Law Commons^™

Torch (December 2015), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Married On Sunday, Fired On Monday: Approaches To Federal Lgbt Civil Rights Protections, Lisa Bornstein, Megan Bench

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Allyship To The Intersex Community On Cosmetic, Non-Consensual Genital "Normalizing" Surgery, Robert Hupf

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Unenumerated Rights And The Limits Of Analogy: A Critque Of The Right To Medical Self-Defense, O. Carter Snead

O. Carter Snead

Volokh’s project stands or falls with the claim that the entitlement he proposes is of constitutional dimension. If there is no fundamental right to medical self-defense, the individual must, for better or worse, yield to the regulation of this domain in the name of the values agreed to by the political branches of government. Indeed, the government routinely restricts the instrumentalities of self-help (including self-defense) in the name of avoiding what it takes to be more significant harms. This same rationale accounts for current governmental limitations on access to unapproved drugs and the current ban on organ sales. The FDA …

Torch (October 2015), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

With All Deliberate Speed: Brown V. Board Of Education, Julian Bond

Indiana Law Journal

Julian Bond, former president of the NAACP and the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, delivered the Indiana University Maurer School of Law’s Harris Lecture on Oct. 15, 2014 in the school’s Moot Court Room. Bond’s presentation, “The Broken Promise of Brown,” was part of the school’s commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

The Slow Demise Of Race Preference, Mark S. Brodin

Mark S. Brodin

This article traces the origins of affirmative action, its initial success, and the Reagan Administration's efforts to end it, which only recently have come to fruition with Fisher v. University of Texas and Shuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action.

Torch (August 2015), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Introduction To The Bill Of Rights At 200 Years: Bicentennial Perspectives, Rodney A. Smolla

Rod Smolla

No abstract provided.

Preserving The Bill Of Rights In The Modern Administrative-Industrial State, Rodney A. Smolla

Rod Smolla

No abstract provided.

Rolling John Bingham In His Grave: The Rehnquist Court Makes Sport With The 14th Amendment, Stephen E. Gottlieb

Akron Law Review

The Warren Court organized the concept of strict scrutiny in Shelton v. Tucker. Where the defendant was obligated to treat people without regard to membership in a suspect class and failed to do that, the Court would hold them liable for their behavior unless it was done for a compelling public reason and there was no less damaging alternative.

The concept of strict scrutiny had nothing to do with intentions. The issue for the Warren Court was whether one party had injured another because of a forbidden reason. That concept of causation was understood broadly. The Court was not looking …

Will Employment Discrimination Class Actions Survive?, Melissa Hart

Akron Law Review

This paper will argue that the changes wrought by the Civil Rights Act of 1991 do not in fact pose a barrier to resolution of employment discrimination claims through class litigation. The addition of compensatory and punitive damages and a jury-trial right in the Civil Rights Act of 1991 may increase the level of scrutiny and perhaps the level of judicial involvement necessary in an employment discrimination class action. But they do not render such a class action either impermissible under Rule 23 or violative of due process or Seventh Amendment jury trial rights. Courts and commentators who insist that …

In Defense Of Disparate Impact: An Opportunity To Realize The Promise Of The Fair Housing Act, Valerie Schneider

School of Law Faculty Publications

Abstract:

Twice in the past three years, the Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Fair Housing cases, and, each time, under pressure from civil rights leaders who feared that the Supreme Court might narrow current Fair Housing Act jurisprudence, the cases settled just weeks before oral argument. Settlements after the Supreme Court grants certiorari are extremely rare, and, in these cases, the settlements reflect a substantial fear among civil rights advocates that the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in cases such as Shelby County v. Holder and Fisher v. University of Texas are working to dismantle many of the protections of …

Scarce Medical Resources – Parenthood At Every Age, In Every Case And Subsidized By The State?, Yehezkel Margalit

Hezi Margalit

The dilemma of scarce medical resources is deeply rooted in the ancient mankind history, but it has been accelerated in the modern era with the appearance of the bio-medical innovations. This acute dilemma is relevant to all the western developed states, include Israel. Nevertheless, in one field there is the notion that Israel has unlimited medical resources – the fulfillment of its citizen's procreation and parenthood rights. Thus, for sociological, demographical, religious and security reasons the State of Israel invests a vast amount of money to develop and use the various fertility treatments. Israel, today, has the highest per capita …

Torch (May 2015), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Legal Post-Racialism As An Instrument Of Racial Compromise In Shelby County V. Holder, Pantea Javidan

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Good Faith Discrimination, Girardeau A. Spann

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The Supreme Court’s current doctrinal rules governing racial discrimination and affirmative action are unsatisfying. They often seem artificial, internally inconsistent, and even conceptually incoherent. Despite a long and continuing history of racial discrimination in the United States, many of the problems with the Supreme Court’s racial jurisprudence stem from the Court’s willingness to view the current distribution of societal resources as establishing a colorblind, race-neutral baseline that can be used to make equality determinations. As a result, the current rules are as likely to facilitate racial discrimination as to prevent it, or to remedy the lingering effects of past discrimination. …

Background Primer For Discussion On Diversity Within The Legal Profession, James M. Donovan

James M. Donovan

Despite its easy use in ordinary conversation, the details of what is meant when a speaker raises questions relating to “diversity” can be more complicated that they at first appear. The materials included here seek to map the more predominant landmarks on that intellectual landscape.

