Law Commons^™

Black, White, Brown, Green, And Fordice: The Flavor Of Higher Education In Louisiana And Mississippi, Alfreda S. Diamond

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"Black, White, Brown, Green, and Fordice: The Flavor of Higher Education in Louisiana and Mississippi" chronicles the higher education desegregation sagas in Louisiana and Mississippi. The Article specifically compares the histories of the higher education desegregation lawsuits in the two states and their subsequent experiences and progress under Settlement Agreements. The statistical populations of many universities in both states are still largely identifiable as “white” or “black,” and so the Article will pose questions not only respecting the implementation of United States v. Fordice in both states, but also respecting the value, desirability, or possibility of the “integrative ideal” converting …

School Naming Rights And The First Amendment's Perfect Storm, Joseph Blocher

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This Article uses public school naming rights as a lens through which to examine the conflicts between the tempestuous First Amendment categories of government speech, commercial speech, and forum analysis. Courts and scholars have noted the internal conflicts within these three categories, but have not yet explored the conflicts between them. As the growth of school naming rights shows, government sponsorship arrangements collapse the artificial divisions between the categories and demand a better understanding of their interactions. This Article represents a first attempt to bring coherence to these poorly defined and increasingly important areas of First Amendment law.

Gender Equity In College Athletics: Women Coaches As A Case Study, Deborah L. Rhode, Christopher J. Walker

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As Title IX celebrates its 35th anniversary, many have noted the positive impact it has had on women sports. But there is also an unintended (and oft-neglected) byproduct: as opportunities for female students have increased, opportunities for female professionals have declined. This Article focuses on the barriers that still confront women in college athletics, particularly those who seek professional positions in coaching and administration. Part I presents a brief overview of Title IX, which makes clear its limitations in securing gender equity. Part II.A discusses the declining representation and lower success rate of women coaches, while Part II.B explores the …

The Solomon Amendment, Expressive Associations, And Public Employment, Paul Secunda

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Rumsfeld v. FAIR apparently concedes that public employers, in the guise of public law school members of the FAIR association, have expressive association rights. This state of affairs could now mean that public employers could gain constitutional rights at the expense of pubic employees. Thus, to the extent that public employers are considered expressive associations, public employees may see their free speech and other constitutional rights diminished (even more so than they recently have been by the Garcetti v. Ceballos decision).

Thankfully, I cannot imagine that the Court, if faced with the question directly, would find that public employers have …

Surfing Past The Pall Of Orthodoxy: Why The First Amendment Virtually Guarantees Online Law School Graduates Will Breach The Aba Accreditation Barrier, Nicholas C. Dranias

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The impact of the constitutional dilemma created by the ABA’s aversion to Internet schooling is widespread. Currently, 18 states and 2 U.S. territories restrict bar exam eligibility to graduates of ABA-accredited law schools. Additionally, 29 states and 1 U.S. territory restrict admission to practice on motion to graduates of ABA-accredited law schools.

Although numerous lawsuits have been filed in ultimately failed efforts to strike down bar admission rules that restrict eligibility to graduates of ABA-accredited law schools, none has challenged the ABA-accreditation requirement based on the First Amendment’s prohibition on media discrimination. This Article makes that case.

Despite accelerating technological …

The Law School Pipeline For Students Of Color: What’S Constricting The Flow?, Alex M. Johnson

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No abstract provided.

“Pick”Ering The Speech Rights Of Public School Teachers: Arguing For A Movement By Courts Toward The Hazelwood-Tinker Standard Under The First Amendment, Heather P. Bennett

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This Note addresses freedom of speech issues facing the nation's public schools, concentrating on the recent decision by the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Lee v. York County School Division, for the final paper in my First Amendment course. Ultimately, this Note analyzes the court’s decision in this case and both standards set forth by the Supreme Court in dealing with free speech rights in the field of public education, which are currently creating a circuit split between the Courts of Appeals. The Note argues that the Hazelwood-Tinker standard applied to student speech should be the general …

Does Law School Curriculum Affect Bar Examination Passage? An Empirical Analysis Of The Factors Which Were Related To Bar Examination Passage Between 2001 And 2006 At A Midwestern Law School, Douglas Rush, Hisako Matsuo

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Does Law School Curriculum Affect Bar Examination Passage? Abstract A quantitative, empirical study was undertaken to determine whether there was a relationship between the number of bar examination subject matter courses taken in law school and bar examination passage. Previous studies reported relationships between LSAT scores, undergraduate grade point averages (UGPA), law school class rank and bar examination passage. Many law schools are advocating or mandating that students with low class rank take upper division, bar examination subject matter courses in an effort to improve the bar examination passage rate for those students. This study examined all 2001-2005 graduates of …

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

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The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Justifying Affirmative Action In K-12 Private Schools, Sharon H. Lee

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In this Comment, the author examines the consequences of using substantially identical rules to govern affirmative action in both private employers and private schools. The author explores the law that governs private affirmative action and the justifications that courts have accepted for private affirmative action, focusing on whether these justifications are internal or external to the defendant. The author contends that the Supreme Court’s dicta in Johnson v. Transportation Agency, viewed in light of developments in Equal Protection Clause jurisprudence, weigh in favor of using external imbalances to justify private affirmative action. The author demonstrates that departing from the affirmative-action …

Parents Involved & Meredith: A Prediction Regarding The (Un)Constitutionality Of Race-Conscious Student Assignment Plans, Eboni S. Nelson

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During the October 2006 Term, the United States Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of voluntary race-conscious student assignment plans as employed in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No.1 and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education. These cases will mark the Court’s first inquiry regarding the use of race to combat de facto segregation in public education. This article examines the constitutionality of such plans and provides a prediction regarding the Court’s decisions.

