Law Commons^™

California's Domestic Partnership Law: Incremental Progress Or Dramatic Social Change?, Carol A. Docan, Richard F. Sperling

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Effective January 1, 2005, the California Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act of 2003 (CDPRRA) replaced the Domestic Partnership Act of 1999, vesting registered domestic partners with new rights and a court termination procedure similar to divorce. Does the new statute legalize gay marriage? Are domestic partners eligible for spousal support? Are the registration and termination procedures voluntary? Does the Unruh Civil Rights Act now require businesses and private organizations to include gay members? The article reviews the new law and analyzes how three recent court decisions resolve these controversial issues.

To "Bring Down The Flowers": The Cultural Context Of Abortion Law In Early Modern England, Carla Spivack

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This article takes issue with claims made by Joseph Dellapenna in his 2006 book, Dispelling the Myths of Abortion History, which claims to correct the "distortions of the history" of abortion law underlying Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973). Dellapenna argues that, contrary to Justice Blackmun's historic analysis in Roe, "abortion was considered a serious crime throughout most of European history" and that "courts did... punish abortions before quickening during the Middle Ages." This article shows that Dellapenna's argument relies on serious misreading of cases and ignorance of the relevant historical, medical, and cultural context, and that pre-quickening or …

Petruska V. Gannon University: A Crack In The Stained Glass Ceiling, Sarah Fulton

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

An examination of the protections afforded to religious institutions in their hiring decisions. Both § 702 of the Civil Rights Act and the judicially created ministerial exception allow churches to use criteria that other employers are not permitted to use under the law when making hiring decisions. Beginning with McClure v. Salvation Army, courts have slowly expanded the scope of these protections, leading up to the recent case of Petruska v. Gannon University. Petruska provides an example of the extent to which a broad reading of § 702 and the ministerial exception can harm religious workers. The opinion of Judge …

Who Is To Shame? Narratives Of Neonaticide, Susan Ayres

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

In seventeenth-century England, single women who killed their newborns were believed to have acted to hide their shame. They were prosecuted under the 1624 Concealment Law and punished by death. This harsh response eventually evolved into a more humane and sympathetic one, as shown by the increasing number of acquittals in the late eighteenth century and by the sharp drop of prosecutions in the late nineteenth century. Then, in 1922, England passed the Infanticide Act, amended in 1938, which provided that a mother who killed her child would be prosecuted for manslaughter, not murder. Today, the great majority of women …

Forced Marriage And The Granting Of Asylum: A Reason To Hope After Gao V. Gonzales, Cara Goeller

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This note addresses the significance of Gao v. Gonzales through the analysis of the development of asylum gender laws in the United States. The analysis includes a brief history of asylum law in the United States and the issues the courts have addressed concerning gender and asylum law. The note concludes with an analysis of the Gao decision and the potential consequences of the decision.

Reading The Pink Locker Room: On Football Culture And Title Ix, Erin E. Buzuvis

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This article examines the public controversy that erupted after local media reported on a comment I made about the University of Iowa's decision to renovate the football stadium's visiting team locker room entirely in pink. I submitted my statement in response to the University Steering Committee on NCAA Certification's request for feedback on a draft report and suggested that the "joke" behind the pink d6cor traded in sexist and homophobic values. As such, I concluded that it belonged in the comprehensive analysis of gender equity that the committee was preparing. I immediately received hundreds of hateful e-mails and was the …

Legal Work And The Glass Cliff: Evidence That Women Are Preferentially Selected To Lead Problematic Cases, Julie S. Ashby, Michelle K. Ryan, S. Alexander Haslam

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Recent archival and experimental research by Ryan and Haslam has revealed the phenomenon of the glass cliff whereby women are more likely than men to be appointed to risky or precarious leadership positions in problematic organizational circumstances. This paper extends research on the glass cliff by examining the precariousness of the cases women are assigned in a legal context. An experimental study conducted with law students (N = 114) investigated the appointment of a candidate to lead a legal case that was defined as either low-risk or high-risk. Commensurate with patterns observed in other domains, results indicated that a male …

Theory And Practice: Employer Liability For Sexual Harassment, B. Glenn George

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Yet Another Gender Study? A Critique Of The Harvard Study And A Proposal For Change, Morrison Torrey

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Intersection Between Domestic Violence And The Child Welfare System: The Role Courts Can Play In The Protection Of Battered Mothers And Their Children, Linda Quigley

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Cross-Gender Supervision In Prison And The Constitutional Right Of Prisoners To Remain Free From Rape, Flyn L. Flesher

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

A variety of state, federal, and international laws theoretically prohibit sexual abuse of prisoners by the guards hired by the state to oversee them. Nevertheless, sexual abuse of female prisoners by male prison guards is a rampant phenomenon that the law has thus far failed to remedy. Cross-gender supervision policies exacerbate the problem by placing women in situations in which they have no escape from their attackers. These policies, which are as dangerous for some prisoners as they are humiliating to all prisoners, have generally withstood scrutiny in courts.

This note attempts to reframe the arguments challenging crossgender supervision policies …

From Arachne To Charlotte: An Imaginative Revisiting Of Gilligan's "In A Different Voice", Erika Rackley

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

More Women On Corporate Boards? Not So Fast, Jayne W. Barnard

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

"Fire Where There Is No Flame:" The Constitutionality Of Single-Sex Classrooms In The Commonwealth, Frances Elizabeth Burgin

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.