Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Publication Year
Articles 1 - 24 of 24
Full-Text Articles in Law
A Fare Share: A Proposed Solution To Address The Racial Disparity In Access To Public Transportation Funding In America, Michael Swistara
A Fare Share: A Proposed Solution To Address The Racial Disparity In Access To Public Transportation Funding In America, Michael Swistara
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
Black American households are up to six times less likely to own a car than white families and are four times more likely to rely on public transportation to meet their daily needs. Despite this, communities of color have seen consistent disinvestment in their transit infrastructure. Four hundred years of continued housing segregation combined with post-recession austerity policies and ongoing pro-automobile bias has exacerbated this disparity. This Note proposes a straightforward legislative tool to begin to combat this inequity. The proposed legislation would require that urbanized areas spend their public transit dollars according to the population density of the communities …
Contingent Equal Protection: Reaching For Equality After Ricci And Pics, Jennifer S. Hendricks
Contingent Equal Protection: Reaching For Equality After Ricci And Pics, Jennifer S. Hendricks
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
This Article uses the term contingent equal protection to describe the constitutional analysis that applies to a range of governmental efforts to ameliorate race and sex hierarchies. "Contingent" refers to the fact that the equal protection analysis is contingent upon the existence of structural, de facto inequality. Contingent equal protection cases include those that involve explicit race and sex classifications, facially neutral efforts to reduce inequality, and accommodation of sex differences to promote equality. Uniting all three kinds of cases under a single conceptual umbrella reveals the implications that developments in one area can have for the other two.
Disparate Impact And The Use Of Racial Proxies In Post-Mcri Admissions, Matthew S. Owen, Danielle S. Barbour
Disparate Impact And The Use Of Racial Proxies In Post-Mcri Admissions, Matthew S. Owen, Danielle S. Barbour
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (“MCRI”) amended the Michigan Constitution to provide that public universities, colleges, and school districts may not “discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of . . . public education.” We argue that, in addition to prohibiting the overt use of racial preferences in admissions, the MCRI also prohibits using racial proxies such as socioeconomic status or a “Ten Percent Plan” that aim to prefer minorities in admissions. Though the MCRI does not expressly say so, we stipulate …
The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative And The Civil Rights Act Of 1964, Carl Cohen
The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative And The Civil Rights Act Of 1964, Carl Cohen
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
The underlying principle of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), adopted by state wide vote on 7 November 2006, is identical to that of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Section 601 of the Civil Rights Act provides: “No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” The recent passage of the MCRI results now in the inclusion [in Article 1, Section 26 of the Michigan constitution] of section …
A Sheep In Wolf's Clothing: The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative As The Savior Of Affirmative Action, Ryan C. Hess
A Sheep In Wolf's Clothing: The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative As The Savior Of Affirmative Action, Ryan C. Hess
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
The University of Michigan has long been a place of important discussions about civil and human rights. On the steps of the Michigan Student Union, only a few paces from the Law School, lies an inconspicuous marker where then-President John F. Kennedy, Jr. dedicated the United States Peace Core. During the Vietnam War, the University played host to significant protests that changed how we think about war and its consequences. Most recently, the University litigated a series of Supreme Court cases that have helped define the role of educational institutions in the quest for equality. This role promises to continue …
"Framing Affirmative Action", Kimberlé W. Crenshaw
"Framing Affirmative Action", Kimberlé W. Crenshaw
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
With the passage of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (“MCRI”), Michigan joins California and Washington to constitute the new postaffirmative action frontier. For proponents such as Ward Connerly, affirmative action is on the edge of extinction. Connerly plans to carry his campaign against what he calls “racial preferences” to eight states in 2008, scoring a decisive Super-Tuesday repudiation of a social policy that he portrays as the contemporary face of racial discrimination. On the other side of the issue, proponents of affirmative action are struggling to regroup, fearful that the confluence of lukewarm support among Democratic allies, messy presidential politics …
