Law Commons^™

Winning Wirzburger And Defeating The Blaine Amendments: Arguing Present Efficacy Instead Of Past Intent, Brendan Michael Groves

ExpressO

The case of Wirzburger v. Galvin, currently on a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court, may set the tone for all religious discrimination cases in the future. Massachusetts’ constitutional amendments that proscribe any citizen initiatives from either dealing with religion in general or attempting to repeal the states Blaine Amendment are at issue in the case. Petitioner’s counsel, the Becket Fund, rightly views this case as paramount in the long-march to victory over the anti-Catholic Blaine Amendments still codified in 37 state constitutions. However, they have lost almost every stage of the case.

This article argues that Wirzburger and …

Compelling Interest, Forbidden Aim: The Antinomy Of Grutter And Gratz, Patrick S. Shin

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

This article explores the tension between the Grutter Court's capacious account of the value of racial diversity, on the one hand, and the Gratz Court's insistence on the constraining mechanism of individualized consideration, on the other. The article examines whether the promotion of diversity as a compelling interest can be reconciled with the requirement of individualized consideration under any coherent principle of equal treatment. The article concludes that the only way this can be done is to interpret the cases as rejecting the proposition that 'racial' diversity represents a compelling governmental interest and as implicitly adopting, instead, the idea that …

Disparate Impact: Looking Past The Desert Palace Mirage, Charles A. Sullivan

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Documenting Discrimination In Voting: Judicial Findings Under Section 2 Of The Voting Rights Act Since 1982, Ellen D. Katz, Margaret Aisenbrey, Anna Baldwin, Emma Cheuse, Anna Weisbrodt

Other Publications

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of one of the most remarkable and consequential pieces of congressional legislation ever enacted. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ("the VRA") targeted massive disfranchisement of African-American citizens in numerous Southern states. It imposed measures drastic in scope and extraordinary in effect. The VRA eliminated the use of literacy tests and other "devices" that Southern jurisdictions had long employed to prevent black residents from registering and voting. The VRA imposed on these jurisdictions onerous obligations to prove to federal officials that proposed changes to their electoral system would not discriminate against minority voters. Resistance …

Brown And Lawrence (And Goodridge), Michael J. Klarman

Michigan Law Review

One year shy of the fiftieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the Justices issued another equality ruling that is likely to become a historical landmark. In Lawrence v. Texas, the Court invalidated a state law that criminalized same-sex sodomy. This article contrasts these historic rulings along several dimensions, with the aim of shedding light on how Supreme Court Justices decide cases and how Court decisions influence social reform movements. Part I juxtaposes Brown and Lawrence to illustrate how judicial decisionmaking often involves an uneasy reconciliation of traditional legal sources with broader social and political mores and …

Seeing Straight In The Workplace: An Examination Of Sexual Orientation Discrimination In Public Employment In The Aftermath Of Lawrence V. Texas, Devin A. Cohen

ExpressO

Title VII does not explicitly protect homosexual employees from sexual orientation discrimination and the courts have generally refused to bootstrap sexual orientation discrimination into Title VII as a form of gender discrimination. Therefore, homosexual employees have had to depend on their constitutional rights to protect them from their public employers’ sexual orientation discrimination. Traditionally, the courts have allowed public employers to discriminate against homosexual employees so long as the employers’ reasons were rationally related to legitimate business purposes.

I argue that the Supreme Court’s reasoning in Lawrence v. Texas forces future courts to question the reasonableness of employers’ rational bases. …

Restorative Justice, Slavery And The American Soul, A Policy-Oriented Approach To The Question Of Slavery Reparations By The United States, Michael F. Blevins

ExpressO

This LL.M. Intercultural Human Rights thesis (May, 2005), awarded the best student paper prize for 2005 by the Institute of Policy Sciences at Yale University (in October, 2005), after analysing past and curent issues regarding the culture wars controversy of "reparations", proposes a specific process for establishing Truth and Reconciliation regarding the legacy of slavery in the United States. The proposal recommends commissions in each Federal judicial district under the supervision of a U.S. Slavery Justice and Reconciliation Commission (USSJRC), calling for "America's 21st Century Contract with Africa and African-Americans".

Identity And Market For Loyalties Theories: The Case For Free Information Flow In Insurgent Iraq, Paul D. Callister

ExpressO

When monopoly control over the flow of information is lost, the unavoidable consequence is destabilization. Information flow through a society can be understood as a market—not a market exchanging cash for goods, but loyalty for identity. Hence the market is called the “Market for Loyalties"--so labeled by an economics of information theory first developed by Prof. Monroe Price, of Cardozo Law School, and Director of the Howard M. Squadron Program in Law, Media and Society, to explain government regulation of radio, TV, cable and satellite broadcasting.

