Law Commons^™

The Current State Of Abortion Law In Virginia Leaves Victims Of Domestic And Sexual Violence Vulnerable To Abuse: Why Virginia Should Codify The Right To Abortion In The State Constitution†, Courtenay Schwartz

University of Richmond Law Review

All people must have access to safe and legal reproductive health care—especially victims of sexual and domestic violence who can and do become pregnant because of the violence they experience. This year, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In doing so, the Supreme Court held that the Constitution does not protect the right to an abortion. Though abortion access is currently protected in Virginia, this could change with each new General Assembly session. To guard against the danger that this poses to …

Prison Housing Policies For Transgender, Non-Binary, Gender-Non-Conforming, And Intersex People: Restorative Ways To Address The Gender Binary In The United States Prison System, John G. Sims

University of Richmond Law Review

“[I]t was the end of the last quarter of 2019 where I was able to drop the lawsuit against the correctional officer who had sexually harmed me when I knew . . . that the carceral state is not the way for me to find healing . . . . I was not going to seek my transformation and restoration through this system.”

Each year, rhetoric and legislation attacking transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming and intersex individuals seemingly grows louder. Many political institutions in the United States perpetuate and enable the oppression of these individuals, one of which is the United …

More Money, Fewer Problems: A Post-Alston V. Ncaa Approach To Reducing Gender Inequities In Sports, Kelley L. Flint

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

In 2021 over the span of a few months, amateurism, the foundation of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association was challenged and redefined. Following

the passage of “name, image, and likeness” laws at the state level

and an unfavorable Supreme Court ruling, the NCAA’s structure has been

forced to evolve. These changes have opened up possibilities for college athletes

to monetize their playing in a model that is not based on viewership or

revenue sharing. Serious equity gaps between men’s and women’s sports

continue to exist, predicated on which sports generate the most money. While

not a holistic solution, name, image …

This Is Not New: Addressing America's Maternal Mortality Crisis, Emily Siron

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

This article utilizes an intersectional approach to examine the causes and

realities of the dismal state of pregnancy-related healthcare in the United

States, highlighting the disparate impact on Black pregnant people. The

enslavementand brutalization of Black women in the U.S. demonstrates how

American society systematically devalues Black health, especially reproductive

health. The impacts of this horrific history persist today, resulting in the

American healthcare system utterly failing Black mothers and pregnant people

of all gender identities. This article surveys this history and presents policy

solutions to improve maternal health outcomes for all, but especially

Black individuals, including proposed pieces …

Home Of The Dispossessed, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

The objects that people interact with on a daily basis speak to and of these people who acquire, display, and handle them—the relationship is one of exchange. People living among household objects come to care for their things, identify with them, and think of them as a constituent part of themselves. A meaningful problem arises, however, when people who have deep connections to the objects that populate their lived spaces are not those who possess the legal rights of ownership. These individuals and groups—usually excluded from the realm of property ownership along lines of gender, race, and ethnicity—live on an …

Utilizing Tax Incentives To Increase Gender Parity On Corporate Boards, Mary Tursi

Law Student Publications

"Women are drastically underrepresented in positions of power and prominence in the United States. As of 2021, women hold only thirty percent of board seats on the S&P 500. The number is much smaller for private corporations. One study found that in 2020, women occupied only eleven percent of board seats for private corporations. Given these statistics, it is unsurprising that a 2021 study predicts that corporate boards will not reach gender parity until 2032." [..]

Dead Hand Vogue, Anthony Michael Kreis

University of Richmond Law Review

For decades, courts read employment antidiscrimination laws’ prohibition of sex discrimination to exclude gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender workers’ sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination claims—purportedly because the claims were not linked to employees’ status as a man or a woman. And while significant doctrinal developments have afforded some gender-nonconforming persons critical workplace safeguards under sex antidiscrimination laws, many older decisions that deemed sexual orientation and transgender discrimination claims to be outside the ambit of sex discrimination still control. These decades-old precedents all suffer from the same analytical error: a failure to adhere to the principle that antidiscrimination law does …

Lgbt Rights In The Fields Of Criminal Law And Law Enforcement, Carrie L. Buist

University of Richmond Law Review

In couching this discussion within the theoretical and practical application of queer criminology, this Essay will highlight the marginalization of LGBTQ+ folks and explore the impact that intersectionality has on the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community with special attention on law enforcement. For example, queer criminology studies the persistent distrust that the LGBTQ+ community has of police as well as the experiences of LGBTQ+ identified police officers and other agents within the criminal legal system. Further, as the current Administration continues to roll back the rights and liberties of the LGBTQ+ community, there must be a focus on how past …

Building Queer Families And The Ethics Of Gestational Surrogacy, Kimberly Mutcherson

