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Full-Text Articles in Law
Anti-Transgender Constitutional Law, Katie Eyer
Anti-Transgender Constitutional Law, Katie Eyer
Vanderbilt Law Review
Over the course of the last three decades, gender identity anti-discrimination protections and other transgender-supportive government policies have increased, as government entities have sought to protect and support the transgender community. But constitutional litigation by opponents of transgender equality has also proliferated, seeking to limit or eliminate such trans-protective measures. Such litigation has attacked as unconstitutional everything from laws prohibiting anti-transgender employment discrimination to the efforts of individual public school teachers to support transgender teens.
This Article provides the first systematic account of the phenomenon of anti-transgender constitutional litigation. As described herein, such litigation is surprisingly novel: while trans-protective measures …
The Political Economy Of Corporate Exit, Susan S. Kuo, Benjamin Means
The Political Economy Of Corporate Exit, Susan S. Kuo, Benjamin Means
Vanderbilt Law Review
Critics contend that corporations subvert democracy by using their economic resources to lobby for corporate-friendly policies and to elect accommodating politicians.' Those who take a more sanguine view-notably, a majority of the Supreme Court-reject the claim that corporate dollars corrupt the political process. Yet, there is general agreement that corporate political activity includes financial contributions, lobbying efforts, participation in trade groups, and political advertising, all of which give corporations a "voice" in public decisionmaking.
This Essay contends that the accepted definition of corporate political activity is too narrow and overlooks the importance of "exit." When faced with objectionable laws or …
Toward A Definitive History Of Griggs V. Duke Power Co., David J. Garrow
Toward A Definitive History Of Griggs V. Duke Power Co., David J. Garrow
Vanderbilt Law Review
When Griggs v. Duke Power Co. was unanimously handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 8, 1971, the decision did not draw prominent headlines. The New York Times accorded the ruling only a two-sentence summary on page twenty-one, and the Wall Street Journal gave it modest attention on page four. The Washington Post did give the decision front-page coverage, but Gillette v. United States, a Selective Service Act case, was awarded a prominent, top-of-the-page, two-column headline while Griggs received secondary attention. Notwithstanding how modest the contemporaneous news coverage was, knowledgeable judges, scholars, and litigators quickly acknowledged how Griggs …
After Gina, Nina? Neuroscience-Based Discrimination In The Workplace, Stephanie A. Kostiuk
After Gina, Nina? Neuroscience-Based Discrimination In The Workplace, Stephanie A. Kostiuk
Vanderbilt Law Review
In 1990, the Human Genome Project ("HGP") was formed to decipher and sequence the human genome, to develop new tools to obtain and analyze genetic data, and to make the information widely available.' Researchers completed the HGP in 2003 with the genetic technology and resources developed providing new opportunities for medical progress. In particular, discoveries about the genetic basis of illness and the development of genetic testing allowed for earlier diagnosis and detection of genetic predispositions to disease. These advances, however, also gave rise to the potential misuse of genetic information, as revealed by genetic testing, to discriminate against and …
Killing The Messenger: The Misuse Of Disparate Impact Theory To Challenge High-Stakes Educational Tests, Jennifer C. Braceras
Killing The Messenger: The Misuse Of Disparate Impact Theory To Challenge High-Stakes Educational Tests, Jennifer C. Braceras
Vanderbilt Law Review
There are two basic theoretical models for addressing claims of discrimination: disparate treatment and disparate impact. The disparate treatment model attempts to expose and punish intentional discrimination; the disparate impact model seeks to eliminate policies that, while neutral on their face, disproportionately harm members of a protected class. Since 1991, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in employment, has expressly permitted plaintiffs to challenge employment practices with a disproportionate impact on certain protected groups. By contrast, Title VI, which prohibits discrimination by federally assisted programs including most schools, does not explicitly authorize claims of …
The Dynamics Of Democracy: Travel, Premature Predation, And The Components Of Political Identity, Nicholas S. Zeppos
The Dynamics Of Democracy: Travel, Premature Predation, And The Components Of Political Identity, Nicholas S. Zeppos
Vanderbilt Law Review
Democracy is indeed an elusive concept and any effort to develop the constituent elements of so important a political idea ought to be encouraged. From any number of perspectives it is clear that democracy must include more than simply ratifying the outcomes of either citizen or representative voting., And when a court is asked to set aside the results of a process some describe as democratic, the challenge to enrich the concept becomes even more pressing, particularly when the judicial power is invoked in the name of enhancing democracy. The Supreme Court's decision in Romer v. Evan dramatically poses the …
Retroactive Application Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1991, Kristine N. Mcalister
Retroactive Application Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1991, Kristine N. Mcalister
Vanderbilt Law Review
On November 21, 1991, President Bush signed the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (the "Act") into law. The Act contained a general section stating that its provisions should take effect upon enactment. What the Act did not do, however, is indicate whether it should apply to cases pending at the time of its enactment. Since the Act is more favorable to plaintiffs than was its predecessor, plaintiffs whose cases were pending at the time of its enactment have attempted to amend their complaints to benefit from the new Act's provisions. Congress's failure to indicate whether the Act should apply to …
The Death Of The Employer: Image, Text, And Title Vii, D. Marvin Jones
The Death Of The Employer: Image, Text, And Title Vii, D. Marvin Jones
Vanderbilt Law Review
It is incredible that our people's faith could have brought them so much they sought in the law and left them with so little they need in life. It is so unfair. Like the crusaders of old we sought our Holy Grail of "equal opportunity," and having gained it in court decisions and civil rights statutes, found the quest to be for naught. Equal opportunity, far from being the means of achieving racial equality, has become yet another device for perpetuating the racial status quo.'
