Law Commons^™

Pay Equity For Coaches And Athletic Administrators: An Element Of Title Ix?, Barbara Osborne, Marilyn V. Yarbrough

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this Article, Professors Osborne and Yarbrough address the issue of gender discrimination in the compensation of coaches and athletic administrators. They discuss the application of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII to pay inequity claims and conclude that both have proven to be inadequate as a means of addressing the problem. Professors Osborne and Yarbrough then present Title IX as a way of countering the problem of gender discrimination in the compensation of coaches. They also discuss the prospects for gender equality in compensation by considering several cases addressing the issue. Finally, they offer recommendations both …

An "Olympics" Approach: A More Equitable Approach To Athletics Than Title Ix Offers, Marcia Federbush

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

A speech from Marcia Federbush, the writer of the first comprehensive Title IX complaint against a major university - the University of Michigan.

Equally Bad Is Not Good: Allowing Title Ix "Compliance" By The Elimination Of Men's Collegiate Sports, Donald E. Shelton

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Athletic participation is an important part of the educational process, instilling important lessons about discipline and teamwork. Title IX was intended to address the historic lack of opportunities for women and girls to participate in school athletics. Unfortunately, the current administrative interpretation of Title IX permits the elimination of male athletic opportunities as a means of complying with the statute's equality standard. This result undermines the purpose of Title IX and the role of athletics in the educational process for all students.

Gender And Intercollegiate Athletics: Data And Myths, Julia Lamber

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article explores what nondiscrimination means in the context of intercollegiate athletics. After reviewing the Department of Education's controversial Title IX Policy Interpretation, it critically examines the analytical framework used in Title IX athletic cases and concludes that commonly made analogies to litigation under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act are inapt. A major part of the Article is an empirical study, looking first at gender equity plans written by institutions of higher education for the National Collegiate Athletic Association and then at data collected from more than 325 institutions pursuant to the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act. …

The Struggle For Sex Equality In Sport And The Theory Behind Title Ix, Deborah Brake

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Title IX's three-part test for measuring discrimination in the provision of athletic opportunities to male and female students has generated heated controversy in recent years. In this Article, Professor Brake discusses the theoretical underpinnings behind the three-part test and offers a comprehensive justification of this theory as applied to the context of sport. She begins with an analysis of the test's relationship to other areas of sex discrimination law, concluding that, unlike most contexts, Title IX rejects formal equality as its guiding theory, adopting instead an approach that focuses on the institutional structures that subordinate girls and women in sport. …

Who Is An Indian? Searching For An Answer To The Question At The Core Of Federal Indian Law, Margo S. Brownell

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The definition of Indian is the measure of eligibility for a variety of benefits and programs provided to Indians under federal law. There is confusion, however, at the core of efforts to define "Indian." This confusion raises many concerns about the role that government plays in defining "Indian." This Note surveys the most common definitions of "Indian" found in federal statutes, BIA regulations, and state laws. The author argues that the racial basis of many of these laws and regulations are unconstitutional and tread on the sovereignty of Indian tribes. She evaluates efforts of the federal government to avoid these …

The Art Of Writing Good Regulations, Harold W. Furchtgott-Roth

Federal Communications Law Journal

In this introduction to the three pieces that follow, Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth proposes his view that the regulation-drafting process relies more on art than science. The Commissioner sets out a four-category sliding scale to evaluate regulations, and lists the most frequently noted problems with FCC-promulgated rules.