What The Mcri Can Teach White Litigants About White Dominance, Adam Gitlin
What The Mcri Can Teach White Litigants About White Dominance, Adam Gitlin
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
The ballots have barely been counted, but litigation to enjoin implementation of the now-codified Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (“MCRI”) or at least limit its effect on admissions practices in Michigan’s universities is already underway. One of the primary arguments against the MCRI—and the basis upon which some plaintiff professors assert standing—is that students will suffer an impaired education if current admissions practices are discarded. Assuming that the MCRI survives these legal challenges, educators should be consoled somewhat to know the MCRI may still offer some pedagogy as compensation: litigation will likely be brought to enforce its provisions, and that litigation …
Mitigation And The Americans With Disabilities Act, Jill Elaine Hasday
Mitigation And The Americans With Disabilities Act, Jill Elaine Hasday
Michigan Law Review
It is an open question whether the prohibition on employment discrimination in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects plaintiffs who have not attempted to mitigate the effect of their disability on their ability to work. Suppose, for example, that a job applicant has severely impaired vision because of a corneal disease. He can have corneal transplant surgery that his doctors recommend and expect will allow him to see much more clearly, but he does not want to have the surgery because of the complications sometimes associated with the operation and the possibility that the surgery will not work. He …
The Prima Facie Case Of Age Discrimination In Reduction-In-Force Cases, Jessica Lind
The Prima Facie Case Of Age Discrimination In Reduction-In-Force Cases, Jessica Lind
Michigan Law Review
This Note proposes that courts require the plaintiff in a RIF case to show, as part of her prima facie burden, that the employer reassigned at least part of her job responsibilities to a younger individual of equal or lesser qualifications. Part I describes the analytical framework applied to most intentional discrimination cases the McDonnell Douglas framework. Part II explains that the RIF plaintiff cannot meet the specific requirements of the prima facie case as articulated in McDonnell Douglas because her firing occurs in conjunction with the elimination of her position. This Part then examines two approaches taken by the …
English-Only Rules And The Right To Speak One's Primary Language In The Workplace, Juan F. Perea
English-Only Rules And The Right To Speak One's Primary Language In The Workplace, Juan F. Perea
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article analyzes the issues raised by English-only rules and the decisions discussing these rules. Part I reviews the leading cases on English-only rules. The Article then explores several issues that must be considered in deciding any English-only rule case under Title VII. Part II addresses whether speaking one's primary language should constitute a protected right as an aspect of national origin under Title VII. This Article argues that primary language should be protected under Title VII for several reasons: the courts and the EEOC construe the term "national origin" broadly; primary language constitutes a fundamental aspect of ethnicity and …
Yankees Out Of North America: Foreign Employer Job Discrimination Against American Citizens, Michigan Law Review
Yankees Out Of North America: Foreign Employer Job Discrimination Against American Citizens, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
This Note explores Title VII's relationship to the hiring practices of foreign employers. It focuses on Japanese employers, who might face the toughest Title VII challenge to a business and cultural familiarity or citizenship requirement. Part I sets out arguments for and against finding intentional discrimination - disparate treatment - in either of these hiring requirements. It suggests that a court should refuse to find national origin discrimination when the employer imposes a business and cultural familiarity requirement. However, when an applicant is denied employment solely on the basis of citizenship, a strong argument may be made that the …
Labor Law-Prima Facie Tort Doctrine Bars Unreasonable Deprivation Of Union Membership-Hurwitz V. Directors Guild Of America, Inc., Michigan Law Review
Labor Law-Prima Facie Tort Doctrine Bars Unreasonable Deprivation Of Union Membership-Hurwitz V. Directors Guild Of America, Inc., Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
In July 1965 the officers of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the Screen Directors International Guild (SDIG) concluded a merger agreement which provided that DGA was to be the surviving union and SDIG members were to become members of DGA automatically upon signing the DGA non-Communist loyalty oath. Although the SDIG membership ratified the merger agreement by a majority vote, six members steadfastly refused to sign the oath and as a result were not admitted to membership in DGA. They thereupon brought a diversity suit in a New York federal district court: and moved for a preliminary injunction …
