Law Commons^™

Advancing Civil Rights, The Next Generation: The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act Of 2007 And Beyond, Morse Tan

Morse Tan Esq.

On the leading edge of civil rights law and bioethics/healthcare law, this Article analyzes the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) of 2007, which would extend important protection against discrimination in health insurance and employment. GINA would also bolster genetic research by freeing research subjects from the threat of genetic discrimination. This Article demonstrates how GINA would further protect this society against the rising dangers of genetic discrimination beyond already existing federal and state law.

The Unfinished Business Of American Democracy, Ezequiel Lugo

Ezequiel Lugo

For the last two decades, U.S. courts have been using customary international law (CIL) when dealing with human rights claims. Recently, the Supreme Court has used international law to decide cases involving constitutional rights. However, U.S. courts have not used CIL to address the right to vote, one of the most fundamental human rights. This Article surveys evidence of the right to vote as CIL and concludes that the right to vote has become a norm of CIL. It cannot, however, be directly incorporated into U.S. law because of previous judicial decisions. Nevertheless, the U.S. can comply with this norm …

A Welfare State Of Civil Rights: The Triumph Of The Therapeutic In American Constitutional Law, Daniel F. Piar

Daniel F. Piar

This Article examines the influence of the therapeutic culture on the modern constitutional law of civil rights. The therapeutic culture is defined as one in which the central moral question is individual fulfillment. That culture has sprung up to replace older cultures such as Protestantism and classical republicanism, which are no longer capable of appealing to a nation as diverse as the United States. Instead of asking whether individuals or the nation conform to some external moral system, the therapeutic culture asks whether individuals are happy or fulfilled. This Article demonstrates that the therapeutic culture has had a significant effect …

Student Body Diversity: A View From The Trenches, Gail S. Stephenson

Gail S. Stephenson

Although educators have stressed the value of classroom diversity for 150 years, American law schools are becoming less diverse. Total minority enrollment in ABA-approved law schools was down for the academic year 2005-2006, and the number of African Americans enrolled has reached its lowest point since 1990-1991. The ABA revised Standard 211 (renumbered 212) to require law schools to “demonstrate by concrete action” their commitment to diversity. This revision has been quite controversial, drawing opposition from those who do not believe that diversity is important.

The author, who teaches at a historically black law school with a fairly even mix …

The Mythic 43 Million Americans With Disabilities, Ruth Colker

Ruth Colker

Although Congress stated in its first statutory finding that it intended the Americans with Disabilities Act to protect at least 43 million Americans from disability discrimination, the Supreme Court has interpreted this statute so that it covers no more than 13.5 million Americans. More importantly, by using Census data, this article demonstrates that the ADA covers virtually no Americans who are both disabled and able to work, eviscerating the employment discrimination provisions of the ADA.

This article places that problem in the larger context of the Court undermining Congress’ efforts to protect discrete and insular minorities from employment discrimination. Although …

Racial Adjudication, Andrew Carlon

Andrew Carlon

In oral arguments for the recent voluntary integration cases, Justice Kennedy raised for the first time a question about the limits of the Court's colorblind jurisprudence which has troubled legal scholars for the past decade: If we make no distinction between benign and discriminatory racial classifications, and none between facially race-neutral policies adopted with a racially discriminatory purpose and those where racial classifications are patent, then may we still take facially race-neutral measures to accomplish benign - but racial - goals? If using race to integrate and to segregate are the same, then why are race-neutral means to achieve each …

Private Employer Dress Codes And Laws Against Sexual Orientation And Gender Expression Discrimination: The Normative Stereotype Exception Should Not Survive, Ben Kleinman

Ben Kleinman-Green

In this paper I attempted to do two things. First, to remind readers that current exceptions to anti-discrimination law as applied to dress codes exist because courts find sexual orientation and gender to be outside the scope of Title VII and because courts have ruled that many dress codes that distinguish between men and women do not do so in an objectively harmful way. Second, to show that laws specifically prohibiting sexual orientation and gender discrimination effectively vitiate the ability of the courts to apply normative stereotype exceptions.