Law Commons^™

Erasing Race, Llezlie Green

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Low-wage workers frequently experience exploitation, including wage theft, at the intersection of their racial identities and their economic vulnerabilities. Scholars, however, rarely consider the role of wage and hwur exploitation in broader racial subordination frameworks. This Essay considers the narratives that have informed the detachment of racial justice from the worker exploitation narrative and the distancing of economic justice from the civil rights narrative. It then contends that social movements, like the Fight for $15, can disrupt narrow understandings of low-wage worker exploitation and proffer more nuanced narratives that connect race, economic justice, and civil rights to a broader antisubordination …

Equality Is A Brokered Idea, Robert Tsai

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This essay examines the Supreme Court's stunning decision in the census case, Department of Commerce v. New York. I characterize Chief Justice John Roberts' decision to side with the liberals as an example of pursuing the ends of equality by other means – this time, through the rule of reason. Although the appeal was limited in scope, the stakes for political and racial equality were sky high. In blocking the administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, 5 members of the Court found the justification the administration gave to be a pretext. In this instance, that lie …

Reclaiming The Navajo Range: Resolving The Conflict Between Grazing Rights And Development, Ezra Rosser

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Grazing is fundamental to Navajo identity, yet management of the Navajo range remains highly problematic. This Essay connects the federal government's devastating livestock reduction effort of the 1930s with the inability of the Navajo Nation to place meaningful limits on grazing and the power of grazing permittees. It argues that the Navajo Nation should consider reasserting the tribe's traditional understanding that property rights depend on use as a way to create space for reservation development.

Looking For Competencies In All Of The Right Places, Laurel Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Wage Gender Disparities: Challenging Prevailing Assumptions, Theoretical Approache, Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid Professor Of Law

Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid Professor of Law

Women in the United States are, on average and consistently, earning less than their male peers. Sometimes, they are even paid less than the men they supervise. A common response concerns about the 23 cent gender wage gap for full-time year-round workers across occupations, is that it is simply a byproduct of the choices women make: choices to prefer family life and needs, work fewer hours, take on lower-paying jobs, or opt out of the workforce for longer periods of time than men. Under this view, the gender pay gap is not a result of sex discrimination but of women's …

Employment Discrimination Plaintiffs In Federal Court: From Bad To Worse?, Kevin M. Clermont, Stewart J. Schwab

Stewart J Schwab

This Article utilizes the Administrative Office's data to convey the realities of federal employment discrimination litigation. Litigants in these "jobs" cases appeal more often than other litigants, with the defendants doing far better on those appeals than the plaintiffs. These troublesome facts help explain why today fewer plaintiffs are undertaking the frustrating route into federal district court, where plaintiffs must pursue their claims relatively often all the way through trial and where at both pretrial and trial these plaintiffs lose unusually often.

Pension De-Risking, Paul Secunda, Brendan Maher

Paul M. Secunda

The United States is facing a retirement crisis, in significant part because defined benefit pension plans have been replaced by defined contribution retirement plans that, whatever their theoretical merit, have left significant numbers of workers unprepared for retirement. A troubling example of the continuing movement away from defined benefit plans is a new phenomenon euphemistically called “pension de-risking.”

Recent years have been marked by high-profile companies engaging in various actions designed to reduce the company’s exposure to pension funding risk (hence the term “pension de-risking”). Some de-risking strategies convert a federally-guaranteed pension into a more risky private annuity. Other approaches …

Note: Unpaid Interns & The Practice Of Unprotected Working: Building From A History Of Learning On The Job, Troy D. Warner

Troy D Warner

Student interns are provided protection from gender discrimination and sexual harassment in their student capacity by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (CRA), and as employees by Title IX of the CRA. However unpaid student interns are neither considered students nor employees, and thus slip through the cracks of coverage provided by Titles VII & IX. They are working unprotected by the law from sexual harassment and sexual discrimination. The Department of Labor has two classifications created by regulations, which provide protections to workers not legally employees, just as unpaid interns are not employees.

The Department of …

Worker (Mis)Classification In The Sharing Economy: Trying To Fit Square Pegs Into Round Holes, Robert Sprague

Robert Sprague

Employment Discrimination Plaintiffs In Federal Court: From Bad To Worse?, Kevin M. Clermont, Stewart J. Schwab

Kevin M. Clermont

This Article utilizes the Administrative Office's data to convey the realities of federal employment discrimination litigation. Litigants in these "jobs" cases appeal more often than other litigants, with the defendants doing far better on those appeals than the plaintiffs. These troublesome facts help explain why today fewer plaintiffs are undertaking the frustrating route into federal district court, where plaintiffs must pursue their claims relatively often all the way through trial and where at both pretrial and trial these plaintiffs lose unusually often.