Communications Media And The First Amendment: A Viewpoint-Neutral Fcc Is Not Too Much To Ask For, Helgi Walker

Federal Communications Law Journal

In the "new economy" driven by the telecommunications industry, the FCC is a busy agency. Given the myriad legal issues faced daily by agency decisionmakers and the lack of perfect clarity in major communications legislation, a few legal missteps here and there by the FCC might be expected. In one area, however, the public can and should demand a first-rate agency record: regulation of communications media without regard to the viewpoint expressed via that media, as the First Amendment requires. This Article offers two case studies in which the FCC arguably took viewpoint-discriminatory actions with regard to regulated broadcasters, and …

The Fcc’S Implementation Of The 1996 Act: Agency Litigation Strategies And Delay, Rebecca Beynon

Federal Communications Law Journal

Since it began promulgating rules to implement the local competition provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC has been under attack in the courts. The road has been a rough one, and the Commission has lost on a good many issues. The Commission has regularly accused its opponents in these legal battles-chiefly the incumbent local exchange carriers-of using litigation to impede the implementation of the 1996 Act’s local competition provisions. As discussed in this Article, if litigation has in fact slowed the introduction of competition in the local exchange markets, the Commission itself must share some of the …

Too Much Power, Too Little Restraint: How The Fcc Expands Its Reach Through Unenforceable And Unwieldy “Voluntary” Agreements, Bryan N. Tramont

Federal Communications Law Journal

The character of a regulatory agency is most severely tested at the zenith of its power. When the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC" or "Commission") breaks free of the limitations imposed by the law, the Commission’s leadership sets its own course. It is at these times, when legal oversight is at a minimum, that it becomes most important for the agency to "pay more attention to justice." Unfortunately, as outlined in this Article, the FCC has often failed this test of institutional character. In at least three contexts, the Commission has proven to be something less than a benevolent master. In …

The Mixed Messages Of Title Ix, Sherman J. Clark

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Introduction to a University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Symposium entitled Competing in the 21st Century: Title IX, Gender Equity, and Athletics.

The Fcc And Section 312(A)(7) Of The Communications Act Of 1934: The Development Of The “Unreasonable Access” Clause, Philip J. Gutwein Ii

Federal Communications Law Journal

Section 312(a)(7) of the Communications Act of 1934 requires that broadcast stations provide legally qualified candidates for federal elective office with reasonable access to advertising time on behalf of their candidacies. The FCC has long struggled with defining "reasonable access." On September 7, 1999, the FCC issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order in which it ruled that broadcast stations may not refuse a request for political advertising time solely because the station does not sell or program such lengths of time. This ruling came in response to a petition for reconsideration of an October 3, 1994 Declaratory Ruling, filed by …

Increasing Telephone Penetration Rates And Promoting Economic Development On Tribal Lands: A Proposal To Solve The Tribal And State Jurisdictional Problems, Jennifer L. King

Federal Communications Law Journal

Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress instructed the FCC to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable telecommunications services. Consistent with that mandate, the FCC implemented a series of public hearings to discuss with tribes the issues they face concerning low telephone penetration rates. The FCC recommended investigation of universal service in unserved and underserved areas because telephone penetration rates among low-income consumers on tribal lands lagged behind rates in the rest of the country. From these hearings, the FCC proposed a jurisdictional framework to determine which eligible carriers would be under tribal, state, or federal jurisdiction. This …

The Second Amendment: Structure, History, And Constitutional Change, David Yassky

Michigan Law Review

A fierce debate about the Second Amendment has been percolating in academia for two decades, and has now bubbled through to the courts. The question at the heart of this debate is whether the Amendment restricts the government's ability to regulate the private possession of firearms. Since at least 1939 - when the Supreme Court decided United States v. Miller, its only decision squarely addressing the scope of the right to "keep and bear Arms" - the answer to that question has been an unqualified "no." Courts have brushed aside Second Amendment challenges to gun control legislation, reading the Amendment …

Proactive Legislation And The First Amendment, Stuart Minor Benjamin

Michigan Law Review

It is a commonplace that the world is changing rapidly, with whole sectors of the economy being transformed. New forms of communication, like the World Wide Web, e-mail, and satellite television, have risen from obscurity to ubiquity in less than a decade. The speed of these changes has led some to express concern about the ability of governments to respond. The fear is that governments cannot keep up with developments as they occur and thus get hopelessly behind. The solution, according to some, is for the government to act proactively - before a harm has arisen, so that the government …

The Exclusion Of Hiv-Positive Immigrants Under The Nicaraguan Adjustment And Central American Relief Act And The Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act, Statutory Interpretation, Communicable Disease, Public Health, Legislative Intent, Shayna S. Cook

