Law Commons^™

Reading, Writing, And Sexual Harassment: Finding A Constitutional Remedy When Schools Fail To Address Peer Abuse, Karen Mellencamp Davis

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Caste And The Civil Rights Laws: From Jim Crow To Same-Sex Marriages, Richard A. Epstein

Michigan Law Review

In this essay I address the notion of caste in two separate contexts: in the traditional disputes over race and sex, and in the more modem disputes over sexual orientation. In both cases the idea of caste and its kindred notions of subordination and hierarchy are used to justify massive forms of government intervention. In all cases I think that these arguments are incorrect. In their place, I argue that the idea of caste should be confined to categories of formal, or legal, distinctions between persons before the law. This more limited notion of caste supplies no justification for the …

Unmanly Diversions: The Construction Of The Homosexual Body (Politic) In English Law, Carl F. Stychin

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

In this article, the author interrogates the construction of gay male sexuality in legal and popular discourse. Focusing on two events-the decision of the House of Lords in Brown which upheld convictions of sadomasochists for assault, and publicity surrounding a serial killer of gay men in Britain-he argues that gay men are discursively constructed around the concepts of addiction, seduction, and contagion. Through the manipulation of these concepts, a linkage is created between sexual acts, sexual identities, the destruction of the gay male body, and a threat to the health and safety of the body politic as a whole.

Poised At The Threshold: Sexual Orientation, Law, And The Law School Curriculum In The Nineties, Jane S. Schacter

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Lesbians, Gay Men, and the Law by William B. Rubenstein

Lesbians, Gays And The Struggle For Equality Rights: Reversing The Progressive Hypothesis, Mary Eaton

Dalhousie Law Journal

The tale often told of Canadian law's advancement in the field of sexual orientation rights is simple but sublime: law has moved, however ploddingly and not without substantial prodding, out of an epoch of almost total repression, into an evermore enlightened era. Castigated by criminal law, pushed to the perimeter by administrative law, and ignored by human rights law, the "homosexual"' had once been law's quintessential "other." In recent years, however, legislatures and courts have increasingly been willing to recognize "homosexuals" as a constituency too long held down by the heavy hand of legal control. Most penal prohibitions against exercises …

A Postmodern Constitutionalism: Equality Rights, Identity Politics, And The Canadian National Imagination, Carl F. Stychin

Dalhousie Law Journal

In the 1990s, "identity" has become the centrepiece of theoretical work in a variety of disciplines. We now know that, in the conditions of late modem (or postmodem) society, identity is complex-it is fragmented, intersected, subject to alteration, socially constructed and it exhibits only a partial fixity at any moment. Most important, identities are to be valued, respected, and understood on their own terms. However, we also have relearned (if we ever forgot) that identities can be dangerous and fatal, especially when they coalesce in the form of nationalism. In this article, I will explore the intersection of nationalism and …

Congressional Oversight Of Morality: Sodomy Law Reform In The District Of Columbia, Gina M. Smith, Heidi Norton

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

On September 14, 1993, the District of Columbia successfully reformed the sodomy law with which it has been burdened for nearly two centuries. This reform appears at first glance to have been a major victory, not only for the lesbian and gay residents of the District for whom the law represented the greatest threat, but also for proponents of the principles of self-governance. But the road to this victory was a long and difficult one, spanning many decades and testing the outer limits of thd tenets of Home Rule and Congressional oversight of District affairs. This article sets forth the …

A Paradigm For Sexual Harassment: Toward The Optimal Level Of Loss, Marie T. Reilly

Vanderbilt Law Review

The emerging law of sexual harassment has focused discussion on the political, sociological, and legal issues surrounding sexual conduct. Some commentators have argued that the developing law insufficiently addresses an underlying political imbalance between men and women. Although these commentators eschew sexual harassment law as a plausible means of achieving an egalitarian, sex-blind society, they offer few concrete suggestions for reaching their goal. A few scholars have taken a position at the other extreme, that sexual harassment is more or less a chimera, and that the injury women claim to experience is simply part of the vicissitudes of life, or, …

Hate Crimes, Homosexuals, And The Constitution, Anthony S. Winer

Faculty Scholarship

This Article begins with an analysis of certain features of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and demonstrates that this clause establishes a fundamental right to the equal benefit of laws protecting personal security. Laws protecting personal security must be applied evenhandedly. Any discriminatory application of such laws is presumptively invalid under the Equal Protection Clause. This Article next shows that gay men and lesbians are among the most common victims of hate crime, that hate crimes against gays and lesbians are significant, persistent and widespread, and that gays and lesbians have a substantial stake in the manner …

Perils Of Prosecution: "Standing Up" Or Seeking Justice? (Review Of Vachss: Sex Crimes), James P. Carey

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Feminism, Work And Sex: Returning To The Gates, Carlin Meyer

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

A Case Of Clothing And Smell Obsession In A Bisexual Adult Woman, Marianne Wesson

Publications

No abstract provided.