In post-invasion Iraq, Saddam Hussein lost or monopoly control over the information market, where …

The Untold Story Of The Rest Of The Americans With Disabilities Act, Michael Waterstone

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA")' can be described as the All-Star team of civil rights legislation. The framers of the ADA sought to create sweeping change in nearly every facet of the lives of people with disabilities. To achieve these ambitious goals, the framers assembled the best and brightest parts of other civil rights legislation: pieces of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 04 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Fair Housing Act. The end result was a comprehensive statute with three major parts: …

Recognizing Victims In The Federal Rules Of Criminal Procedure: Proposed Amendments In Light Of The Crime Victims' Rights Act, Paul G. Cassell

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tribute To John Pickering, Elaine R. Jones

Michigan Law Review

This talented, persuasive, committed lawyer-leader, John Pickering, had several abiding personal and professional interests, two of which enhanced my life directly, and most of which enhanced my life indirectly. The first was the great personal interest he took in lawyers younger than himself, and the second was his passion about civil rights and combating the effects of racial discrimination.

Racial Integration And Community Revitalization: Applying The Fair Housing Act To The Low Income Housing Tax Credit, Myron Orfield

Vanderbilt Law Review

A growing national debate about the future of race, housing, and urban policy in the United States is reflected in the recent controversy over the administration of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit ("LIHTC") program, the largest federal program that supports building low-income housing. Administered by the Treasury Department, the program allows investors in residential rental property to claim tax credits for the development or rehabilitation of property to be rented to low-income tenants. The program is implemented mainly through state agencies which distribute the credit to developers on a competitive basis. Part of the LIHTC statute, which passed without debate …

Taking The Stand: The Lessons Of The Three Men Who Took The Japanese American Internment To Court, Lorraine K. Bannai

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Transgender Theory: Reprogramming Our Automated Settings, Marybeth Herald

Marybeth Herald

Over the course of the last few decades, both law and society have struggled to deprogram unhelpful and downright destructive gender stereotypes that are ubiquitous in our everyday existence. It has not been an easy task, nor entirely successful on either the legal or cultural front. Laws that prohibit gender discrimination, such as Title VII, have helped end overt discrimination. The next phase involves the challenging problem of unconscious bias, which often effectively keeps us treading the same mental paths while bypassing any roads not traveled.

It is not surprising then that when the validity of even the basic categories …

Making Free Speech Affordable: A Discussion Of Legislation To Provide Public Funding To Candidates For The U.S. Congress, Jared S. Cram

ExpressO

This article discusses a recent attempt by the U.S. Congress to provide for public financing of campaigns for the House of Representatives. Although a good start, this legislation would not go far enough to ensure that every voice has an opportunity to be heard in federal elections. My article discusses the strengths and weaknesses of this legislation and also provides suggested amendments to make this bill more effective should it become law.

Making Free Speech Affordable provides an in-depth comparison of this proposed legislation with current law at the state level providing for public financing of campaigns. This discussion includes …

Correspondence: To Dr. Edna Saffy From James L. “Skip” Rutherford Iii, Chairman Of The William J. Clinton Foundation, Edna Louise Saffy

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

A letter to Dr. Saffy offering a gold-plated keepsake for a donation of $35 or more as a remembrance of the first year anniversary of the William J. Clinton Presidential Center, October 24, 2005.

Examination Of The Constitutional Amendment On Marriage: Hearing Before The Subcomm. On The Constitution, Civil Rights, And Property Rights Of The S. Comm. On The Judiciary, 109th Cong., Oct. 20, 2005 (Statement Of Professor Louis Michael Seidman, Geo. U. L. Center), Louis Michael Seidman

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

The Transnational Judicial Discourse And Felon Disenfranchisement: Re-Examining The Textual Premise Of Richardson V. Ramirez, Jason G. Morgan-Foster

ExpressO

This article is simultaneously an international comparative law piece about prisoner disenfranchisement in various countries, a transnational work of legal theory providing a framework for the use of foreign law in domestic constitutional courts, and a domestic analysis of the constitutional underpinnings of felon disenfranchisement.

The article begins with a comprehensive comparative analysis of the recent prisoner disenfranchisement decisions in Canada, South Africa, and Europe. It notes that the over-arching theme of these decisions is to view the acceptability of prisoner disenfranchisement along a continuum, where it becomes more acceptable the more serious the offense committed.

