Law Commons^™

Race And The Court In The Progressive Era, Michael J. Klarman

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the second decade of the twentieth century, the Supreme Court decided four prominent (groups of) cases involving race. On each occasion, the civil rights claim won in some significant sense. One set of cases involved so-called peonage legislation-laws that coerced (primarily) black labor. In Bailey v. Alabama, the Court invalidated under the federal Peonage Act of 18672 and the Thirteenth Amendment an Alabama law making it a crime to enter, with fraudulent intent, into a labor contract that provided for advance payment of wages; the law made breach of the contract prima facie evidence of fraudulent intent, and Alabama …

Federalism And Civil Rights: Complementary And Competing Paradigms, James F. Blumstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

Until the Nixon Administration, federalism was not talked about much in the United States in the post-New Deal period and was not taken seriously as an intellectual matter. Increasingly, however, federalism has become an important domestic' and a critical worldwide issue. It may not be an exaggeration to say that federalism has indeed become the pervasive legal/political issue around the world.

In this Article I will make four points. First, by way of background and overview, I will conclude that the goal of federalism is and should be to encourage and facilitate geographically-based political autonomy without placing at risk the …

Introduction: Civil Rights In The Workplace Of The 1990s, Sandi R. Murphy

Vanderbilt Law Review

Throughout history courts and legislatures alternatively have enlarged and diminished civil rights protections." Today, employment discrimination claims are the most commonly litigated civil rights cases. A succession of cases decided by a new conservative majority of Justices during the 1988 Supreme Court Term has altered radically the delicate balance of civil rights in the workplace. The then prevailing economic, political, and legal environment seemed to be impervious to any advances in employment discrimination protections.

Since that Term, courts and legislatures at the state and federal levels have promulgated a confusing combination of advances and re- treats in employment discrimination law. …

Exclusion Of Personal Injury Damages: Have The Courts Gone Too Far?, Susan K. Matlow

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Internal Revenue Code (Code) sweeps into gross income "all income from whatever source derived," including, but not limited to, compensation for services, interest, dividends, rents, and alimony payments.' Specific statutory exclusions may exempt from gross income certain items that Congress has determined deserve favorable tax treatment. One such exclusion, section 104(a)(2), provides that gross income shall not include "the amount of any damages received (whether by suit or agreement and whether as lump-sums or as periodic payments) on account of personal injuries or sickness."' Congress enacted section 104(a)(2)'s predecessor in 1918," and in spite of subsequent revolutionary tax reform, …

Brewer's Plea: Critical Thoughts On Common Cause, Richard Delgado

Vanderbilt Law Review

As most legal readers know, members of the Critical Race Studies (CRS) school" and mainstream civil rights scholars have been carrying on a rather spectacular and highly public debate. First, Randall Kennedy, a mainstream scholar, took the newcomers to task in his Racial Critiques article, charging us with making unfounded accusations and grandiose claims,' with finding racial exclusion where none exists, and with various other sins of omission and commission. The controversy moved next to the pages of the popular press. Then, in the June 1990 issue of Harvard Law Review, three members of CRS and a white sympathizer were …

Title Vii Remedies: Reinstatement And The Innocent Incumbent Employee, Larry M. Parsons

Vanderbilt Law Review

Congress enacted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 19641 twenty-five years ago. Through Title VII Congress sought to remove artificial barriers that limited employment opportunities for minorities. The statute is not limited, however, to prohibiting race discrimination. Title VII directly confronts the problem of discrimination in the workplace by prohibiting employment decisions based on the race, color, religion, sex, or national origin of the employee or applicant. The Act prohibits an employer from favoring one group of employees over another due to irrelevant characteristics and classifications.

Title VII litigation occupies a significant portion of the federal docket. The …

The State Of The Union: Civil Rights, Paul G. Wolfteich

Vanderbilt Law Review

"The times," wrote Bob Dylan in 1963, "they are a-changin'." One hundred years after formal emancipation, blacks in 1963 were beginning to see the end of laws that prevented their full participation in American society. The United States Supreme Court had struck down the separate but equal doctrine, Congress had passed the first civil rights legislation in seventy-five years, and the executive branch was enforcing the law. Anthony Lewis wrote in the mid-1960s that "[n]o one could doubt that the conscience of America has been seized by the injustice of unequal treatment because of a man's skin." A women's liberation …

The Fair Housing Amendments Act Of 1988: The Second Generation Of Fair Housing, James A. Kushner

Vanderbilt Law Review

A generation has passed since the legislative victories of the 1960s extending civil rights protection: twenty-five years since the passage of the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964,1 twenty-four years since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, and twenty-one years since the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. As we enter the second generation of civil rights enforcement under new Presidential leadership it is important to assess the state of civil rights, to examine the experience of first generation enforcement and the promises of the second generation.

The state of civil rights in the area of housing …

Twenty-Five Years Later: Where Do We Stand On Equal Employment Opportunity Law Enforcement?, David L. Rose

Vanderbilt Law Review

As we near the twenty-fifth anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an assessment of equal employment opportunity law is both natural and appropriate. Prior to 1964, the federal government had imposed equal employment opportunity obligations on itself as well as its contractors and subcontractors. And Title VII of the Act,which mandated such obligations, did not become effective until July 2,1965. Yet the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was the first comprehensive legislation to address the problems of discrimination in American society, became the cornerstone of modern civil rights law, including equal employment opportunity law.The …

The Courts' Response To The Reagan Civil Rights Agenda, Drew S. Days, Iii

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Reagan Administration came to Washington, D.C. committed to reintroducing traditional theories of civil rights enforcement. The thesis of this Essay is that the Administration's efforts concerning the enforcement of civil rights were not successful. Of course, only time will tell whether civil rights jurisprudence will be altered because of forces set in motion by the Administration and changes in the makeup of the judiciary.Using the United States v. Carotene Products Co.' decision as the point of departure for a consideration of twentieth-century civil rights doctrine, it is apparent that the original goal of the Supreme Court's civil rights policy …

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 …

Implications Of Prison Privatization For The Conduct Of Prisoner Litigation Under 42 U.S.C., Susan L. Kay

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Prisoners often seek redress in federal courts through causes of action brought under 42 U.S.C. Section 19831 for violations of their constitutional rights caused by the overall condition of their confinement or by one specific condition or incident. Although commentators disagree over the extent to which these cases burden federal district courts, they agree that prisoner litigation constitutes a large percentage of the civil rights litigation in district courts. One of the attractions of prison privatization for state and local governments is the belief that contracting prison management to private firms will relieve the government of the burden of defending …

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 …

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." …

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 …

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.

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 …