Law Commons^™

The Quiet Revolution In Minority Voting Rights, Laughlin Mcdonald

Vanderbilt Law Review

The modern voting rights movement began with passage of the Voting Rights Act of 19651 and was essentially black and southern. To-day that movement, propelled by a series of congressional amendments to the Act, favorable court decisions, and the concerted efforts of minority and civil rights communities, is multiracial and national in character. It is also having an increasingly profound impact on American politics.

Although the 1965 Act had provisions that applied nationwide,Congress intentionally targeted seven states of the old Confederacy-Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia, and portions of North Carolina-for the application of unique and stringent measures described …

Race And Economic Opportunity, Robert L. Woodson

Vanderbilt Law Review

The true character of a nation can be judged in part by the way it treats its weakest or most vulnerable members. In the past decades, no-where has this test been more evident than in the quest for civil rights by black Americans. Civil rights has also become the leading indicator of the moral health of the Nation.

With the passage of civil rights laws, one-third of black Americans-those prepared by family status, education, or economic circumstance-walked through the doors of opportunity once they were opened. For unprepared blacks, removing racial barriers did not enable them to join the mainstream …

The Reagan Administration's Civil Rights Policy: The Challenge For The Future, William B. Reynolds

Vanderbilt Law Review

The almost twenty years that followed Brown showed real progress toward a color-blind society. That progress, however, lost momentum in the 1970s as many civil rights leaders advanced well-intended, but poorly conceived, policies with the all-too-familiar consequence of dividing people along color lines. In that decade, the bright future of race relations began to dim as discriminatory techniques--mislabelled as"benign" or "affirmative"-reemerged to work their destruction on the hopes of a public anxious to find harmonious, goodwilled solutions to the problems of the past.Today, the struggle continues for a national heritage blind to skin color or ethnic background. The challenge for …

The Continuing Violation Theory And Systemic Discrimination: In Search Of A Judicial Standard For Timely Filing, Thelma A. Crivens

Vanderbilt Law Review

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 19641 is one of the most effective federal anti-discrimination statutes in employment discrimination law. Enforcement of this statute has eliminated discriminatory acts directed at individual victims as well as discriminatory policies and practices directed at groups that traditionally have been victims of discrimination. The effectiveness of Title VII in eliminating employment policies that restrict opportunities for a group or class of employees (referred to as systemic discrimination) has been particularly important because of the economic, psychological, and social consequences that this discrimination has on members of the group as a whole. Also, …

Standards Of Proof In Section 274b Of The Immigration Reform And Control Act Of 1986, Carlos A. Gonzalez

Vanderbilt Law Review

On November 6, 1986, President Reagan signed into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), proclaiming it to be the most difficult legislative undertaking in the previous three Congresses. The Act's controversial centerpiece provides for sanctions against employers who knowingly hire, recruit, or refer for a fee undocumented aliens. While these sanctions were heralded as the most comprehensive reform in immigration law in over thirty years, opposition to them in Congress and among civil rights organizations was strong. These groups feared that employers seeking to avoid sanctions would discriminate in employment against Hispanics, Asians, and other ethnically or racially …

"Evans V. Jeff D." : Putting Private Attorneys General On Waiver, Randy M. Stedman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Prior to the Supreme Court's 1986 decision in Evans v. Jeff D.,fervent debate centered on the practice of simultaneously negotiating settlement on the merits and the award of attorney's fees in civil rights cases. Reasonable attorney's fees for prevailing plaintiffs in civil rights cases are provided at the discretion of the court under section 1988 of the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Award Act of 1976' (the Fees Act).Sparked largely by the Third Circuit's rejection of the practice of simultaneous negotiations in Prandini v. National Tea Co., wide commentary on the practice soon followed the Fees Act's passage.

Critics of simultaneous …

A Qualified Academic Freedom Privilege In Employment Litigation: Protecting Higher Education Or Shielding Discrimination?, Ayna J. Partain

Vanderbilt Law Review

Courts have long honored the fundamental principle that the right to full and fair litigation assumes the unobstructed availability of evidence.' When the divulgence of information in court threatens interests or relationships of sufficient social importance,however, courts have recognized a compelling justification for sacrificing the free flow of evidence and have created rules of privilege. Since 1972, when Congress extended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 19641 to academic institutions, colleges and universities increasingly have faced broad discovery requests for confidential personnel files by plaintiffs alleging that discriminatory factors such as sex, race, or age played an impermissible …