The article then examines …

Incitement In The Mosques: Testing The Limits Of Free Speech And Religious Liberty, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

In times of terror and tension, civil liberties are at their greatest peril. Nowadays, no individual rights are more in jeopardy than the freedoms of speech and religion. This is true particularly for followers of Islam, whose leaders have become increasingly radical in both their preaching and practice. "Kill the Jews!" and "Kill the Americans!" are chants heard regularly in many Middle Eastern mosques, as frightful echoes of the fatwa are issued by today's quintessential terrorist, Osama bin Laden. The incitement continues unabated to this day. In April of 2004, for example, a Muslim preacher at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in …

A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing: Gaffney And The Improper Role Of Politics In The Districting Process, Robert A. Koch

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Supreme Court unanimously agrees that excessive partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional. A plurality of the Court, however, would hold partisan gerrymandering claims to be nonjusticiable due to the lack of a judicially manageable standard. This Note synthesizes the opinions of a majority of the Court in Vieth v. Jubelirer on the precise harms of partisan gerrymandering and argues that excessive partisan gerrymandering unconstitutionally burdens the representational rights of individual voters. This Note proposes a judicially manageable standard to address that representational harm based on the Court's standard in Shaw v. Reno.

Applying 42 U.S.C. § 1981 To Claims Of Consumer Discrimination, Abby Morrow Richardson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note explores several interesting legal questions regarding the proper interpretation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981, which prohibits racial discrimination in contracting, when discrimination arises in the context of a consumer retail contract. The Note further explores how the Fifth Circuit's and other federal courts' narrow interpretation of § 1981's application in a retail setting (which allows plaintiffs to invoke the statute only when they have been prevented from completing their purchases) is contrary to the statute's express language, congressional intent, and to evolving concepts of contract theory, all of which reflect a commitment to the strict enforcement of civil …

The View Outside: What Kind Of Expression For Adolescents Outside The United States?, Edward J. Eberle

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Defining Nondiscrimination Under The Law Of The World Trade Organization, Julia Ya Qin

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Stepping Through Grutter'S Open Doors: What The University Of Michigan Affirmative Action Cases Mean For Race-Conscious Government Decisionmaking, Helen L. Norton

Faculty Scholarship

In Grutter, a majority of the Court for the first time identified an instrumental justification for race-based government decisionmaking as compelling -- specifically, a public law school’s interest in attaining a diverse student body. Grutter not only recognized the value of diversity in higher education, but left open the possibility that the Court might find similar justifications compelling as well. The switch to instrumental justifications for affirmative action appears a strategic response to the Court’s narrowing of the availability of remedial rationales. A number of thoughtful commentators, however, have reacted to this trend with concern and even dismay, questioning whether …

Reconsidering Severe Or Pervasive: Aligning The Standard In Sexual Harassment And Racial Harassment Causes Of Action, Heather L. Kleinschmidt

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Forty Years After Title Vii: Creating An Atmosphere Conducive To Diversity In The Corporate Boardroom, Donald J. Polden

Faculty Publications

This article analyzes affirmative action in employment: one of the most controversial government policies of the last decade, and one that continues to divide the passions and sensibilities of Americans. This article also addresses the effects of Title VII on employment opportunities for women. In particular, the article considers how successful the fundamental policies of Title VII have been in increasing diversity on corporate boards of directors, and investigates whether increased diversity will improve the performance of publicly traded companies.

Sexual Harassment: Limiting The Affirmative Defense In The Digital Workplace, Donald P. Harris, Daniel B. Garrie, Matthew J. Armstrong

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Digital communications sexual harassment is on the rise. Such harassment occurs through sexually offensive and unwarranted e-mails, placing harassing messages on electronic bulletin boards, and other forms of harassment that occur through the Internet. To date, courts have remained silent on the issue of sexual harassment by digital communications. Should this type of harassment be treated any differently than harassment that occurs in the physical space? The somewhat surprising answer is yes.

This Article advocates applying a new judicial framework for addressing digital communications sexual harassment. This new framework accounts for the real-world technology in the digital workplace and the …

Louisiana Appellate Practice & Procedure: An Overview For Legal Practicioners, Jonathan C. Augustine

Jonathan C. Augustine

Appellate practice and procedure is a specialized field. In several ways, the written and oral advocacy skills essential for success in appellate practice are very different from those used by trial court practitioners. This Article’s was written to highlight some of those differences and to recommend strategies for success in appellate practice. This Article, written by a seasoned appellate advocate and former Louisiana Supreme Court law clerk, provides a practical perspective on keys to successful appellate advocacy, using the governing rules and procedures of Louisiana’s judicial system as case study. In addition to detailing the various standards of review under …

Modern Day Slavery In Our Own Backyard, Ellen L. Buckwalter, Meredith S. Salvaggio, Susan L. Pollet, Maria Perinetti

ExpressO

Trafficking in persons is one of the fastest growing areas of international criminal activity. Each year an estimated 600,000 – 800,000 human beings are bought, sold or forced across the world’s borders. Approximately 2.5 million men, women and children are victims of trafficking at any point in time throughout the world. Approximately 14,500 – 17,500 individuals are trafficked annually into the United States, making the United States the third largest destination country in the world for victims of human trafficking.

In order to fight trafficking in the United States effectively, legislation at the state level, in addition to the federal …

Section 4: Civil Rights, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

Supreme Court Preview

No abstract provided.