Enforcement Of Noncompete Agreements: Protecting The Public Interest Through An Entrepreneurial Approach, Griffin Toronjo Pivateau

Griffin Toronjo Pivateau

Enforcement of Noncompete Agreements: Protecting the Public Interest Through an Entrepreneurial Approach

The enforcement of noncompete agreements is variable, differing between courts, between states, and between contexts. Analysis of a noncompete agreement tends not only to be fact-dependent, but location-dependent as well. Some states enforce virtually all noncompete agreements; other states refuse to enforce any noncompete agreements. Courts determine reasonableness without regard to the terms of the agreement. A noncompete agreement is a unique type of contract, as the normal contract standard of mutual agreement supported by consideration falls to the wayside. Instead, reasonableness becomes the key to enforceability.

To …

Navigating The Rock And The Whirlpool: Managing Critical Incident Investigations And Garrity, Joseph R. Sullivan

Joseph R Sullivan

This article presents a best practice model for managing officer-involved shooting or other critical incident investigations on behalf of the officer; one that protects the officer’s legal interests and still preserves the most accurate factual information for investigators. Section I details the causes and effects of critical incident amnesia as it relates to officer-involved shootings. Section II analyzes the relationship between a public employee’s Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and a public employer’s ability to compel work related statements. Section III discusses the practical implications and aftermath of an officer-involved shooting or other critical incident and section IV synthesizes the …

Standardized Testing And Race: A Reply To Professor Subotnik, Harvey Gilmore

Harvey Gilmore

Professor Gilmore responds in disagreement to Professor Subotnik's article supporting standardized testing.

Litigating For The Future Of Public Pensions, Paul Secunda

Paul M. Secunda

Public pensions are horribly unfunded, millions of public employees are being forced to make greater contributions to their pensions, retirees are being forced to take benefit cuts, retirement ages and service requirements are being increased, and the list goes on and on. These alarming developments involve all level of American government, from the recent move to require new federal employees to contribute more to their pensions, to the significant underfunding of state and local public pension funds across the country, to the sad spectacle of the Detroit municipal bankruptcy where the plight of public pensions plays a leading role in …

Nlrb And Social Media, Robert Sprague

Robert Sprague

Focus: (1) when do employee social media posts constitute concerted activities protected under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act?; and (2) when do employers' social media policies restrict protected concerted activities?

Preventative Legislation Ensures Intended Parents Of Gestational Surrogacy Benefits Under The California Family Rights Act, Jennifer Jackson

Jennifer Jackson

We live in a rapidly evolving technological age, which now allows parents to enter surrogacy contracts. In such a world, the law often lags in catching up to technology and the ramifications that may ensue. This paper focuses on the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and the consequences it has on surrogacy agreements and the rights intended parents. While the CFRA includes broad language as to the definition of a “child,” case law shows that surrogate born children may be unintentionally excluded. As a result, this paper analyzes the arguments both for and against revision to the CFRA and concludes …

To Read Or Not To Read: Privacy Within Social Networks, The Entitlement Of Employees To A Virtual “Private Zone” And The Balloon Theory, Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid

Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid Professor of Law

Social networking has increasingly become the most common venue of self-expression in the digital era. Although social networks started as a social vehicle, they have recently become a major source for employers to track personal data ("screening") of applicants, employees or former employees.

This article addresses the questions of whether this casual business routine harms employees' rights to privacy with regard to data users post in social networks, what the drawbacks of this routine may be, and why and how privacy rights should be protected to secure private zones within the virtual sphere. The article suggests that a privacy right …

Changing Markets Create Opportunities: Emphasizing The Competencies Legal Employers Use In Hiring New Lawyers (Including Professional Formation/Professionalism), Neil Hamilton

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The "Fall" Of Summers, The Rise Of "Pretext Plus," And The Excalating Subordination Of Federal Employment Discrimination Law To Employment At Will: Lessons From Mckennon And Hicks, William Corbett

William R. Corbett

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act; Changing Interpretations Of The Dmca And Future Implications For Copyright Holders, Hillary A. Henderson

Hillary A Henderson

Copyright law rewards an artificial monopoly to individual authors for their creations. This reward is based on the belief that, by granting authors the exclusive right to reproduce their works, they receive an incentive and means to create, which in turn advances the welfare of the general public by “promoting the progress of science and useful arts.” Copyright protection subsists . . . in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or …