Freezing Voter Qualifications To Aid Negro Registration, Michigan Law Review
Freezing Voter Qualifications To Aid Negro Registration, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The literacy test, used by many states in determining the qualifications of voters, has proved to be a major obstacle to the elimination of voter discrimination based on racial characteristics. Under recently enacted statutory provisions, citizens who attempt to register to vote in certain states are faced with test questions of such difficulty that it is virtually impossible to answer them satisfactorily. Where there is permanent voter registration, the effect is to secure a position of political dominance for those registered prior to the institution of the tests. In those states in which individuals had been denied registration by prior …
Rights Of Persons Compelled To Appear In Federal Agency Investigational Hearings, David C. Murchison
Rights Of Persons Compelled To Appear In Federal Agency Investigational Hearings, David C. Murchison
Michigan Law Review
By statutes designed to protect the public interest, many federal administrative agencies-such as the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Civil Aeronautics Board-are granted authority to conduct investigations dealing with substantive matters committed to their respective jurisdictions. In an increasing number of instances, these agencies are empowered to utilize compulsory process; persons may be ordered to appear and give testimony or to produce documents in so-called investigational hearings, subject to criminal sanctions for noncompliance. The use of investigational hearings by these agencies as an ancillary law enforcement tool …
Constitutional Law-Civil Rights-Solitary Confinement Of Prisoner's Based On Religious Belief, Harvey Friedman
Constitutional Law-Civil Rights-Solitary Confinement Of Prisoner's Based On Religious Belief, Harvey Friedman
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff prisoner brought an action in a federal district court under the Civil Rights Act to enjoin the defendant, a New York state prison warden, from further subjecting him to solitary confinement because of his religious beliefs. The district court refused to take jurisdiction on the ground that solitary confinement involved state prison discipline which was reviewable only in state courts. On appeal, held, reversed, one judge dissenting. A complaint by a prisoner against a state prison official which charges violation of a "preferred freedom" by religious persecution states a claim under the Civil Rights Act which the district …
Constitutional Law - Civil Rights - Restrictions On The Use Of Legal Materials By Prisoner, Russell A. Mcnair Jr.
Constitutional Law - Civil Rights - Restrictions On The Use Of Legal Materials By Prisoner, Russell A. Mcnair Jr.
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff prisoners brought separate actions against the warden of the Oregon State Penitentiary, alleging that the enforcement by prison officials of restrictions on the availability, use and purchase of law books resulted in a denial of full access to the courts. It was further alleged that each of them must do by himself all or part of the legal preparation necessary to contest his detention or to defend criminal charges pending against him in a state or federal court. In proceedings brought in the federal district court under the Civil Rights Act to enjoin further enforcement of these restrictions, held …
Civil Rights - Due Process - Action For Civil Conspiracy Based On Section 1983, James B. Blanchard
Civil Rights - Due Process - Action For Civil Conspiracy Based On Section 1983, James B. Blanchard
Michigan Law Review
In an action for damages based on sections 1983 and 1985 of the Civil Rights Act, plaintiff alleged that a county health officer and his deputy, pursuant to a conspiracy, forcibly took plaintiff to a mental hospital and confined him there for a period of two months in willful violation of a state court order requiring plaintiff to be brought before the court for a sanity hearing. Plaintiff also alleged a false return of citation to the court by the officers and an intentional suppression of facts by the officers and the examining physician regarding plaintiff's illegal detention. Plaintiff contended …
Constitutional Law - Executive Powers - Use Of Troops To Enforce Federal Laws, Robert H. Elliott Jr., S.Ed., Richard I. Singer S.Ed.
Constitutional Law - Executive Powers - Use Of Troops To Enforce Federal Laws, Robert H. Elliott Jr., S.Ed., Richard I. Singer S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
The recent use of federal troops in Little Rock, Arkansas to enforce the order of a federal district court requiring school integration has occasioned widespread controversy throughout the nation. It is the purpose of this comment to examine the constitutionality of such action and to consider its broader implications with respect to federal-state and congressional-executive relationships.