Torch (March 2015), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

How Employment Discrimination Plaintiffs Fare In Federal Court, Kevin M. Clermont, Stewart J. Schwab

Stewart J Schwab

This article presents the full range of information that the Administrative Office’s data convey on federal employment discrimination litigation. From that information, the authors tell three stories about (1) bringing these claims, (2) their outcome in the district court, and (3) the effect of appeal. Each of these stories is a sad one for employment discrimination plaintiffs: relatively often, the numerous plaintiffs must pursue their claims all the way through trial, which is usually a jury trial; at both pretrial and trial these plaintiffs lose disproportionately often, in all the various types of employment discrimination cases; and employment discrimination litigants …

Unhappy Meals: Sex Discrimination In Toy Choice At Mcdonald’S, Ian Ayres, Antonia Rose Ayres-Brown

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This Essay reports on a commonplace form of sex discrimination that we unsuccessfully challenged in a lawsuit before the Connecticut Human Rights Commission. In a small-scale pilot study that we conducted 5 years ago (which was the basis of our initial complaint) and in a follow-up study conducted in 2013, we found that McDonald’s franchises, instead of asking drive-through customers ordering a Happy Meal about their toy preference, asked the customer for the sex of the customer’s child (“Is it for a boy or a girl?”) and then gave different types of toys for each sex. Moreover, our 2013 visits …

Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth And Nicholas Kristof: 2013 Recipients, Priya Walia

Freedom Center Journal

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center proudly presented the 2013 recipients the International Freedom Conductor Award to Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and Nicholas Kristof. Rev. Shuttlesworth was known as the courageous, charismatic, blunt preacher who vowed to "kill segregation or be killed by it." After his successes with racial desegregation, Shuttlesworth spent the rest of his life fighting for equality for impoverished people. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Nicholas Kristof changed the course of social justice philanthropy through his work. Through individual personal narratives, Kristof compels the audience to delve further into seemingly remote global issues and inspires the American public …

Maximizing Inclusionary Zoning’S Contributions To Both Affordable Housing And Residential Integration, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

Inclusionary zoning is a popular policy that can uniquely serve both affordable housing and fair housing goals at the same time. Assuming the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development finalizes its proposed “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” regulation, inclusionary zoning will become more broadly used. But more extensive use of inclusionary zoning poses both opportunities and risks for housing advocates because of the following three issues: (1) Unacknowledged tradeoffs between affordable housing and fair housing goals in inclusionary zoning design and implementation; (2) Conflicting concepts of residential integration; and (3) Legal challenges to inclusionary zoning. The challenge facing inclusionary zoning …

Rights, Privileges, And The Future Of Marriage, Adam Macleod

Adam MacLeod

On the eve of its final triumph, has the cause of marriage equality fallen short? This essay discusses persistent differences in the incidents that attach to same-sex marriages versus man-woman marriages. It examines these in light of the distinction between fundamental rights and concessions of privilege in marriage law, and in common law constitutionalism generally. The Obergefell majority's premise that the marriage right is created and conferred by positive law renders the rights and duties of same-sex marriage unstable. By contrast, the rights and duties of the natural family have proven surprisingly resilient, despite their incompatibility with full marriage equality, …

Searching For Equity Amid A System Of Schools: The View From New Orleans, Robert A. Garda Jr.

Robert A. Garda

Hurricane Katrina leveled both the buildings and governance structure of the New Orleans school system. The system was transformed from one elected school board controlling nearly all the schools to a system of schools with sixty-three school districts operating within the city’s geographic boundaries that are run by forty-four independent school boards. There is not a more decentralized school governance structure in the United States. This article discusses how this new system of schools is attempting to achieve equal educational opportunities for its most vulnerable and at-risk student populations: the poor, minorities, students with disabilities, and English Language Learners.

For …

Accidentally On Purpose: Intent In Disability Discrimination Law, Mark C. Weber

Mark C. Weber

American disability discrimination laws contain few intent requirements. Yet courts frequently demand showings of intent in disability discrimination lawsuits. Intent requirements arose almost by accident: through a false statutory analogy; by repetition of obsolete judicial language; and by doctrine developed to avoid a nonexistent conflict with another law. Demanding that section 504 and Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) claimants show intent imposes a burden not found in those statutes or their interpretive regulations. This Article provides reasons not to impose intent requirements for liability or monetary relief in section 504 and ADA cases concerning reasonable accommodations. It demonstrates that no …

Torch (January 2015), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

Racial Reckoning: Prosecuting America’s Civil Rights Murders is an exceptional work by Renee C. Romano. This review will first discuss a concern I had prior to reading her book. Discussion of this alleviated concern will be followed by brief consideration of Romano’s well selected titled, which will be followed by a discussion of what I see as major contributions of the book.

From Outsider Status To Insider And Outsider Again: Interest Convergence Theory And Normalization Of Lgbt Identity, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Alexander Nourafshan

Faculty Scholarship

After the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor, which declared the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional,and after the granting of certiorari in Obergell v. Hodges, where the Supreme Court will decide whether the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to provide a marriage license to same-sex couples, national marriage equality seems like a legal inevitability.However, Windsor and Obergell, along with other state-level advances toward marriage equality, are not equally promising for all members of the lesbian and gay community. Although Windsor and the revolution of cases that have led to Obergell hold significant promise for one privileged subset …

The Color Of Pain: Blacks And The U.S. Health Care System--Can The Affordable Care Act Help To Heal A History Of Injustice?, Part I, Jennifer M. Smith

Journal Publications

Discrimination in its various forms has contributed to the exclusion of blacks and other people of color from the field of medicine both as health care providers and as patients in the United States. Dr. Robinson's story is but one example. Racism has significantly harmed the health care of black people in the U.S. Generally speaking, those with the poorest health and the greatest need have had the poorest access to medical care, as well as lower quality health care than their white counterparts. To understand this, we must consider the historical context of blacks in America and in America's …