Law Commons^™

Foreword—Police Misconduct And Kibbe V. City Of Springfield, Harris Freeman

Faculty Scholarship

The Law Review’s 2017 symposium, “Perspectives on Racial Justice in the Era of #BlackLivesMatter,” appropriately opened with a panel that addressed the ongoing challenge of combating police misconduct, as seen through the lens of Kibbe v. City of Springfield, a civil rights case that unfolded in Western Massachusetts and reached the United States Supreme Court thirty years ago. Kibbe presented the Court with the question of what the proper standard of liability should be for a municipality accused of a civil rights violation under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for inadequately training a police officer who violates a person’s civil …

Obama’S National Security Exceptionalism, Sudha Setty

Faculty Scholarship

This Article discusses how continued national security exceptionalism engenders a view of the United States as considering itself to be above international obligations to investigate and prosecute torturers and war criminals, and the view by the global community that the United States is willing to apply one standard for itself, and another for the rest of the world. Exceptionalism not only poses real challenges in terms of law, morality, and building useful relationships with allied nations, but acts as a step backward for the creation of enforceable international norms and standards, and in efforts to restore a balance in the …

Alabama’S Dmv Closures Reinforce Need To Restore The Voting Rights Act, Lauren Carasik

Media Presence

No abstract provided.

Supreme Court Argument On Same-Sex Marriage Clouds Predictions, Lauren Carasik

Media Presence

No abstract provided.

Us Aid Proposal Could Worsen Violence In El Salvador, Lauren Carasik

Media Presence

No abstract provided.

Doj Clears Wilson But Excoriates Ferguson Police, Lauren Carasik

Media Presence

No abstract provided.

In Abercrombie Case, Supreme Court Should Protect Religious Freedom, Lauren Carasik

Media Presence

No abstract provided.

The Real State Of The Union 2015, Lauren Carasik

Media Presence

No abstract provided.

Unmistakably Clear: Human Rights, The Right To Representation, And Remedial Voting Rights Of People Of Color, Matthew H. Charity

Faculty Scholarship

The Author critiques the Supreme Court’s analysis in its Shelby County v. Holder decision, which found the preclearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional by applying a disparate treatment analysis to how States were treated under the Act. Such a reading of the Act makes a number of tacit and explicit assumptions with regard to the choice by the Federal Government and by the States of whose rights governmental actors must protect. The Court reached its conclusion by decontextualizing the Civil Rights movement and the Voting Rights Act from decolonization and post-World War II expressions of human rights, a …

Was The First Justice Harlan Anti-Chinese?, James W. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

The first Justice John Marshall Harlan has long been recognized as a defender of Black civil rights. Yet some scholars challenge Harlan’s egalitarian reputation by arguing that he was anti-Chinese. In this Article, the Author discusses the evidence which has been offered to support the claim that Harlan was anti-Chinese and offers additional evidence never before presented to argue against this hypothesis. Harlan’s critics have assembled some evidence in a way that suggests Harlan had an anti-Chinese bias. The Author suggests that the evidence is ambiguous and that it can be assembled to produce a different picture from the one …

Targeted Killings And The Interest Convergence Dilemma, Sudha Setty

Faculty Scholarship

In the 1980s, Professor Derrick Bell posited a theory of interest convergence as part of his critical race theory work, arguing that the major strides forward in civil rights law and policy that benefited African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s only occurred because of the perceived benefits of those changes to white elites during that time. In Bell’s view, it was only at the point at which the interests of powerful whites converged with those of marginalized racial minorities that significant changes in civil rights law could occur.

Twelve years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, numerous …

Equality Beyond The Three-Part Test: Exploring And Explaining The Invisibility Of Title Ix’S Equal Treatment Requirement, Erin E. Buzuvis, Kristine E. Newhall

Faculty Scholarship

It is clear from the proliferation of cases and complaints challenging programmatic disparities in school and college athletic programs that Title IX’s goal of equal treatment has not been fully realized. As the scholarship addressing equal treatment in athletics has been minimal, this Article is an effort to add to this scholarship in order to provide a greater understanding of equal treatment provisions. It examines why many school officials administer athletic departments in apparent oblivion to Title IX’s equal treatment mandate.

The Article provides the history of Title IX’s equal treatment provisions and their enforcement at the high school and …

The Place Of Law In Ivan Illich's Vision Of Social Transformation, Bruce K. Miller

Faculty Scholarship

This Article discusses Ivan Illich’s direction for social reform that led to his book, "Tools for Conviviality", where Illich targeted development, technology, and the exploitation of nature. Illich identified three key cultural institutions that needed to be reclaimed in order to bring about an inversion of industrial society: science, language, and law. This Article focuses on the rule of law and its central institutional invention—formal adjudication.

The Author suggests that Illich’s idealism can still be found in the law reform litigation effort and identifies the diminished stature of the ideal of disinterested adjudication as a significant threat to Illich’s hopes …

National Security Interest Convergence, Sudha Setty

Faculty Scholarship

Over a decade after the attacks of September 11, 2001, lawmakers, scholars, activists, and policy makers continue to confront the questions of whether and to what extent robust counterterrorism laws and policies should be reined in to protect against the abuse of civil rights and the marginalization of outsider groups. This Article uses political and critical race theory to identify areas of national security interest convergence in which political will can be marshaled to limit some national security policies.

Legislators act in their political self-interest — both in terms of responding to party forces and constituents — in casting votes …

Transgender Jurisprudence: Dysphoric Bodies Of Law, Jennifer L. Levi

Faculty Scholarship

This is a book review of Andrew Sharpe's "Transgender Jurisprudence: Dysphoric Bodies of Law." The Author discusses the contribution Sharpe makes to the transgender rights movement as invaluable for two reasons. First, it provides the first in-depth and full-length comprehensive treatment of the topic of transgender jurisprudence, and emerges as the foundational work by which others will be measured. Second, it exposes the homophobia underlying many of the key decisions, particularly in the area of marriage and family law, and provides an important link between the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender movements which should not be ignored by activists from …

Paving The Road: A Charles Hamilton Houston Approach To Securing Trans Rights, Jennifer L. Levi

Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that securing the rights of transgender people requires a comprehensive and long-term litigation strategy and suggests Charles Hamilton Houston as the architect of the modern Civil Rights movement and the inspiration for a trans rights litigation strategy. Section II briefly details the life of Charles Hamilton Houston and focuses on the legal strategy he designed and carried out to overturn Plessy. It continues by drawing some conclusions about what Houston's plan teaches about the struggle for trans rights and a trans litigation strategy. Section III examines the reasons certain cases challenge assumptions about sex and gender, such …

Leveling The Playing Field: Reforming The Office For Civil Rights To Achieve Better Title Ix Enforcement, Sudha Setty

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article the Author discusses improving Title IX compliance in athletic programs by reforming the Office for Civil Rights ("OCR"), the agency within the Department of Education responsible for Title IX enforcement. The Author addresses several problem areas within OCR's procedures, including OCR's approach toward student grievances, its standards for assessing alleged Title IX violations, and its inadequate monitoring and enforcement of institutions in violation of Title IX.

Part I introduces the history of Title IX. Part II describes the legislation and regulations that mandate gender equity in educational institutions. Part III summarizes the case law that has affected …