Civil Rights Attorney's Fees: Hensley's Path To Confusion, Tim K. Garrett

Vanderbilt Law Review

Congress enacted the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Act (Fees Act)" to promote more vigorous enforcement of the civil rights laws by attracting competent legal counsel to represent civil rights plaintiffs. To achieve this goal the Fees Act allows courts to award attorney's fees to prevailing plaintiffs in civil rights cases.' The statute, however, entails an inherent tension: the Fees Act's primary aim of compensating prevailing plaintiffs' attorneys "'for all time reasonably expended on a matter' ,, conflicts with the desire to prevent windfalls to attorneys. This conflict is especially keen when a civil rights plaintiff only partially prevails," because the …

Human Rights In Africa: Observations On The Implications Of Economic Priority, Minasse Haile

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Serious internal obstacles also block adequate realization of civil and political rights in Africa. The colonial legacy, rising popular expectations for a better life, subversion from abroad and the absence of strong national cohesion will engender political instability in African political systems that give free rein to the exercise of civil and political rights. Moreover, even if one assumes a democratic political system would be viable politically, that system may succumb to demands for increased consumption rather than promote adequate investment in infrastructure. In either event, democratic political systems will tend to be unstable, with the result that economic development …

Recent Development: Amenability Of Foreign Corporations To United States Employment Discrimination Laws, Kevin C. Tyra

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

As the Linskey court noted, the existence of employment exemption provisions in over thirty commercial treaties, if liberally construed, would create a loophole in Title VII enforcement. Given the ever-increasing number of United States employees of foreign-owned corporations, liberal treaty constructions could decrease the scope of Title VII.

Nevertheless, the effect on international commerce must be considered. Although equal employment opportunity is a laudable goal, this goal may conflict with the values of other cultures, as it did with the culturally-based organization and management philosophy of the C. Itoh Co. A more prudent approach to the problem of subsidiaries might …

Implied Private Remedies Under Federal Statutes: Neither A Death Knell Nor A Moratorium--Civil Rights, Securities Regulation, And Beyond, Thomas L. Hazen

Vanderbilt Law Review

The part of this Article that follows contains an examination of the implication process as it has developed in the federal courts.As will be seen, the Supreme Court has gone through a cyclical pattern of expansion and contraction in implying remedies with respect to a wide range of substantive areas. Accordingly, it is not possible to glean a single unified theory from the sixty-five years of Supreme Court activity. There are, however, a number of recurring themes, and it is possible to view all of the diverse approaches as part of a loosely defined pattern that was formulated into a …

There Is A Fountain: The Autobiography Of A Civil Rights Lawyer / Legal Regulation Of The Competitive Process, Leonard B. Boudin, Kenneth B. Germain

Vanderbilt Law Review

There is a Fountain: The Autobiography of a Civil Rights Lawyer Reviewed by Leonard B. Boudin --

This book is unlike other good legal autobiographies, such as those of D.N. Pritt,' Clarence Darrow, and more recently Charles Morgan," for Lynn throughout his life was very poor, a radical and,most importantly, Black. Those portions of his autobiography that recount his political life in college and in later years make exciting and important reading. Lynn was the only member of the Young Communist League at Syracuse University in the early 1930s, and was a member of the American Communist Party in his …

Administrative Coordination In Civil Rights Enforcement: A Regional Approach, Charles M. Lamb

Vanderbilt Law Review

The failure of traditional coordinative efforts among federal agencies suggests that new and different approaches are imperative. This Article has emphasized a regional approach for solving these problems. Experience has shown that even well-intentioned and capable administrators in Washington cannot alone ensure compliance with the federal civil rights laws. They must have the full support of key regional officials of the federal government, and they must have a certain degree of cooperation from state and local officials. One means of gaining this support and assistance is through the Councils, which bring together in one forum high-level federal, state, and local …

A Comparative Review Of Public And Private Enforcement Of Title Vii Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1964, Robert Belton

Vanderbilt Law Review

The efforts of the EEOC, the Department of Justice, and other federal and state agencies during the first decade of enforcement have been the subject of a great deal of commentary and review. Much of this commentary has been critical. Private enforcement of Title VII has produced the major legal developments, but these efforts have received little attention in the literature. This Article therefore will present a comparative review of governmental and private enforcement efforts under Title VII. A brief overview of the historical efforts to eliminate employment discrimination prior to Title VII is necessary to place private enforcement efforts …

Civil Rights And Race Relations, Law Review Editor

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Symposium honors both Professor Theodore A. Smedley and the publication he served as director, the Race Relations Law Reporter. As Professor Smedley's own introductory remarks point out, the publication of this Symposium in 1978 is particularly appropriate. First, it marks the tenth anniversary of the final issue of the Reporter, a journal whose importance and usefulness to the civil rights field is well known to all who have been active in the area. In publishing this Symposium, Vanderbilt Law School continues an important tradition in which Professor Smedley has played a major role.