University of Richmond Law Review

Throughout American history, government has used the law to deny some citizens the right to create or sustain families with children to show contempt for those citizens. As LGBT people fought for dignity, equality, and justice from Stonewall to the present, one of the greatest success stories of that fight is the change in how the law defines and protects families. Into the 1990s, people in samesex relationships had cause to fear that their sexual orientation could be used to deprive them of custody of their children. Now, many states, through statute or case law, routinely recognize two parents of …

Transitional Equality, Suzanne A. Kim

University of Richmond Law Review

Legal discussions of inequality often focus on the virtues of one legal status or regulatory structure over another, but a guarantee of the right to a particular legal status does not ensure a lived experience of equality in that status. In moments of legal change, when a person or class of persons obtain a new status or gain rights that had previously been denied to them, the path from one legal status to another becomes critically important and may itself be impacted by race, gender, age, and other factors. The process of transitioning to a new status can be complex …

The Unconstitutional Tampon Tax, Bridget J. Crawford, Emily Gold Waldman

University of Richmond Law Review

Thirty-five states impose a sales tax on menstrual hygiene products, while products like spermicidal condoms and erectile dysfunction medications are tax-free. This sales tax—commonly called the “tampon tax”—represents an expense that girls and women must bear on top of the cost of biologically necessary items that they need in order to attend school, work, and otherwise participate in public life. This article explores the constitutionality of the tampon tax and argues that it is an impermissible form of gender discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause. First, menstrual hygiene products are a unique proxy for female sex, and therefore any disadvantageous …

The Invisible Minority: Discrimination Against Bisexuals In The Workplace, Elizabeth Childress Burneson

University of Richmond Law Review

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (“LGBTQ+”) community has won major legal victories in the last twenty years, but at least one group remains left behind in those victories. The bisexual population is often ignored, erased, and discriminated against by both homosexual and heterosexual individuals and communities. This is true despite the fact that bisexuals outnumber both lesbian women and gay men. This erasure and discrimination affects bisexuals in different areas of life and the law, including the employment context. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), which protects against employment discrimination on the basis …

The #Metoo Movement: An Invitation For Feminist Critique Of Rape Crisis Framing, Jamie R. Abrams

University of Richmond Law Review

This article invites feminists to leverage the #MeToo Movement as a critical analytical tool to explore the longevity of the enduring rape crisis framing of victim services. Long before the #MeToo Movement, victim services in communities nationwide were framed around a crisis model. For nearly half a century, victims have visited rape crisis centers, called rape crisis hotlines, and mobilized rape crisis response teams to provide services and support. This enduring political and social framing around rape as a crisis is opaque, has prompted a political backlash, and risks distorting hard-fought feminist legal, social, and political battles. It has yielded …

Marriage Equality Comes To The Fourth Circuit, Carl Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Marriage equality has come to America. Throughout 2014, several federal appellate courts and numerous district court judges across the United States invalidated state constitutional or statutory proscriptions on same-sex marriage. Therefore, it was not surprising that Eastern District of Virginia Judge Arenda Wright Allen held that Virginia’s bans were unconstitutional in February. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed her opinion that July. North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia District Judges rejected these jurisdictions’ prohibitions during autumn, and the Supreme Court approved marriage equality the next year. Because marriage equality in the Fourth Circuit presents …

Appointing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender And Queer Judges In The Trump Administration, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

President Donald Trump incessantly brags that American citizens selected him to “Make the Judiciary Great Again” and constantly reminds the public that the huge number of federal jurists whom Trump has appointed will be deciding cases decades after his tenure is over. Trump has rapidly submitted many circuit and district court candidates, but not one of his 123 nominees has been openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ). The White House has also instituted endeavors, specifically regarding transgender people, which seem discriminatory. Indeed, a third of the judicial nominees whom the President has appointed have compiled anti-LGBTQ records. Because …

Remarks On Campus Sexual Assault, Alison M. Tinsey

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Uniform Rules: Addressing The Disparate Rules That Deny Student-Athletes The Opportunity To Participate In Sports According To Gender Identity, Chelsea Shrader

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sexualization, Sex Discrimination, And Public School Dress Codes, Meredith Johnson Harbach

University of Richmond Law Review

This essay joins the conversation about sexualization, sex discrimination, and public school dress codes to situate current debates within in the broader cultural and legal landscapes in which they exist. My aim is not to answer definitively the questions I pose above. Rather, I ground the controversy in these broader contexts in order to better understand the stakes and to glean insights into how schools, students, and communities might better navigate dress code debates.

