Law Commons^™

Targeted Killings And The Interest Convergence Dilemma, Sudha Setty

Faculty Scholarship

In the 1980s, Professor Derrick Bell posited a theory of interest convergence as part of his critical race theory work, arguing that the major strides forward in civil rights law and policy that benefited African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s only occurred because of the perceived benefits of those changes to white elites during that time. In Bell’s view, it was only at the point at which the interests of powerful whites converged with those of marginalized racial minorities that significant changes in civil rights law could occur.

Twelve years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, numerous …

What We Disagree About When We Disagree About School Choice, Aaron J. Saiger

Faculty Scholarship

The debate over school vouchers, charter schools, and other varieties of school choice has become a bit stale. It would improve were advocates on all sides to acknowledge several crucial realities that they too often obfuscate. First, the debate is fundamentally normative, not empirical. The desirability of choice depends primarily upon how we weigh competing claims of equality and liberty in education. Second, all participants in the debate should acknowledge both that constrained choice is still genuine choice, and that how and to what extent parental decisions are constrained are fundamental issues in choice policy. Finally, with respect to the …