Theodore A. Smedley And The Race Relations Law Reporter, Paul H. Sanders

Vanderbilt Law Review

Beginning in 1959, Ted Smedley served with personal distinction and national recognition as Director of the Race Relations Law Reporter and as Director and Editor of the successor publications,the Race Relations Law Survey and the Race Relations Law Index. Professor Smedley, who joined the Board of Editors of the Race Relations Law Reporter in the fall of 1957 as one of three Associate Directors, engaged in editorial activities in this dynamic and sensitive area over a seventeen-year period, an era marked by tremendous ferment and revolutionary change. The quality of his work is evident in the words published within the …

The Old Order Changeth, Theodore A. Smedley

Vanderbilt Law Review

The publication of this Symposium in 1978 marks the tenth anniversary of the final publication of the Race Relations Law Reporter. The timing of the Symposium is particularly appropriate for another reason as well. In 1968, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorder, commonly known as the Kerner Commission,issued a report that had been requested by President Lyndon B.Johnson in July 1967. The Commission, which was to investigate the underlying causes of the riots that plagued America's larger cities during the 1960's, offered the pessimistic conclusion that "Our Nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white-separate and unequal." …

Front Pay--Prophylactic Relief Under Title Vii Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1964, Gregg N. Grimsley

Vanderbilt Law Review

This note will attempt to analyze the front pay award as it must exist within the general framework of section 706(g). After first defining the nature of the front pay award, this note will examine the interrelationship between back pay and the rightful place theory that creates the need for prospective relief. Next, the award shall be analyzed in light of both the legislative history of section 706(g)and the National Labor Relations Act, from which section 706(g) is copied. Finally, the cases that have addressed the issue shall be analyzed and the problems that will arise in the computation of …

Book Review, Henry P. Coppolillo

Vanderbilt Law Review

We often are startled when someone presents us with a new awareness of the significance of issues or phenomena at which we have been looking for years but have never really seen. Freda Adler will startle a number of people who read her book Sisters in Crime. She will also anger them. The only thing her book will not do is leave people unmoved. Sisters in Crime provides punch, provocation, revelation, promise, and explanation, as the author uses the central theme of the change in the rate and nature of crimes committed by women to explore women's roles and fortunes …

Negro Demonstrations And The Law: Danville As A Test Case, James W. Ely, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

In at least some measure, the Negro demonstrations of the 1960's were an attempt to create tensions and intimidate the white public into taking actions favored by the black minority, or, that failing, to provoke such a savage reaction from the whites as to arouse national public opinion. Violence and threats of violence were an integral part of this strategy. It is to the credit of Virginia leaders at all levels that they recognized this overt threat and refused to yield to extra-legal tactics. One of the most unhappy legacies of the 1960's was the wide-spread notion that questions of …

Current Civil Rights Problems In The Collective Bargaining Process: The Bethlehem & At&T Experiences, William J. Kilberg

Vanderbilt Law Review

This article explores the development, theory, and design of the government's Contract Compliance Program and the other statutory means of pursuing equal employment opportunity. Part I is a brief explanation of the Contract Compliance Program under Executive Order 11,246. Part II presents a discussion of the legal underpinnings of the affirmative action concept. Part III deals with the decision In the Matter of Bethlehem Steel Corporation, a landmark administrative hearing under procedures established by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance, and the American Telephone & Telegraph Company Memorandum of Agreement and Consent Decree,' which has been described as "the largest …

More Than Law, Anthony J. Celebrezze

Vanderbilt Law Review

In mid-1963, at hearings' on what was to become the Civil Rights Act of 1964, I expressed my regret that some 37 years prior to the end of the twentieth century we found it necessary to take up legislation that dealt with basic human rights. Today, nearly a decade later, I express a similar regret that those rights have not yet been realized for every citizen of this nation.