The Criminalization Of Title Ix, Erin R. Collins

Law Faculty Publications

This essay proceeds in three parts. Part I provides a brief overview of the history of feminist-influenced criminal rape law reform and the rise of carceral feminism. Part II demonstrates how key tenets of the criminal law approach have been imported into emerging Title IX policies. Part III engages in a brief distributional analysis to identify who benefits and who loses from this approach. Then, drawing on insights from critical feminist critiques of rape law reform, begins to identify ways to use the opportunity Title IX presents to craft a very different kind of response to sexual assault--one that focuses …

The Return Of Coverture, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

Once, the notion that husbands and wives were equal partners in marriage seemed outlandish and unnatural. Today, the marriage narrative has been reversed and the prevailing attitude is that marriage has become an increasingly equitable institution. This is the story that Justice Kennedy told in Obergefell v. Hodges, in which he described marriage as an evolving institution that has adapted in response to social change such that discriminatory marriage rules no longer apply. Coverture exemplifies this change: marriage used to be deeply shaped by coverture rules and now it is not. While celebrating the demise of coverture, however, the …

A Demographic History Of Federal Judicial Appointments By Gender And Race: 1789-2016, Jonathan K. Stubbs

Law Faculty Publications

This article briefly surveys the constitutional and statutory foundation for the creation of the federal judiciary. It also furnishes data, by sex and race, of the appointment of federal judges to courts of general jurisdiction during each presidential administration from September 24, 1789, through April 11, 2016. Thus, Part I describes the pace of diversification of the federal judiciary. While data regarding other attributes of judges (such as their socioeconomic status) exist, extensive analysis of such characteristics falls outside the parameters of this preliminary analysis. Nonetheless, the Article notes in passing that, since 1989, during each presidential administration, the majority …

Does The Right To Elective Abortion Include The Right To Ensure The Death Of, Stephen G. Gilles

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Gender Equity In The 21st Century: Keynote Address, Chai Feldblum

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

You have heard a lot this morning about the need in 1964 for Congress to enact prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of race, national origin and religion. I am going to use my time, therefore, to talk about gender equity: the addition of the sex discrimination prohibition in Title VII, the advances that have occurred since passage of that law, and the miles that we still have to go to achieve full gender equity.

Gender Equity In The 21st Century: Keynote Address, Chai Feldblum

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

You have heard a lot this morning about the need in 1964 for Congress to enact prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of race, national origin and religion. I am going to use my time, therefore, to talk about gender equity: the addition of the sex discrimination prohibition in Title VII, the advances that have occurred since passage of that law, and the miles that we still have to go to achieve full gender equity.

Testing Sex, Rachel Rebouché

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Evidentiary Rules Of Engagement In The War Against Domestic Violence, Erin R. Collins

Law Faculty Publications

Our criminal justice system promises defendants a fair and just adjudication of guilt, regardless of the character of the alleged offense. Yet, from mandatory arrest to "no-drop" prosecution policies, the system's front-end response to domestic violence reflects the belief that it differs from other crimes in ways that permit or require the adaptation of criminal justice response mechanisms. Although scholars debate whether these differential responses are effective or normatively sound, the scholarship leaves untouched the presumption that, once the adjudicatory phase is underway, the system treats domestic violence offenses like any other crime.

This Article reveals that this presumption is …

Abortion And The Constitutional Right (Not) To Procreate, Mary Ziegler

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Virginia's Gap Between Punishment And Culpability: Re-Examining Self-Defense Law And Battered Woman's Syndrome, Kendall Hamilton

Law Student Publications

This comment argues that in order for Virginia's criminal justice system to properly punish women who kill their abusers, effectively restoring their right to self-defend when necessary, Virginia must make two fundamental changes to its self-defense laws. First, Virginia's criminal justice system must advocate for the admission of expert testimony relating to battered woman's syndrome ("BWS"). This reform must be uniformly applied throughout our court system. Second, as Virginia's self-defense laws require both a reasonable fear and an overt act, the subjective standard for reasonable fear must also extend to the overt act requirement. This comment explains the significance of …

The Beginning Of The End Of Coverture: A Reappraisal Of The Married Woman's Separate Estate, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

Before statutory enactments in the nineteenth century granted married women a limited set of property rights, the separate estate trust was, by and large, the sole form of married women's property. Although the separate estate allowed married women to circumvent the law of coverture, historians have generally viewed the separate estate as an ineffective vehicle for extending property rights to married women. In this Article, I reappraise the separate estate's utility and argue that Chancery's separate estate jurisprudence during the eighteenth century was a critical first step in the establishment of married women as property-holders. Separate estates guaranteed critical financial …

Virginia's "War On Women": How Forcing Women To Have An Ultrasound Before Abortion Is Unconstitutional, Alison B. Linas

Law Student Publications

This comment will discuss how the ultrasound bill, like similar ones in other states, is unconstitutional for two reasons....Part II of this comment will focus on the Supreme Court's role in shaping abortion policy....Part III will describe Virginia’s new ultrasound requirement and how the above-mentioned Supreme Court decisions affect the new bill’s legality. Part III(A) will lay out the relevant portions of the bill and discuss its legislative history. Part III(B) will analyze the bill through Casey’s undue burden lens....Part III(C) will argue that requiring a woman to have a mandatory medical procedure effectively prevents her from refusing medical care, …