Law Commons^™

Out Of Focus: The Misapplication Of Traditional Equitable Principles In The Nontraditional Arena Of School Desegregation, Joseph H. Bates

Vanderbilt Law Review

Karl Marx wrote that all historical facts occur twice--the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.' In the desegregation of Little Rock, Arkansas, the genres were reversed. In 1957 the opportunistic Governor Orvall Faubus reduced to farce the Little Rock Board of Education's initial attempt to comply with the United States Supreme Court's decree in Brown v. Board of Education when he ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prohibit nine black students from entering Little Rock High School. In 1983, after more than two decades of continuous court supervision and intermittent litigation, the tragedy began when the Little …

The Defeat Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1990: Wading Through The Rhetoric In Search Of Compromise, Cynthia L. Alexander

Vanderbilt Law Review

On October 22, 1990 President Bush vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1990.2 The Senate failed by one vote to override the veto.' The Act embodied the congressional response to a series of 1989 United States Supreme Court cases decided by a new conservative majority of Justices. Finding that these decisions drastically limit civil rights protections, Congress accordingly introduced the Civil Rights Act of 1990 to restore those protections. Congress then spent almost a year refining the controversial bill to make it palatable to the President and the business community. Despite congressional efforts, the President op- posed several aspects of …

Introduction: Civil Rights In The Workplace Of The 1990s, Sandi R. Murphy

Vanderbilt Law Review

Throughout history courts and legislatures alternatively have enlarged and diminished civil rights protections." Today, employment discrimination claims are the most commonly litigated civil rights cases. A succession of cases decided by a new conservative majority of Justices during the 1988 Supreme Court Term has altered radically the delicate balance of civil rights in the workplace. The then prevailing economic, political, and legal environment seemed to be impervious to any advances in employment discrimination protections.

Since that Term, courts and legislatures at the state and federal levels have promulgated a confusing combination of advances and re- treats in employment discrimination law. …

Brewer's Plea: Critical Thoughts On Common Cause, Richard Delgado

Vanderbilt Law Review

As most legal readers know, members of the Critical Race Studies (CRS) school" and mainstream civil rights scholars have been carrying on a rather spectacular and highly public debate. First, Randall Kennedy, a mainstream scholar, took the newcomers to task in his Racial Critiques article, charging us with making unfounded accusations and grandiose claims,' with finding racial exclusion where none exists, and with various other sins of omission and commission. The controversy moved next to the pages of the popular press. Then, in the June 1990 issue of Harvard Law Review, three members of CRS and a white sympathizer were …

The Rhetoric Of Equality, Neal Devins

Vanderbilt Law Review

The affirmative action debate appears intractable. On one side, those employing the "rhetoric of innocence" use contemporaneous findings of actual discrimination as the gauge that defines victim status. This rhetoric proclaims affirmative action plans that define eligibility by group status, rather than by individualized proof of victim status, both harmful to innocent whites and beneficial to undeserving minorities. In sharp contrast, those employing the "rhetoric of guilt"' contend that "unconscious racism' makes it impossible for whites to treat minorities as equals. Under this view, "[b]ecause racial discrimination is part of the cultural structure, each person of color is subject to …