"To Secure These Rights": The Need For A New Majority Coalition, Hubert H. Humphrey

Vanderbilt Law Review

We have learned in the last two decades important lessons in both the law and the politics of civil rights. I wish to underscore certain of these realities in outlining a civil rights strategy for the decade of the 1970's. We look back at the civil rights battles of the 1950's and 1960's with an air of nostalgia. In those years the legislative goals were relatively well defined: the removal of a host of legal barriers t, civil equality and equal opportunity. More than this, the legal barriers existed primarily in one section of the country so that the lives …

Racial Discrimination And The Right To Vote, Armand Derfner

Vanderbilt Law Review

Lawyers in voting discrimination cases are fond of quoting Justice Frankfurter's dictum that "the [Fifteenth] Amendment nullifies sophisticated as well as simple-minded modes of discrimination."' Unfortunately for historical accuracy and for the health of our society, this statement simply has been false for most of the century since the passage of that amendment. In the past fifteen years, however, a change has begun, and the right to vote without discrimination has gained substance. This Article is an effort to describe today's law of voting discrimination, and how that law developed. Because the present state of this area is so largely …

Recent Developments, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the recent decision of Bradley v. School Board, a Virginia federal court ordered the consolidation of the predominantly black Richmond school district with the surrounding all-white suburban school districts of Henrico and Chesterfield Counties. This decision marks the first time that a court has consolidated two or more autonomous school districts for the purpose of achieving a racial balance in the schools that reflects the racial composition of the consolidated areas as a whole. While Judge Merhige in Bradley punctiliously followed the principles enunciated by the Supreme Court in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education and its earlier desegregation …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Black citizens of Tate County, Mississippi, brought suit' seeking rescission of the County Board of Education's sale of a public school to a foundation that used the property to establish a private, segregated academy. Respondent, Tate County Board of Education, had determined that the continued operation of the dilapidated school would be uneconomical and had conveyed the property to a private citizen without knowing the purpose for which the school was to be used. The purchaser later conveyed the property to the Tate County Foundation, which established a private, segregated academy. Petitioners contended that the sale violated the equal protection …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Civil Rights--Section 1983--Municipality Subject to Section 1983 Damage Suit if Local Law Recognizes Municipal Liability

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Constitutional Law--Citizenship-Statute that Conditions Retention of United States Citizenship upon Residency Requirement Is Constitutional When Citizenship Is Not Protected by the Fourteenth Amendment Citizenship Clause

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Constitutional Law--Equal Protection --School Financing System that Substantially Relies on Local Property Tax Violates Equal Protection Clause

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Constitutional Law--Freedom of Speech--A Per Se Banon All Editorial Advertisements by a Broadcast Licensee Violates the First Amendment

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Constitutional Law--Jury Trials in Juvenile Court--Juveniles in Delinquency Proceedings Not Constitutionally Guaranteed the Right to a Jury Trial

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Constitutional Law--Search …

Another And Hopefully Final Look At The Property--Personal Liberty Distinction Of Section 1343(3), John Lecornu

Vanderbilt Law Review

Recent years have witnessed increasing confusion and uncertainty over the proper scope of section 1343(3) of Title 28 of the United States Code, the jurisdictional counterpart of section 1983 of Title 42. Both provisions originated in the Civil Rights Act of 1871. Section 1983 creates a cause of action to redress the deprivation, under color of state law, of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution or laws. Section 1343(3) grants to the federal district courts original jurisdiction, irrespective of amount in controversy, over any civil action authorized by law that is commenced by any person: "To redress …

Current Remedies For The Discriminatory Effects Of Seniority Agreements, Irving Kovarsky

Vanderbilt Law Review

This article focuses primarily upon the remedies that can be used to reconcile the preservation of legitimate objects of a seniority system with equal treatment for black workers. To provide a historical perspective demonstrating the need for these remedies, the article initially will describe the availability of relief against discriminatory seniority agreements under federal labor legislation. The article will then examine available remedies under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and under recent interpretations of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. In the concluding section, possible ways to utilize existing remedies to combat more effectively the discriminatory …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Civil Rights--Personal Injury--Intent to Injure Is Not a Prerequisite to Recovery for Police Abuse Under Section 1983

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Constitutional Law--Abortion--Statute Prohibiting Abortion of Unquickened Fetus Violates Mother's Constitutional Right of Privacy

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Constitutional Law--Obscenity--State Statute Allowing Injunction Against Dissemination of Allegedly Obscene Material Prior to Adversary Hearing Not Violative of First Amendment

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Constitutional Law--Right of Privacy--State Statute Requiring Disclosure of All Substantial Financial Interests of Public Officials is Overbroad and an Unconstitutional Invasion of Privacy

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Constitutional Law--Sixth Amendment--Admission of Prior Inconsistent Statements as Substantive Evidence Does Not Violate Right of Confrontation

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Criminal Procedure--Search and Seizure--Warrantless Search of …