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Full-Text Articles in Law
Era Project Summary Of Argument Before Pa Supreme Court On Whether Medicaid Abortion Ban Amounts To Sex Discrimination, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Era Project Summary Of Argument Before Pa Supreme Court On Whether Medicaid Abortion Ban Amounts To Sex Discrimination, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Center for Gender & Sexuality Law
On October 26, 2022, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, a case in which reproductive rights advocates have challenged the state’s ban on Medicaid funding for abortion (Coverage Ban), arguing that the ban violates the state constitution’s explicit prohibitions against sex discrimination.
The Aesthetics Of Affirmative Action, Brian Soucek
The Aesthetics Of Affirmative Action, Brian Soucek
Studio for Law and Culture
Justice Thomas’s dissent in Grutter v. Bollinger — which dismissed diversity as an “aesthetic” — highlighted the Supreme Court’s least-discussed rationale for affirmative action in higher education: the claim that visible diversity in elite institutions bolsters those institutions’ “perceived legitimacy.” This Article takes seriously that claim, and Thomas’s critique, as distinctively aesthetic arguments about the role of appearances in public life. By distinguishing the perceived legitimacy argument from others made on behalf of affirmative action, the Article traces for the first time its origins, scope, and unacknowledged popularity. By identifying the aesthetic logic of the Court's argument and drawing on …
The Dignity Of Equality Legislation, Olatunde C.A. Johnson
The Dignity Of Equality Legislation, Olatunde C.A. Johnson
Faculty Scholarship
In Congressional Power to Effect Sex Equality, Patricia Seith argues that legal and social science commentary on the ratification failure of the Equal Rights Amendment ("ERA") does not properly account for the legislative gains achieved by the Economic Equity Act ("Equity Act"). In drawing attention to the Equity Act, Seith's account challenges common explanations of the source of women's equality gains, particularly the narratives offered by legal commentators who typically focus on the role of the Constitution and the courts. As Seith points out, the conventional account in legal history focuses on the effectuation of a "de facto ERA," …
Blood Quantum And Equal Protection, Rose Cuison Villazor
Blood Quantum And Equal Protection, Rose Cuison Villazor
Studio for Law and Culture
Modern equal protection doctrine treats laws that make distinctions on the basis of indigeneity defined on blood quantum terms along a racial/political paradigm. This dichotomy may be traced to Morton v. Mancari and more recently to Rice v. Cayetano. In Mancari, the Supreme Court held that laws that privilege members of Native American tribes do not constitute racial discrimination because the preferences have a political purpose – to further the right to self-government of tribes. Rice v. Cayetano crystallized the juxtaposition of the racial from the political nature of indigeneity by invalidating a law that privileged Native Hawaiians. That …
Hands Off Policy: Equal Protection And The Contact Sports Exemption Of Title Ix, Jamal Greene
Hands Off Policy: Equal Protection And The Contact Sports Exemption Of Title Ix, Jamal Greene
Faculty Scholarship
Before becoming a poster child for gender equity in athletics, Heather Sue Mercer was an all-state place kicker at Yorktown Heights High School in Yorktown Heights, New York (pop. 7,972). She enrolled at Duke University in the fall of 1994 and decided to become the first woman ever to try out for the Duke football team. Initially she failed to make the team as a walk-on, but the following spring she was invited by the seniors on the team to play in the annual Blue-White scrimmage. She ended up kicking a game-winning twenty-eight-yard field goal. Afterwards, Duke head coach Fred …
Equality Without Tiers, Suzanne B. Goldberg
Equality Without Tiers, Suzanne B. Goldberg
Faculty Scholarship
The immediate impact of Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger is nothing short of momentous. Not only do the Supreme Court's most recent affirmative action decisions settle the deeply contested question of whether race may be considered in higher education admissions, but they also, more broadly, envision permissible and impermissible uses of racial classifications in that context, and surface new, challenging questions about the official use of affirmative action.
Yet Grutter and Gratz are also momentous for what they tell us about the long-term struggle over the structure of equal protection doctrine. This struggle, which has been under way …
Environmental Justice And Natural Areas Protection Trends & Insight, Michael B. Gerrard
Environmental Justice And Natural Areas Protection Trends & Insight, Michael B. Gerrard
Faculty Scholarship
There are 3,119,963 square miles in the continental United States. That sounds like plenty of space to put just about anything. However, when the facility seeking a home is environmentally controversial, finding even one square mile can seem almost impossible.
This country is now in its third major era in making siting decisions. The first era – unconstrained siting – lasted until the late 1960s. Then began the second era – protecting natural areas. In the early 1990s, we embarked upon a third era – environmental justice. The growing tensions between protecting natural areas and achieving environmental justice suggest that …