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Section 5: Civil Rights And Liberties, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

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Justice Kennedy's Big New Idea, Sandra F. Sperino

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

In a 2015 case, the Supreme Court held that plaintiffs could bring disparate impact claims under the Fair Housing Act (the "FHA"). In the majority opinion, Justice Kennedy relied heavily on the text and supporting case law interpreting Title VII of the Civil Rights Act ("Title VII") and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (the "ADEA '). Without explicitly recognizing the powerful new idea he was advocating, Justice Kennedy's majority opinion radically reconceptualized federal employment discrimination jurisprudence. This new reading of Title VII and the ADEA changes both the theoretical framing of the discrimination statutes and greatly expands their scope. …

Rationed Justice, Jennifer M. Smith

Journal Publications

In the United States, "equal justice under law" is at the very forefront of our American justice system. "Equal justice" is meant to guarantee equal access to the justice system. "Equal access to the judicial process is the sin qua non of a just society." Many Americans, however, do not have any access to the justice system, never mind that of equal access. "Equal justice" has not reached the nation's indigent, or even many of our moderate-income citizens.

A Civil Rights Act For The 21st Century: The Privileges And Immunities Clause And A Constitutional Guarantee To Be Free From Discriminatory Impact, Mark Dorosin

Journal Publications

As the nation reflects on the fiftieth anniversaries of the various civil rights legislation of the 1960s' and considers the challenges that remain for fully addressing our history of racial discrimination, segregation, and suppression, we must begin with a very fundamental question: What is the harm that we are seeking to address, and how effectively do our current civil rights laws work towards achieving that goal? Given our collective success in addressing some of the most egregious intentional discrimination, as well as the intransigent, and evolving nature of institutional racism, it is time for a new Civil Rights Act that …

"Other Than Honorable" Discrimination, Marcy L. Karin

Journal Articles

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) is the most comprehensive federal civil rights law that exists related to the workplace. Its goal is to help people who serve in the military reintegrate back into civilian work and remain attached to the workforce. It does so by offering a mix of anti-discrimination protection and labor standards. Despite the promise of robust reemployment rights and post-service assistance, Congress has excluded people with a certain “character of service,” including those with “other than honorable” separations, from these protections. This statutory exclusion has a disparate impact on people with service-connected disabilities, …

Why Insurance Contracts Might Be The Trick To Police Reform, John F. Preis

Law Faculty Publications

How do lawsuits deter misconduct? That is an issue that Professor Joanna Schwartz has written about before, and her latest article on the topic, How Governments Pay: Lawsuits, Budgets and Police Reform, could not be more timely. Over the past year, our county has witnessed dramatic instances of police abuse and the public is understandably demanding reform. Schwartz’s terrific article explains why civil rights actions may fail to instigate reform, and suggests how insurance contracts, of all things, can play a role in fixing this problem.

The Color Of Pain: Blacks And The U.S. Health Care System--Can The Affordable Care Act Help To Heal A History Of Injustice?, Part Ii, Jennifer M. Smith

Journal Publications

The state of Americans' health care has been troubling, especially before health care reform.The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is often touted as universal health care, and the initial intention was for the U.S. to have universal health care. However, with all of the compromises involved in its passage, the ACA resulted in comprehensive health insurance reform, significantly increasing the accessibility, affordability, and quality of health care for most, but not all, Americans. The ACA is a substantial step toward universal health care-a near-universal mandate-that may soon provide coverage to all Americans, and even include undocumented immigrants. Americans can find excellent …

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Everett Et Al V. Pitt County School (Everett I And Ii) And The Ominous Future Of Federal Court Desegregation Orders, Mark Dorosin

Journal Publications

During the brief zenith of school desegregation litigation in the late 1960s and early 1970s, hundreds of school districts across the nation, and particularly across the South, were found liable for intentional racial discrimination and became subject to federal court supervision of approved plans to achieve integration. The period of aggressive enforcement was short-lived however, and by the mid-1970s, and accelerating through the 1980s and 1990s, an increasingly conservative Supreme Court and presidential administrations first slowed the scope and intensity of school integration, and then actively pushed to end judicial enforcement and oversight of existing desegregation cases. This was true …

Justice And Accountability: Activist Judging In The Light Of Democratic Constitutionalism And Democratic Experimentalism, William H. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

This essay examines the charge that activist judging is inconsistent with democracy in the light of two recent perspectives in legal scholarship. The perspectives – Democratic Constitutionalism and Democratic Experimentalism – suggest in convergent and complementary ways that the charge ignores or oversimplifies relevant features of both judging and democracy. In particular, the charge exaggerates the pre-emptive effect of activist judging, and it implausibly conflates democracy with electoral processes. In addition, it understands consensus as a basis for judicial legitimacy solely in terms of pre-existing agreement and ignores the contingent legitimacy that can arise from the potential for subsequent agreement.

The Local Turn; Innovation And Diffusion In Civil Rights Law, Olatunde C.A. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

Is the future of civil rights subnational? If one is looking for civil rights innovation, much of this innovation might be happening through legislation, regulatory frameworks, and policies adopted by state and local governments. In recent years, states and cities have adopted legislation banning discrimination in housing based on the source of an individual's income, regulating the consideration of arrest or conviction in employment decisions, and prohibiting discrimination in employment based on an applicant's credit history.

This deployment of subnational power is not new to civil rights. Many of the laws and regulatory frameworks that are now core to the …