problematic attributes. Like Justitia's blindfold, which has been described as "the most enigmatic" of her traits. Is the blindfold merely emblematic of Justitia's purported impartiality, her claim to algorithmic justice? As law professor Costas Douzinas and art historian Lynda Nead have asked, does the blindfold enable Justitia "to avoid the temptation to see the face that comes to the law and put the unique characteristics of the concrete person before the abstract logic of the institution"? Or does the blindfold signify something more, a second sight of sorts? Maybe that Justitia, unable to see, …

Race, Gender, Region And Death Sentencing In Colorado, 1980-1999, Stephanie Hindson, Hillary Potter, Michael L. Radelet

University of Colorado Law Review

This paper examines the administration of the death penalty in Colorado. We first identify all cases (n=21) in which defendants were sentenced to death in Colorado, 1972-2005, and all cases (n=10) in which the death penalty was sought, 1980-1999. We then compare the race and gender of all homicide victims with the race and gender of victims in the 110 death penalty cases. Overall, we find that the death penalty is most likely to be sought for homicides with white female victims, and that the probability of death being sought is 4.2 times higher for those who kill whites than …

Against Bipolar Black Masculinity: Intersectionality, Assimilation, Identity Performance, And Hierarchy, Frank Rudy Cooper

Scholarly Works

In this article, Professor Frank Rudy Cooper contends that popular representations of heterosexual black men are bipolar. Those images alternate between a Bad Black Man who is crime-prone and hypersexual and a Good Black Man who distances himself from blackness and associates with white norms. The threat of the Bad Black Man label provides heterosexual black men with an assimilationist incentive to perform our identities consistent with the Good Black Man image.

The reason for bipolar black masculinity is that it helps resolve the white mainstream's post-civil rights anxiety. That anxiety results from the conflict between the nation's relatively recent …

The Importance Of Realizing "Other Rights" To Prevent Sex Trafficking, Jonathan Todres

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article argues that effectively combating sex trafficking requires a broader approach that goes beyond criminalization and victim assistance. It emphasizes the importance of realizing "other rights" under international human rights law, such as the right to be free from gender-based violence, discrimination, and the rights to birth registration, health, and education. Ensuring these rights addresses the systemic issues that make marginalized populations vulnerable to trafficking and fosters sustainable development, which is critical for long-term prevention.

The Trial Of Bigger Thomas: Race, Gender, And Trespass, Bennett Capers

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

On Justitia, Race, Gender, And Blindness, Bennett Capers

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.