Law Commons^™

The Sit-Ins And The State Action Doctrine, Christopher W. Schmidt

All Faculty Scholarship

By taking their seats at “whites only” lunch counters across the South in the spring of 1960, African American students not only launched a dramatic new stage in the civil rights movement, they also sparked a national reconsideration of the scope of the constitutional equal protection requirement. The critical constitutional question raised by the sit-in movement was whether the Fourteenth Amendment, which after Brown v. Board of Education (1954) prohibited racial segregation in schools and other state-operated facilities, applied to privately owned accommodations open to the general public. From the perspective of the student protesters, the lunch counter operators, and …

Operatively White: Exploring The Significance Of Race And Class Through The Paradox Of Black Middle-Classness, Audrey Mcfarlane

All Faculty Scholarship

The black–white paradigm has been the crucial paradigm in racial geography of land use, housing and development. Yet it is worthwhile to consider that, in this context, distinctions based on race are accompanied by a powerful, racialized discourse of middle class versus poor. The black–white paradigm in exclusionary zoning, for example, involves the wealthy or middle-class white person (we need not even use the term white) protesting against or displacing the poor black person. (we also need not even use the term black). Another example of the racialized discourse of middle class versus poor is in the urban-gentrification context. The …

Revisiting Beccaria's Vision: The Enlightenment, America's Death Penalty, And The Abolition Movement, John Bessler

All Faculty Scholarship

In 1764, Cesare Beccaria, a 26-year-old Italian criminologist, penned On Crimes and Punishments. That treatise spoke out against torture and made the first comprehensive argument against state-sanctioned executions. As we near the 250th anniversary of its publication, law professor John Bessler provides a comprehensive review of the abolition movement from before Beccaria's time to the present. Bessler reviews Beccaria's substantial influence on Enlightenment thinkers and on America's Founding Fathers in particular. The Article also provides an extensive review of Eighth Amendment jurisprudence and then contrasts it with the trend in international law towards the death penalty's abolition. It then discusses …

Funny Money: How Federal Education Funding Hurts Poor And Minority Students, Cassandra Jones Havard

All Faculty Scholarship

Neither race nor class alone can predict educational achievement. However, in America, disparities in funding for education may be an impediment to educational opportunity for disadvantaged youth. At the crux of the Nation's achievement gap among minority children is the question of the how states should allocate federal education funds, and how local school districts should use those monies. Educators have long recognized that the socioeconomic circumstances of many public school students present great educational challenges. Since 1965, Congress has authorized the use of federal funds by local school districts to remedy the achievement gap.

Part I of this Article …

The Hundred-Years War: The Ongoing Battle Between Courts And Agencies Over The Right To Interpret Federal Law, Nancy M. Modesitt

All Faculty Scholarship

Since the Supreme Court’s 1984 Chevron decision, the primary responsibility for interpreting federal statutes has increasingly resided with federal agencies in the first instance rather than with the federal courts. In 2005, the Court reinforced this approach by deciding National Telecommunications Ass'n v. Brand X Internet Services, which legitimized the agency practice of interpreting federal statutes in a manner contrary to the federal courts' established interpretation, so long as the agency interpretation is entitled to deference under the well-established Chevron standard. In essence, agencies are free to disregard federal court precedent in these circumstances. This Article analyzes the question left …

Things Fall Apart: The Illegitimacy Of Property Rights In The Context Of Past Theft, Bernadette Atuahene

All Faculty Scholarship

In many states, past property theft is a volatile political issue that threatens to destabilize nascent democracies. How does a state avoid instability when past property theft causes a significant number of people to believe that the property distribution is illegitimate? To explore this question, I first define legitimacy relying on an empirical understanding of the concept. Second, I establish the relationship between inequality, illegitimate property distribution, and instability. Third, I describe the three ways a state can achieve stability when faced with an illegitimate property distribution: by using its coercive powers, by attempting to change people’s beliefs about the …

Performing Discretion Or Performing Discrimination: An Analysis Of Race And Ritual In Batson Decisions In Capital Jury Selection, Melynda J. Price

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Research shows the mere presence of Blacks on capital juries--on the rare occasions they are seated--can mean the difference between life and death. Peremptory challenges are the primary method to remove these pivotal participants. Batson v. Kentucky developed hearings as an immediate remedy for the unconstitutional removal of jurors through racially motivated peremptory challenges. These proceedings have become rituals that sanction continued bias in the jury selection process and ultimately affect the outcome of capital trials. This Article deconstructs the role of the Batson ritual in legitimating the removal of African American jurors. These perfunctory hearings fail to meaningfully interrogate …

