Law Commons^™

As Equal As Others? Rethinking Access To Discrimination Law, Pam Jenoff

Pam Jenoff

The purpose of employment discrimination law is to ensure fair and equal conditions in the workplace by preventing and remedying differential treatment based on certain protected characteristics, such as race, sex and age. However, the federal anti-discrimination claiming system as presently constructed cannot achieve this mandate. The current system excludes close to one-fifth of the American workforce outright, and prevents even greater numbers of individuals from seeking redress for reasons unrelated to the merits of their claims. Stringent statutory requisites as to covered employers, administrative exhaustion and the limitations period create barriers to access that not only prevent individuals from …

Originalism And Loving V. Virgina, Steven G. Calabresi, Andrea Matthews

Steven G Calabresi

This article makes an originalist argument in defense of the Supreme Court’s holding in Loving v. Virginia that antimiscegenation laws are unconstitutional. This article builds on past work by Professor Michael McConnell defending Brown v. Board of Education on originalist grounds and by Professor Calabresi defending strict scrutiny for gender classifications on originalist grounds. Professor Calabresi’s work in this area was defended and praise recently by Slate magazine online. The article shows that Loving v. Virginia is defensible using the public meaning originalism advocated for by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. This article shows that the issue in Loving …

Multiplicity Of Marriage Forms In Contemporary South Africa, Roberto A. Garetto Ph.D.

Roberto A. Garetto Ph.D.

From the perspective of family law, South Africa seems particularly interesting as it recognizes a multiplicity of marriage forms, according to its laws: not only common law marriage, deeply linked with the traditions of Western culture, but also customary marriage and same-sex marriage. Customary marriage, a plural marriage practiced in the form of polygyny, is deeply related to the cultural identity of some South Africans; same-sex marriage is an innovation related to fundamental rights affirmed in the post-apartheid Constitution of 1996. The South African Constitution has a highly advanced sensibility related to issues of human dignity, equality, and freedom. Both …

2 Standards 1 Cup: How Geotargeting Will End The Battle Between National And Local Obscenity Standards, Joseph Mason Kjar

J. Mason Kjar

The First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech—but that protection is not absolute. Some speech is banned outright, such as child pornography. Other speech is nearly fully protected, such as erotic speech. Caught in the middle of the two is obscene speech, which can be owned in the privacy of one’s home, but cannot be disseminated publicly.

The line between obscenity and eroticism is hard to pinpoint, and varies from community to community. In general, the process of analyzing whether a work is obscene includes asking whether the content violates the community standards of the local geographic area where …