The article begins with an analysis of the resegregation trend currently plaguing American educational institutions and identifies two causes for the occurrence: …

After The Gold Rush?: Grutter, Sander And ‘Affirmative Action’ “On The Run…” In The Twenty-First Century, Anthony Vincent Baker

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No abstract provided.

Who Should Control Children's Education?: Parents, Children, And The State, Maxine Eichner

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The article considers how liberal democracies and their courts should address disputes about children’s education when they arise in public schools. I argue that in a liberal democracy it is inevitable that there will be conflicts among parents, children, and the state’s interests with respect to public education. Given the legitimacy of claims by the community to have a say in how its future citizens should be educated; the equally legitimate claims of parents to have a say in how their own children should be educated; the need for children to develop the autonomy that liberalism demands; and the needs …

Charter Schools And Collective Bargaining: Compatible Marriage Or Illegitimate Relationship, Martin H. Malin, Charles Taylor Kerchner

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The rapid increase in charter schools has been fueled by the view that traditional public schools have failed because of their monopoly on public education. Charter schools, freed from the bureaucratic regulation that dominates traditional public schools, are viewed as agents of change that will shock traditional public schools out of their complacency. Among the features of the failed status quo are teacher tenure, uniform salary grids and strict work rules, matters that teacher unions hold dear. Yet unions have begun organizing teacher in charter schools. This development prompts the question whether unionization and charter schools are compatible.

In contrast …

Five Recommendations To Law Schools Offering Legal Instruction Over The Internet, Daniel C. Powell

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This article addresses the emerging market for legal distance education. The market is being driven by recent changes in ABA regulations, as well as specialization in the curriculum, and expanding costs of traditional education. We are seeing the emergence of legal distance education consortiums, which offer a platform for the trading or selling of courses and programs.

However, much skepticism remains about the ability of distance education technology to offer law schools and law students a sufficiently interactive pedagogy. In the words of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg legal education is a “shared enterprise, a genuine interactive endeavor” that …

Holostic Learning: Amending The Rowley Test To Clarify The Inclusion Debate, Allan Kickertz

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No abstract provided.

Lost Opportunity: Bush V. Holmes And The Application Of State Constitutional Uniformity Clauses To School Voucher Programs, Jamie S. Dycus

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This article analyzes the Florida Supreme Court’s recent decision in Bush v. Holmes, in which the court struck down Florida’s school voucher program as a violation of Florida's constitutional uniformity clause. It argues that the court erred by applying a simplistic and ahistorical definition of uniformity, and recommends that future courts applying state constitutional uniformity clauses to school voucher schemes take a different approach.

Specifically, it argues that courts in future cases should begin by acknowledging frankly the necessity of determining the meaning of uniformity. Next, drawing on case law and historical evidence, they should fashion definitions of uniformity that …

Social Reproduction And Religious Reproduction: A Democratic-Communitarian Analysis Of The Yoder Problem, Josh Chafetz

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In 1972, Wisconsin v. Yoder presented the Supreme Court with a sharp clash between the state's interest in social reproduction through education -- that is, society's interest in using the educational system to perpetuate its collective way of life among the next generation -- and the parents' interest in religious reproduction -- that is, their interest in passing their religious beliefs on to their children. This Article will take up the challenge of that clash, a clash which continues to be central to current debates over issues like intelligent design in the classroom. This Article engages with the competing theories …

Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp

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This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.

Lawrence V. Texas Overrules San Antonio School District. V. Rodriguez, John H. Ryskamp

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San Antonio School District v. Rodriguez used the scrutiny regime to decide whether there was an Equal Protection right to housing. However, Lawrence v. Texas abolished the scrutiny regime. So how do we evaluate whether there is an education right under Equal Protection? The right to education in the Texas Constitution shows us that we use the liberty Equal Protection right to determine if state laws are essential to education; this is the meaning of Lawrence's rule that laws are not permitted respecting liberty which do not "substantially further a legitimate state interest." Note that this takes substantially from intermediate …

Finding New Constitutional Rights Through The Supreme Court’S Evolving “Government Purpose” Test Under Minimum Scrutiny, John H. Ryskamp

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By now we all are familiar with the litany of cases which refused to find elevated scrutiny for so-called “affirmative” or “social” rights such as education, welfare or housing: Lindsey v. Normet, San Antonio School District v. Rodriguez, Dandridge v. Williams, DeShaney v. Winnebago County. There didn’t seem to be anything in minimum scrutiny which could protect such facts as education or housing, from government action. However, unobtrusively and over the years, the Supreme Court has clarified and articulated one aspect of minimum scrutiny which holds promise for vindicating facts. You will recall that under minimum scrutiny government’s action is …

The Constitutionality Of Utah's 2005 Tuition Tax Credit Proposals, Sean W. Mullaney

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The issue of tuition tax credits for private and religious elementary and secondary schools remains a hot button political and legal issue. While the Supreme Court’s decision in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris provided some new parameters on the validity of school choice programs, it certainly did not end both the political and legal debate. In Utah, school choice programs have yet to pass, and come up every winter in the State Legislature.