Shattered Hearts (Full Report): The Commercial Sexual Exploitation Of American Indian Women And Girls In Minnesota., Alexandra (Sandi) Pierce

First Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking, 2009

Table of contents

Acknowledgements iii

Background 1

Organization of the report 3

I The context 4

Native women’s experiences during colonization 5

Native women’s experiences during national expansion 7

Native girls’ boarding school experiences 8

Impact of assimilation policies on Native women 10

The damage caused by life in prostitution 14

II Methods and definitions 16

III Prevalence 28

Involvement in prostitution 28

Involvement in the Internet sex trade 35

IV Patterns in entering the sex trade 36

Age of entry 36

Modes of entry 39

V Factors that facilitate entry 53

Generational trauma 53

Runaway, thrown away, and/or homeless …

Testimony On The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (Enda) And The Religious Exemption : Hearing Before The H. Comm. On Education And Labor, 111th Cong., Sept. 23, 2009 (Statement Of Adjunct Professor David N. Saperstein, Geo. U. L. Center), David N. Saperstein

Testimony Before Congress

We are long past the point when our laws should permit discrimination against any individual because of their sexual orientation. Just as we do not tolerate behavior that discriminates based on race, gender, national origin or religion, so should we be clear about discrimination based on the characteristic of being gay or lesbian. For many of America’s faith traditions, this is a religious value. It is a moral value. And for all of us, it is of great social and economic value, as evidenced by the nearly 90% of Fortune 500 companies that already have policies consistent with ENDA. They …

Brief Of Amici Curiae Fred T. Korematsu Center For Law And Equality, Asian Bar Association Of Washington, South Asian Bar Association Of Washington, And Washington Women Lawyers, Lorraine K. Bannai, Counsel For Amici Curiae

Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality

Civil Rights Amicus Brief Project

The Same-Sex Future, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Height Discrimination In Employment, Isaac B. Rosenberg

W&M Law Student Publications

This Article looks critically at heightism, i.e., prejudice or discrimination against a person on the basis of his or her height. Although much scholarship has focused on other forms of trait-based discrimination—most notably weight and appearance discrimination, both of which indirectly involve height as a component—little has focused on “pure” height discrimination. Nevertheless, within the past five years courts, scholars, and legislatures have increasingly tackled these non-traditional forms of discrimination. As such, this Article endeavors to fill the gap in the existing scholarship.

This Article specifically focuses on heightism in the workplace, with an emphasis on prejudice against short people …

E-Filing And Privacy: What Every Lawyer Needs To Know, Rebecca Green

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Book Review (Judith Kilpatrick's There When We Needed Him: Wiley Austin Branton, Civil Rights Warrior), Sophia Z. Lee

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

States Of Resistance: The Real Id Act And The Limits Of Federal Deputization Of State Agencies In The Regulation Of Non-Citizens, Shirley Lin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The goal of this Article is to discuss the justiciability of issues arising under immigration federalism by examining the constitutionality of the REAL ID Act. Part I discusses states' authority over non-citizens and the history of "immigration federalism" jurisprudence. Part II explores key provisions of the REAL ID Act, the WHTI, and similar attempts by the federal government to deputize states to engage in citizenship-policing and immigration enforcement. It describes the acute social and economic segregation that the denial of driver's licenses to non-citizens engenders, and examines a number of theories that attempt to capture the impact of the current …

Book Review Of Unspeakable: The Story Of Junius Wilson, Michael Ashley Stein, Aviam Soifer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Sexual Politics And Social Change, Darren Lenard Hutchinson

UF Law Faculty Publications

The Article examines the impact of social movement activity upon the advancement of GLBT rights. It analyzes the state and local strategy that GLBT social movements utilized to alter the legal status of sexual orientation and sexuality following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bowers v. Hardwick. Successful advocacy before state and local courts, human rights commissions, and legislatures fundamentally shifted public opinion and laws regarding sexual orientation and sexuality between Bowers and the Supreme Court’s ruling in Lawrence v. Texas. This altered landscape created the "political opportunity" for the Lawrence ruling and made the opinion relatively "safe".

Currently, GLBT rights …

Our Shared Stake, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

It's the time of the active citizen. Recent spurts of collective campaigning have mobilised surprising ground support. Eugene Tan analyses the coming age of civil society here through the passionate and visible advocacy of certain groups in recent events.

Certificate: Appreciation To Rodney Hurst From Durkeeville Historical Society

Textual material from the Rodney Lawrence Hurst, Sr. Papers

Certificate of appreciation to Rodney Hurst for his valuable contributions to Durkeeville Historical Society Inc. June 27, 2009.