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was hailed as the most important …
Title Vii Remedies: Reinstatement And The Innocent Incumbent Employee, Larry M. Parsons
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 …
Twenty-Five Years Later: Where Do We Stand On Equal Employment Opportunity Law Enforcement?, David L. Rose
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 Reagan Administration's Civil Rights Policy: The Challenge For The Future, William B. Reynolds
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 …
Burdens Of Pleading And Proof In Discrimination Cases: Toward A Theory Of Procedural Justice, Robert Belton
Burdens Of Pleading And Proof In Discrimination Cases: Toward A Theory Of Procedural Justice, Robert Belton
Vanderbilt Law Review
If the national policy of eliminating discrimination is to be achieved, the courts--to whom the major responsibility for effectuating this goal is delegated--must establish a coherent framework for allocating the burdens of pleading and proof that provides "a sensible, orderly way to evaluate the evidence in light of common experience as it bears on the critical question of discrimination."' The purpose of this Article, therefore, is to propose such a coherent approach to the allocation of the burdens of pleading and proof in discrimination cases. Towards this end, part II of the Article examines the definitional and operational effect of …
Book Reviews, George A. Hay, H. Michael Mann, Teresa Amott
Book Reviews, George A. Hay, H. Michael Mann, Teresa Amott
Vanderbilt Law Review
Book Reviews:
The Antitrust Penalties: A Study in Law and Economics By Kenneth G. Elzinga and William Breit
Reviewed by George A. Hay
The Antitrust Penalties was published in 1976. Its main mes-sage is that the only efficient antitrust penalty is a heavy fine and that incarceration comes out poorly by any benefit-cost standard.Later that year, in a celebrated and possibly unprecedented appearance, newly appointed Assistant Attorney General Donald I. Baker argued before a federal district judge that jail sentences were the appropriate penalty for a group of defendants who had just been convicted in one of the major price-fixing …
Recent Cases, Vanderbilt Law Review Staff
Recent Cases, Vanderbilt Law Review Staff
Vanderbilt Law Review
Civil Rights--Private Education-Racially Discriminatory Admissions Policies Violate Right to Contract Provision of 42 U.S.C. § 1981
Plaintiffs, ' blacks who had been denied admission solely on the basis of their race to two all-white private schools that received no state aid,' sought damages and injunctive relief in federal district court contending that these rejections violated section 1981 of 42 U.S.C. by denying them the same right to contract as enjoyed by white citizens.
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Copyright--Telecommunications--CATV Importation of Distant Television Signals Constitutes Infringement Under Sections One (c) & (d) of the Copyright Act
Plaintiffs,' creators and producers of television programs,brought a …
Post--Brown Private White Schools--An Imperfect Dualism, James E. Smith
Post--Brown Private White Schools--An Imperfect Dualism, James E. Smith
Vanderbilt Law Review
Federal courts have endeavored to assure that private discrimination practiced by schools is truly private. In this endeavor, courts have enjoined any significant state involvement as violative of the equal protection clause. The courts have shown no inclination to prohibit the private discrimination itself, however, and it appears unlikely that courts in the near future will take the innovative step of barring discrimination practiced by private white academies.
Current Remedies For The Discriminatory Effects Of Seniority Agreements, Irving Kovarsky
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 …
Non-Discrimination In The Sale Or Rental Of Real Property, Edward W. Brooke, T. A. Smedley, Arthur Kinoy, Sam J. Ervin, Jr.
Non-Discrimination In The Sale Or Rental Of Real Property, Edward W. Brooke, T. A. Smedley, Arthur Kinoy, Sam J. Ervin, Jr.
Vanderbilt Law Review
The final version of the Fair Housing title anticipates a more active role for the federal government in the areas not presently covered by state or prior federal law. There is a central distinction between the protection afforded by the Act and the Jones decision. Where the latter recognizes the right of citizens to have their rights adjudicated, the former recognizes that not every victim of discrimination is willing or can afford to undergo the difficulty and expense of private litigation. The Fair Housing Law therefore provides for certain types of federal initiative to guarantee those rights. At the same …
A Comparative Analysis Of Title Viii And Section 1982, T. A. Smedley
A Comparative Analysis Of Title Viii And Section 1982, T. A. Smedley
Vanderbilt Law Review
Future chroniclers of the struggle for racial justice in the United States may note with some perplexity that the federal government,after a century of cautiously eschewing the power to combat racially discriminatory practices in housing, suddenly in 1968 entered the battle on two fronts. On April 11, The Civil Rights Act of 1968, with its Fair Housing Title, became the law of the land. Just over two months later the Supreme Court in Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.ruled, on the basis of earlier legislation, that refusal to sell housing because of the race of the prospective purchaser is unlawful. …
The Experience Of State Fair Employment Commissions: A Comparative Study, Arnold H. Sutin
The Experience Of State Fair Employment Commissions: A Comparative Study, Arnold H. Sutin
Vanderbilt Law Review
Passage of the new federal civil rights law in 1964 might have been expected to decrease the importance of the state fair employment practices (FEP) laws. Congress, however, chose not merely to permit these laws to continue in force to deal with purely local problems,but went further to entrust the primary administration of title VII, the federal fair employment statute, to state agencies where they exist. Thus the experience of these state agencies is of even greater importance now than formerly, for they will perform the day to day work of carrying out our nation's policy to prohibit discrimination in …