My Comment analyses the 2005 tuition tax credit proposals through two Constitutional frameworks: the Establishment Clause and the Equal Protection Clause. Traditionally, the Supreme Court has analyzed school choice …

Finding The Constitutional Right To Education In San Antonio School District V. Rodriguez, John H. Ryskamp

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In Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court abolished the scrutiny regime because it impermissibly interfered with an important fact, liberty. And yet, even in earlier cases which ostensibly upheld the scrutiny regime, it is difficult to see that the Court ever did so to the detriment of facts it considered important. In short, the Court often (always?) found itself raising the level of scrutiny for a fact in the same case it upheld the regime, leaving us to wonder if the scrutiny regime ever actually had any effect at all, or even whether the Court felt it was relevant. As …

Doing The Right Thing: Disability Discrimination And Readmission Of Academically Dismissed Law Students, Lynn M. Daggett

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The Article explores an issue with which many law schools, law students, and courts struggle. It begins with an overview of the relevant federal disability discrimination statutes, with particular attention to recent United States Supreme Court decisions that strictly interpret the “disabilities” protected by these statutes, and to recent cases in which lower courts have accordingly held that a student’s impairment is not a statutorily protected disability. As it turns out, many dismissed law students submitting documentation of a disability are not legally disabled in the first instance. The statutory overview also compares the markedly different approach of the federal …

Urban Legends, Desegregation And School Finance: Did Kansas City Really Prove That Money Doesn’T Matter?, Preston C. Green

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This article examines whether conservative critics are correct in their assertion that the Kansas City, Missouri School District (KCMSD) desegregation plan clearly establishes that no correlation exists between funding and academic outcomes. The first section provides a summary of public education in the KCMSD prior to 1977, the beginning of the Missouri v. Jenkins school desegregation litigation. The second and third sections analyze whether the Jenkins desegregation and concurrent school finance litigation (Committee for Educational Equality v. State) addressed these problems. The fourth section provides an overview of school finance litigation and explains how the KCMSD desegregation plan has been …

Law In The Cultivation Of Hope, Kathryn R. Abrams, Hila Keren

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In recent years scholars have begun to question the longstanding dichotomization of (legal) reason and the passions, and have offered significant understanding of the connection of law and the emotions. Much of this work, however, has been done within a fairly narrow ambit. This Article seeks to broaden this scholarship in two ways. First, it points to an unexplored relation between law and the emotions: the role of law in cultivating the emergence of emotions. And second, it moves beyond the negative emotions, and directs attention to positive emotions and their interplay with the law outside the criminal context. Following …

Multiracial Identity And Affirmative Action, Nancy Leong

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No abstract provided.

Fuck, Christopher M. Fairman

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This Article is as simple and provocative as its title suggests: it explores the legal implications of the word fuck. The intersection of the word fuck and the law is examined in four major areas: First Amendment, broadcast regulation, sexual harassment, and education. The legal implications from the use of fuck vary greatly with the context. To fully understand the legal power of fuck, the nonlegal sources of its power are tapped. Drawing upon the research of etymologists, linguists, lexicographers, psychoanalysts, and other social scientists, the visceral reaction to fuck can be explained by cultural taboo. Fuck is a taboo …

A Fighting Chance: Race Conscious Admissions, Social Science, And The Law, Crystal R. Gafford Muhammad

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This paper explores whether the employment of expert witnesses increase the likelihood for college and university defendants in race conscious admissions suits. As the expenditures of the University of Michigan on expert witnesses throughout the course of the Michigan cases were considerable, it is appropriate to assess, in a pragmatic sense, the degree to which such expenditures are warranted. I find that while the overall legal developments in the area of race conscious admissions suggest that plaintiffs are more likely to win these suits, where most defense victories have been made, social science evidence was presented. In effect, social science …

An Analysis Of The Contemporary Role Of Social Science In The Law: The Case Of Race Conscious Admissions, Crystal R. Gafford Muhammad

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The present inquiry focuses on the role of social science evidence contemporarily, using observations from judicial opinions in race conscious admissions cases. Using a set of judicial opinions from K-12 voluntary desegregation and higher education affirmative action in admissions, I use legal and statistical analysis to argue that social science data presented into evidence does not affect the outcomes of court cases involving normative subject matters, such as those involving race. I find judicial political affiliation to be the greatest predictor of opinions in this area of law. However, the question is not whether social science evidence is influential or …