Law Commons^™

Can Our Shameful Prisons Be Reformed?, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Reply Brief For Petitioner, Engquist V. Oregon Department Of Agriculture, No. 07-474 (U.S. April 9, 2008), Justin Florence, Mathew Gerke, Neal K. Katyal

U.S. Supreme Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

Brief Of Petitioner, Engquist V. Oregon Dept. Of Agriculture, No. 07-474 (U.S. Feb. 20, 2008), Justin Florence, Mathew Gerke, Neal K. Katyal

U.S. Supreme Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

Unconscious Racism Revisited: Reflections On The Impact And Origins Of "The Id, The Ego, And Equal Protection", Charles R. Lawrence Iii

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Twenty years ago, Professor Charles Lawrence wrote “The Id, The Ego, and Equal Protection: Reckoning With Unconscious Racism.” This article is considered a foundational document of Critical Race Theory and is one of the most influential and widely cited law review articles. The article argued that the purposeful intent requirement found in Supreme Court equal protection doctrine and in the Court’s interpretation of antidiscrimination laws disserved the value of equal citizenship expressed in those laws because many forms of racial bias are unconscious. Professor Lawrence suggested that rather than look for discriminatory motive, the Court should examine the cultural meaning …

Katrina, The Constitution, And The Legal Question Doctrine, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this paper I will not develop the case for constitutionally protected welfare rights - I have tried to do that elsewhere. Instead, I want to explore the tension between what I will take to be at least a plausible account of the state's Constitutional obligations to the poor, and what seems to me as at least equally self-evident, to wit, that no American court will discover and then impose such Constitutional obligations upon recalcitrant state or federal legislators. My conclusion will be pragmatic. I want to urge those who feel likewise regarding the Constitutional obligations of state actors, to …

Petition For A Writ Of Certiorari, Scott V. Johanns, No. 05-356 (U.S. Sept. 15, 2005), Scott L. Nelson, David C. Vladeck

U.S. Supreme Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

Sexual Orientation And The Paradox Of Heightened Scrutiny, Nan D. Hunter

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court performed a double move, creating a dramatic discursive moment: it both decriminalized consensual homosexual relations between adults, and, simultaneously, authorized a new regime of heightened regulation of homosexuality. How that happened and what we can expect next are the subjects of this essay.

Living With Lawrence, Nan D. Hunter

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Article will proceed in three steps. First, I will examine the Court's treatment of liberty. I see Lawrence as marking the emergence of a new approach to substantive due process analysis, one that has been simmering in the concurring opinions of Justices Souter, Stevens, and Kennedy for the last decade. These three Justices apparently now have a majority for extending meaningful constitutional protection to liberty interests without denominating them as fundamental rights. They also appear to be jettisoning, at least prospectively, a special category for privacy rights. Second, I will turn my attention to the ramifications of Lawrence's equality …

Rectifying The Tilt: Equality Lessons From Religion, Disability, Sexual Orientation, And Transgender, Chai R. Feldblum

Georgetown Law Faculty Lectures and Appearances

It was an honor and a joy to deliver the Tenth Annual Frank M. Coffin Lecture on Law and Public Service and to publish it now in the Maine Law Review. I thank you for this opportunity.

I have always believed that a life worth living includes two necessary components: passion and connection. I experience those components both in my work and in my personal life. I love the passion I find in my work - both in my advocacy efforts to advance justice in the world and in the teaching through which I try to pass on to others …

No Equal Justice, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

I argue that while our criminal justice system is explicitly based on the premise and promise of equality before the law, the administration of criminal law—whether by the officer on the beat, the legislature, or the Supreme Court—is in fact predicated on the exploitation of inequality. My claim is not simply that we have ignored inequality’s effects within the criminal justice system, nor that we have tried but failed to achieve equality there. Rather, I contend that our criminal justice system affirmatively depends on inequality. Absent race and class disparities, the privileged among us could not enjoy as much constitutional …

Escaping The Expression-Equality Conundrum: Toward Anti-Orthodoxy And Inclusion, Nan D. Hunter

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this article, Professor Hunter questions the naturalness and inevitability of the dichotomy in constitutional law between freedom of expression and the right to equality. She places the origin of this doctrinal divergence in the history of American social protest movements in the first half of the twentieth century, which began with ideologically-based claims and shifted to a primary emphasis on identity-based equality claims. During the interim period between World War I and World War I, the wave of seminal First Amendment cases was ebbing and the wave of equality claims was beginning to swell. Close examination of the constitutional …