The Substantive Principle Of Equal Treatment, Patrick S. Shin

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

This paper attempts to identify a principle of equal treatment that gives specific structure to our widely shared judgments about the circumstances in which we have moral reason to object to the differential adverse treatment of others. I formulate what I call a “substantive” principle of equal treatment (to be distinguished from principles of formal equality) that describes a moral constraint on the reasons we can have for picking out individuals for differentially adverse action. I argue that this constraint is violated when an action, in view of its rationale, expresses lesser respect for the moral status of an individual …

(Still) Not Fit To Be Named: Moving Beyond Race To Explain Why 'Separate' Nomenclature For Gay And Straight Relationships Will Never Be 'Equal', Courtney Megan Cahill

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

School Of Law Professors Available To Discuss Today’S California Supreme Court Ruling Upholding Proposition 8 Banning Same-Sex Marriage And Confirming Validity Of Same-Sex Marriages Conducted Before November 2008 Election

Press Releases

No abstract provided.

Program: Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission Preservation Awards

Textual material from the Rodney Lawrence Hurst, Sr. Papers

Jacksonville Historical Preservation Commission awards held on May 1, 2009

Insurance Discrimination On The Basis Of Health Status: An Overview Of Discrimination Practices, Federal Law And Federal Reform Options, Sara Rosenbaum

O'Neill Institute Papers

Actuarial underwriting, or discrimination based on an individual’s health status, is a business feature of the voluntary private insurance market. The term “discrimination” in this paper is not intended to convey the concept of unfair treatment, but rather how the insurance industry differentiates among individuals in designing and administering health insurance and employee health benefit products.

Discrimination can occur at the point of enrollment, coverage design, or decisions regarding scope of coverage. Several major federal laws aimed at regulating insurance discrimination based on health status focus at the point of enrollment. However, because of multiple exceptions and loopholes, these laws …

Golden Gate University Scholarship Honors Outstanding Lesbian And Gay Law Students

Press Releases

No abstract provided.

The Beginning Of The Second Wave Of The Women's Movement And Where We Are Today: A Personal Account, Sonia Pressman Fuentes

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

The second wave of the women’s movement, which started in the early 1960s, revolutionized women’s legal rights in the U.S. and reverberated in the rest of the world. Ms. Fuentes, a founder of NOW (National Organization for Women) and the first woman attorney in the Office of the General Counsel at the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), discusses the beginning of this movement, her role in it, the changes that have occurred since then, and the problems that remain in the US and throughout the world today.

‘Right Of Selfishness’ Vis-À-Vis Media Pluralism In The Us And In Europe: The Crucial Role Of Broadcasting At The Verge Of Private Enterprise And Public Trusteeship, Niels Lutzhoeft

Cornell Law School Inter-University Graduate Student Conference Papers

Few areas of law raise the question as to the delimitation of the public vis-à-vis the private sphere as forcefully as broadcasting does. And few businesses display the dual nature inherent in nature radio and TV broadcasting: economic versus cultural good. In Continental Europe, until the 1980s, broadcasting was subject to State monopolies that ought to ensure media pluralism. Likewise, the U.S. Supreme Court, embracing a scarcity rationale, qualified the First Amendment in the realm of broadcasting primarily as a right of the listeners and viewers to receive a wide array of information and opinions. In Red Lion, the Court …

Bloodstains On A "Code Of Honor": The Murderous Marginalization Of Women In The Islamic World, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

In the real world of the Twenty-first Century, deep biases against women are prevalent in much of Muslim society. Although there is no explicit approval of honor killing in Islamic law (Sharia), its culture remains fundamentally patriarchal. As unfathomable as it is to Western minds, "honor killing" is a facet of traditional patriarchy, and its condonation can be traced largely to ancient tribal practices. Justifications for it can be found in the codes of Hammurabi and in the family law of the Roman Empire. Unfortunately, honor killings in the Twenty-first Century are not isolated incidents, nor can they be regarded …

Intelligent Design And Tort Law: Partners In A Unified Theory Of Causation, Barbara Mouly

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Significance Of The Shift Toward As-Applied Challenges In Election Law, Joshua A. Douglas

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Election law is experiencing immense change. The Supreme Court’s recent approach to election law cases has significant implications for the scope of the right to vote and the meaning of political participation and self-governance. This Article examines the importance of the Court’s recent pronouncement that plaintiffs can bring election law challenges only as applied to a particular political actor for a particular situation, instead of challenging a law in its entirety. The “as-applied only” rule may seem like simply a procedural method for construing election laws or a mere semantic distinction, but, as I show, in reality the Court’s decisions …