The Fourteenth Amendment Reconsidered, The Segregation Question, Alfred H. Kelly
The Fourteenth Amendment Reconsidered, The Segregation Question, Alfred H. Kelly
Michigan Law Review
Some sixty years ago in Plessy v. Ferguson the Supreme Court of the United States adopted the now celebrated "separate but equal" doctrine as a constitutional guidepost for state segregation statutes. Justice Brown's opinion declared that state statutes imposing racial segregation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment, provided only that the statute in question guaranteed equal facilities for the two races. Brown's argument rested on a historical theory of the intent, although he offered no evidence to support it. "The object of the amendment," he said, "was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, …
Constitutional Law - Civil Rights - Right Of Negro To Vote In State Primary Elections, John C. Hall S.Ed.
Constitutional Law - Civil Rights - Right Of Negro To Vote In State Primary Elections, John C. Hall S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
The Jaybird Democratic Association was formed in Fort Bend County, Texas, in 1889. Membership was open to all white voters in the county. The association was not governed by the state statute regulating political parties. Candidates nominated by the Jaybird Party entered the Democratic county primary as individuals, not as Jaybird candidates, but those candidates won both the Democratic primary and the general election with only one exception in the entire history of the Jaybird Party. Terry, a Negro, sought a declaratory judgment and injunction permitting Negroes to vote in the Jaybird primary. The federal district court ruled that the …
Constitutional Law - Civil Rights Act - Civil Liability Of State Judicial Officers, John C. Hall S.Ed.
Constitutional Law - Civil Rights Act - Civil Liability Of State Judicial Officers, John C. Hall S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
In 1940 defendant, a state judge, granted an ex parte order transferring plaintiff, then a voluntary inmate of a Massachusetts school for the feeble-minded, to the Department of Defective Delinquents. Released on habeas corpus in 1951, plaintiff brought suit under the Civil Rights Act, claiming a denial of notice and hearing in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. On appeal, held, a judge is not liable at common law or under the Civil Rights Act for acts done in the exercise of his judicial function. Francis v. Crafts, (1st Cir. 1953) 203 F. (2d) …
Constitutional Law - State Action - Trade Union's Authority Is Not Derived From The State, S. I. Shuman S.Ed.
Constitutional Law - State Action - Trade Union's Authority Is Not Derived From The State, S. I. Shuman S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiffs claimed that defendant union and defendant company conspired to discriminate against Negro cab driver employees by means of a working regulation intended to compel plaintiffs to pick up passengers only in wards inhabited primarily by Negroes. Two bases for original jurisdiction in federal court were advanced. First, it was contended that the cause of action involved more than $3,000 and arose under the laws of the United States because the bargaining power of the union was conferred upon it by the National Labor Relations Act. Second, it was maintained that the Civil Rights Act vested jurisdiction, on the ground …
Constitutional Law-Civil Rights-Denial Under Color Of State Law Of Right To Serve On Federal Jury, William J. Schrenk, Jr.
Constitutional Law-Civil Rights-Denial Under Color Of State Law Of Right To Serve On Federal Jury, William J. Schrenk, Jr.
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff, a probationary high school teacher, was dismissed by the Board of Education of New York City upon the complaint of Keyes, the principal of her school, that she was absent from her duties for almost a month while serving on a federal jury. The state commissioner of, education and the state court denied her appeal for reinstatement, on the ground that her status under New York law was merely probationary. Plaintiff sued defendant Keyes in the federal district court, to recover damages under the Civil Rights Act for the deprivation of a right secured to her by the law …
The Supreme Court And The Fourteenth Amendment, Edward S. Corwin
The Supreme Court And The Fourteenth Amendment, Edward S. Corwin
Michigan Law Review
It was formerly the wont of legal writers to regard court decisions in much the same way as the mathematician regards the x of an algebraic equation: given the facts of the case and the existing law, the outcome was inevitable. This unhistorical standpoint has now been largely abandoned. Not only is it admitted that judges in finding the law act not as automata, as mere adding machines, but creatively, but also that the considerations which determine their decisions, far from resting exclusively upon a narrowly syllogistic basis, often repose very immediately upon concrete and vital notions of what is …