No Surfing Allowed: A Review And Analysis Of Legislation Prohibiting Employers From Demanding Access To Employees’ And Job Applicants’ Social Media Accounts, Robert Sprague

Robert Sprague

This article examines recent state legislation prohibiting employers from requesting username and password information from employees and job applicants in order to access restricted portions of those employees’ and job applicants’ personal social media accounts. This article raises the issue of whether this legislation is even needed, from both practical and legal perspectives, focusing on: (a) how prevalent the practice is of requesting employees’ and job applicants’ social media access information; (b) whether alternative laws already exist which prohibit employers from requesting employees’ and job applicants’ social media access information; and (c) whether any benefits can be derived from this …

Danbury Hatters In Sweden: A U.S. Perspective On The Available Remedies And Sanctions For Employers Who Suffer Unfair Labor Practices By Labor Unions, César F. Rosado Marzán, Margot Nikitas

César F. Rosado Marzán

The European Court of Justice's ("ECJ") Laval quartet held that worker collective actions that impacted freedom of services and establishment in the E.U. violated E.U. law. After Laval, the Swedish Labor Court imposed exemplary or punitive damages on labor unions for violating E.U. law. These cases have generated critical discussions regarding not only the proper balance between markets and workers’ freedom of association, but also what should be the proper remedies for employers who suffer illegal actions by labor unions under E.U. law. While any reforms to rebalance fundamental freedoms as a result of the Laval quartet will have to …

Collective Representation And Employee Voice In The U.S. Public Sector Workplace: Looking North For Solutions?, Martin H. Malin

All Faculty Scholarship

Legislation enacted in many states following the 2010 elections in the United States strengthened unilateral public employer control and weakened employee voice. This rebalancing of power occurred in the context of state public employee labour relations acts modeled on the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), but with a narrower scope of bargaining than in the private sector. This narrow scope channels unions’ voice away from the quality of public services and towards protecting members from the effects of decisions unilaterally imposed by management. The Supreme Court of Canada has held that the freedom of association guaranteed by the Charter of …

Saving Disparate Impact, Lawrence Rosenthal

Lawrence Rosenthal

No abstract provided.

Overruling Precedent: "A Derelict In The Stream Of The Law", Michael Leroy

Michael H LeRoy

Will the Supreme Court overrule Hoffman Plastic Compounds v. N.L.R.B., 535 U.S. 137 (2002), its precedent that treats unlawful alien workers as criminals and denies them backpay for a violation of a labor law? More generally, what are the statistical indicators of a precedent that the Supreme Court overrules— and how well does Hoffman Plastic fit that profile? To answer these research questions, I analyze two unique databases— 128 federal and state rulings from 2002-2012 that involved Hoffman Plastic’s remedy issue, and a sample of 154 Supreme Court pairings of an overruled precedent, and the decision that explicitly …

Privacy As A Tool For Antidiscrimination, Jessica Roberts

Jessica L. Roberts

Traditionally, laws that protect privacy and laws that prohibit discrimination have been considered distinct kinds of legal protections. This Essay challenges that binary on both practical and theoretical grounds. Using the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) as a case study, it argues that lawmakers can use privacy law to further antidiscrimination goals. GINA, which prohibits genetic-information discrimination in health insurance and employment, does more than simply outlaw discriminatory conduct. It also prohibits employers from requiring—or even requesting—their employees’ genetic information. While GINA’s privacy and antidiscrimination protections have previously been viewed as discrete, this Essay reads them in concert, arguing that …

Gay Talk: Protecting Free Speech For Public School Teachers, Stephen J. Elkind, Peter D. Kauffman

Stephen J Elkind

In Garcetti v. Ceballos, the Supreme Court held that public employees are not entitled to free speech when speaking “pursuant to their official duties.” In most situations, this strips teachers of First Amendment protection when they discuss controversial subjects, such as homosexuality, with their students. To ensure their classrooms are tolerant and accepting environments for homosexual and questioning youth, teachers need free speech protection against adverse employment action their schools might take. The Garcetti Court, acknowledging that “expression related to academic scholarship and classroom instruction implicates” unique constitutional concerns, explicitly left open whether its decision applied in the education …

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Who Are You To Say Who Is Fairest Of Them All?, Ashley R. Brown

Ashley R Brown

No abstract provided.

Waiting For The Labor Law Of The Twenty-First Century: Everything Old Is New Again, William R. Corbett

William R. Corbett

No abstract provided.

An Allegory Of The Cave And The Desert Palace, William R. Corbett

William R. Corbett

No abstract provided.