Michigan Law Review

The United States has turned away immigrants infected with the human immunodeficiency virus ("HIV") under the public health exclusion of the Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA") since the mid-1980's. Since Congress codified the HIV exclusion in 1993, any alien applying for an immigrant or nonimmigrant visa, adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident, or refugee status must first have a blood test for HIV. The HIV exclusion is not absolute, however. Each HIV-positive alien can apply for one of two waivers of the HIV exclusion that are available in the INA. When an alien applies for immigrant or permanent resident …

Aggravated Assaults With Chairs Versus Guns: Impermissible Applied Double Counting Under The Sentencing Guidelines, Carolyn Barth

Michigan Law Review

In a bar called Andrea's Attic, David and Victor were having a drink when they got into an argument. The argument escalated until Victor said something that infuriated David. David looked at Victor, and, wanting to hurt Victor, grabbed the nearest object, a chair, and then threw it at Victor. The chair hit Victor and he fell to the ground, but was not hurt. In a bar called Barb's Barn down the street, Valerie was having a drink. Dorothy walked into the bar, grabbed Valerie by the arm and dragged her outside onto the street. As Valerie was dragged, she …

The Use Of Legislative History In A System Of Separated Powers, Jonathan R. Siegel

Vanderbilt Law Review

Legislative history is the ultimate bugaboo of the textualists-those judges and scholars who assert that in statutory interpretation, "[w]e do not inquire what the legislature meant; we ask only what the statute means." The textualists have unleashed argument after argument against legislative history. Textualists assert that judicial use of legislative history seeks a collective legislative intent that does not exist and that would not be law if it did exist. They claim that congressional committees deliberately manipulate legislative history in order to influence statutory interpretation. They argue that legislative history is more ambiguous than the statutes it supposedly clarifies, that …

Putting Legislative History To A Vote: A Response To Professor Siegel, John F. Manning

Vanderbilt Law Review

In a previous article, I argued that, properly understood, textualism implements a special form of the nondelegation doctrine, one that prohibits legislative self-delegation.' If the judiciary accepts certain types of legislative history (committee reports and sponsors' statements) as "authoritative" evidence of legislative in- tent in cases of ambiguity, then the particular legislators who write that history (the committees and sponsors) effectively settle statutory meaning for Congress as a whole. Against the background of such a judicially fashioned interpretive practice, when Congress passes a vague or ambiguous statute, it thereby implicitly delegates its law-elaboration authority to legislative agents, who effectively fashion …

Timing And Delegation: A Reply, Jonathan R. Siegel

Vanderbilt Law Review

For two authors who come to such different conclusions, Professor Manning and I agree on a good deal. We agree that courts, in considering whether to consult legislative history in the course of statutory construction, must take heed of the special constitutional rule against congressional self-aggrandizement.' Thus, we agree that the Constitution forbids courts to give authoritative weight to post-enactment legislative history, because the effect of such a judicial practice is to permit Congress to delegate a very important power, the power to elaborate the meaning of statutes, to its committees or Members. We also agree, however, that Congress may, …

Timing And Delegation: A Reply, Jonathan R. Siegel

Vanderbilt Law Review

For two authors who come to such different conclusions, Professor Manning and I agree on a good deal. We agree that courts, in considering whether to consult legislative history in the course of statutory construction, must take heed of the special constitutional rule against congressional self-aggrandizement.' Thus, we agree that the Constitution forbids courts to give authoritative weight to post-enactment legislative history, because the effect of such a judicial practice is to permit Congress to delegate a very important power, the power to elaborate the meaning of statutes, to its committees or Members. We also agree, however, that Congress may, …

The Use Of Legislative History In A System Of Separated Powers, Putting Legislative History To A Vote: A Response To Professor Siegel, Timing And Delegation: A Reply, Jonathan R. Siegel

Vanderbilt Law Review

The debate over the legitimacy of judicial use of legislative history has significant legal and political ramifications that have long sparked controversy. As additional commentators join this long-running engagement, the focus of the debate necessarily changes.