Defining The Scope Of The Constitutional Right To Marry: More Than Tradition, Less Than Unlimited Autonomy, 70 Notre Dame L. Rev. 39 (1994), Donald L. Beschle

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Using International Human Rights Law To Advance Queer Rights: A Case Study For The American Declaration Of The Rights And Duties Of Man, 55 Ohio St. L.J. 649 (1994), Mark E. Wojcik

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

In addition to violating various provisions of federal and state constitutions, anti-gay ballot initiatives may violate international human rights norms. I see three reasons to invoke international human rights to challenge these initiatives. First, international human rights norms place the struggle for gay and lesbian rights in its proper context as a struggle for human rights. Second, some of the international human rights instruments provide both a source of legal obligation and an additional forum to challenge anti-gay ballot initiatives. Third and finally, if lesbian and gay activists in the United States establish that documents such as the American Declaration …

Book Review: Aids In The World, 16 Hous. J. Int'l L. 709 (1994), Mark E. Wojcik

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Homosexuality And The Constitution, Cass R. Sunstein

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

With All Deliberate Speed? A Reply To Professor Sunstein, Marc A. Fajer

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Right Not To Endorse Gay Rights: A Reply To Sunstein, Craig M. Bradley

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Sexual Freedom And Your Right To Privacy: A Selective Bibliography, Sandra S. Klein

Journal Articles

Like so many other privacy issues, concern over sexual freedom took on more than intellectual overtones with the advent of greater public discussion. As courts and government appeared to enter the most private domain of all, the bedroom, the public's interest in privacy issues dealing with sexual freedom increased dramatically. This bibliography should serve as a valuable tool for researchers who have an interest in this highly controversial area of social concern.

Unburdening The Undue Burden Standard: Orienting Casey In Constitutional Jurisprudence, Gillian E. Metzger

Faculty Scholarship

"Liberty finds no refuge in a jurisprudence of doubt." With these words in the 1992 case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Supreme Court ushered in a new era of abortion regulation. Speaking through a joint opinion authored by Justices O'Connor, Kennedy, and Souter, the Court indicated that from this point forth abortion regulations would be judged by an "undue burden" standard. According to this standard, an abortion regulation is unconstitutional if it "has the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion" of a nonviable fetus.

The Justices who wrote …

Hospitalized Patients And The Right To Sexual Interaction: Beyond The Last Frontier, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Gay Rights Through The Looking Glass: Politics, Morality, And The Trial Of Colorado's Amendment 2, Suzanne B. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

Courts have long struggled to resolve the question of how far a community may go in exercising its power to treat minority members differently. Popular prejudice, "community morality" and invidious stereotypes repeatedly have had their day in court as judges work to reconcile equal protection and privacy rights with their own attitudes about the place of people of color, women and gay people in society. In the early 1990s, the tension between the American ideal of equality and the reality of human diversity starkly emerged. A national wave of citizen-sponsored initiatives seeking to amend state constitutions and local charters to …

Sex, Sin, And Women’S Liberation: Against Porn-Suppression., Carlin Meyer

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Queer Intersectionality And The Failure Of Recent Lesbian And Gay "Victories", Darren Rosenblum

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Part I of this essay will introduce the queer theories underlying my critique and will outline the discrete positioning of lesbian and gay identity and community which labels these cases “victories.” The intersectionality of queer identity is the key blind spot in the litigation model. The queer continuum, a re-conceptualization of Adrienne Rich's lesbian continuum, delineates the spectrum of queer identity. Part II will explore the facts, issues and holdings of these four cases. My examination of these cases will reveal how they grant some rights to “but-for” queers, who, “but-for” their being lesbian or gay, would be “perfect citizens.” …

Law, Morality, And "Sexual Orientation", John M. Finnis

Journal Articles

During the past thirty years there has emerged in Europe a standard form of legal regulation of sexual conduct. This standard form or scheme, which I shall call the "standard modem [European] position," is accepted by the European Court of Human Rights and the European Commission of Human Rights (the two supra-national judicial and quasijudicial institutions of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950), to which almost all European states are party, whether or not they are also party to the European [Economic] Community now known as the European Union). The standard modem European …

Tying A Slipknot: Temporary Marriages In Iran, Tamilla F. Ghodsi

Michigan Journal of International Law

The purpose of this Note is to analyze the institution of mut'a critically, but objectively. It is important to first understand that it is possible to learn something from this institution. The sanctioning of temporary marriages illustrates the pervasive role of law as a method of social control, a characteristic which has parallels in the West. Furthermore, the institution may be challenged on its merits. For example, this Note intends to illustrate how the lack of formalism and the presence of great ambiguity in the institution have contributed to its lack of acceptance in Iranian society. The institution's deficiencies demonstrate …

The Prevalence Of Social Science In Gay Rights Cases: The Synergistic Influences Of Historical Context, Justificatory Citation, And Dissemination Efforts, Patricia J. Falk

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Disjunctive legal change is often accompanied by a period of frantic activity as the competing forces of stasis and evolution vie for domination. Nowhere is the battle for legal change likely to be more sharply joined than when the findings of modern science, in their varied and multifarious forms, are pitted directly against prevailing moral or societal precepts. One of the latest incarnations of this trend is the battle over the legal recognition of gay "rights." In recent history, the courts have been inundated by gay litigants seeking the rights and protections already afforded other discrete groups within society. In …

Aids: Coping With Hiv On Campus, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 449 (1994), Jane D. Oswald, Robert G. Johnston, Mark E. Wojcik

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Challenging The Constitutionality Of President Clinton's Compromise: A Practical Alternative To The Military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy, 28 J. Marshall L. Rev. 179 (1994), Kenneth S. Mclaughlin Jr.

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Facing The Challenge: A Lawyer's Response To Anti-Gay Initiatives, Suzanne B. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

We are living in an extraordinary period of gay and lesbian history. As lesbian and gay civil rights gain increasing recognition throughout the country – through small but growing numbers of laws prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination, court rulings protecting lesbian and gay parents' custody of their children, and a historically unprecedented level of positive media coverage – our struggles also have escalated enormously. Not only must we litigate and negotiate for equal opportunity in employment, housing, and parenting rights as always, but also we face a nationally organized and terrifically well-funded assault on our fundamental rights as citizens.

This nationwide …