In a previous article, John Manning argued that the use of legislative history violates the constitutional rule barring congressional self-delegation. Jonathan Siegel argues here that judicial reliance on legislative history does not implicate that rule, because a statute's legislative history already exists at the time of the statute's passage, and statutory incorporation of preexisting materials operates as an adoption of those materials, not as …

Unmet Legal Needs Of Dc Immigrants: How Substantive And Procedural Changes In The Laws Restrict Liberty And Deny Access To Justice, Regina Morris

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Statutory Interpretation And Mr. Justice Rutledge, Nathaniel L. Nathanson

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Taking A Bite Out Of Circumvention: Analyzing 17 U.S.C. 1201 As A Criminal Law, Jason M. Schulz

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

...information content providers who depend heavily on copyright law are growing increasingly wary of advances in digital technology that allow manipulation of their content and potentially diminish the effectiveness of their copyright protection. Technology firms, on the other hand, are looking more and more at developing products which provide low-cost, high quality access to content without restriction. Thus, as technologists work feverishly to find new ways to free up information, content providers are fighting just as hard to constrain access in order to prevent market-killing duplication and distribution of their works. These two codependent yet clashing interest groups recently met …

Plotting The Return Of An Ancient Tort To Cyberspace: Towards A New Federal Standard Of Responsibility For Defamation For Internet Service Providers, Christopher Butler

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Though the rapid development of the Internet has created a fertile ground for legal innovation, more often than not legislators and courts have sought to address this relatively new medium by attempting to squeeze it into precedents and paradigms better suited to older forms of communication, technology, and media. Part I of this article looks back at the courts' initial efforts at addressing defamation via the Internet. From the start the courts attempted to fit the role of the ISP into the common law's categorizing of print media as either "publishers" or "distributors" of information. One court's misstep in overextending …

Growing Media Consolidation Must Be Examined To Preserve Our Democracy, Paul Wellstone

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

When Channel Surfers Flip To The Web: Copyright Liability For Internet Broadcasting, Baoding Hsieh Fan

Federal Communications Law Journal

Digital streaming capabilities have enabled real-time Internet transmission of video signals. The advent of "Webcasting" will potentially change the way in which programming reaches audiences-increasing diversity in content as well as customer choice. Currently, cable and satellite systems secure retransmission rights to broadcast programming through statutory copyrights, and debate has ensued over whether online retransmitters should benefit from the same. This Article describes the evolution of streaming video over the Internet and examines the economic exploitation of such technology. After offering an overview of the compulsory copyright system, the Article analyzes the applicability of statutory licenses to Internet retransmissions of …

Limiting Tort Liability For Online Third-Party Content Under Section 230 Of The Communications Act, Jonathan A. Friedman, Francis M. Buono

Federal Communications Law Journal

Section 230 of the Communications Act provides online service providers (OSPs) with immunity from liability for harms arising from third-party content that is made available through an OSP's services. Some courts have recently held that section 230 immunity covers not only defamation but any tort claim that would make an OSP liable for information originating from the OSP's users or commercial partners. This Article argues that section 230 has been properly interpreted by the courts and that, contrary to the claims of critics, those decisions have not created a disincentive for OSPs aggressively to monitor their sites for defamatory or …

Application Of The Telephone Consumer Protection Act To Intrastate Telemarketing Calls And Faxes, Hilary B. Miller, Robert R. Biggerstaff

Federal Communications Law Journal

Miller and Biggerstaff address the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA). Specifically, they point out that because the TCPA does not preempt state law and Congress expressly intended it to coexist with state laws regulating intrastate telemarketing and fax advertising, confusion has evolved regarding the application of the TCPA to intrastate telemarketing calls and fax advertisements. This Article breaks the analysis into two questions: (1) did Congress intend intrastate calls to be covered by the statute; and (2) if Congress intended the statute to cover intrastate calls, is it constitutionally permissible for Congress to regulate calls and faxes that …