Law Commons^™

Legislating Racial Fairness In Criminal Justice, Olatunde C.A. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

Twenty years ago, in McCleskey v. Kemp, the Supreme Court rejected a capital defendant's claim that statistical evidence of racial discrimination in the administration of Georgia's death penalty system constituted a violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Yet, even as McCleskey effectively bars constitutional challenges to racial disparities in the criminal justice system where invidious bias is difficult to establish, the Court invites advocates to pursue legislation as a remedy to racial disparities. Indeed, the McCleskey Court offers as a rationale for its ruling the judiciary's institutional incompetence to remedy these disparities, holding that "McCleskey's arguments are best …

Racial Justice And Equity For African-American Males In The American Educational System: A Dream Forever Deferred, Floyd D. Weatherspoon

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

Multiracial Identity And Affirmative Action, Nancy Leong

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Diversity Theory Of Charitable Tax Exemption—Beyond Efficiency, Through Critical Race Theory, Toward Diversity, David A. Brennen

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

What is the normative rationale for the federal income tax exemption for nonprofit charitable corporations? Even though the exemption dates back to 1894, Congress has failed to fully rationalize it. Though scholars and courts have attempted over the years to come up with a coherent rationale for the charitable tax exemption, their attempts are focused almost exclusively on economic efficiency. Thus, the charitable tax exemption is typically framed by noted tax scholars like Boris Bittker, Henry Hansmann, and others as an economically efficient means of providing certain goods and services to the public. Rationalizing the charitable tax exemption in economic …

A Summary Of "Systemic Analysis", Richard H. Sander

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Response To Professor Sander, Douglas D. Scherer

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Leveling The Playing Field In Law School: A Look At Academic Assistance Programs For Minority Law Students, Anupama Ramlackhan

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

The Fair Housing Act And Disparate Impact In Homeowners Insurance, Dana L. Kaersvang

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that because homeowners insurance is central to homeownership, the FHA applies to insurance underwriting policies, such as those mentioned above, that have a disparate impact on minority potential homeowners. Part I considers whether the FHA applies to homeowners insurance and concludes that homeowners insurance is covered by the Act. Part II goes on to argue that the FHA applies to homeowners insurance even where the discrimination results from disparate impact, rather than from disparate treatment. Finally, Part III analyzes the above-mentioned policies of the insurance industry under the FHA disparate impact standard.

Adding Fuel To The Fire: United States V. Booker And The Crack Versus Powder Cocaine Sentencing Disparity, Briton K. Nelson

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Where Do We Draw The Line? Partisan Gerrymandering And The State Of Texas, Whitney M. Eaton

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Undercover Other, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay argues in favor of legally recognizing same-sex marriages by exploring the similarities in passing between members of same-sex marriages/relationships and interracial marriages/relationships. Specifically, this Essay unpacks the claim that the ability of gays and lesbians to pass as heterosexual distinguishes the ban on same-sex marriages from former bans on interracial marriages. Part I of this Essay first describes policy-based critiques of a Loving-based argument for legalizing same-sex marriage, or as one scholar has coined, of playing the Loving card by analogizing the racism that motivated anti-miscegenation statues that the Supreme Court struck down in 1967 to the anti-gay …

The Current Landscape Of Race: Old Targets, New Opportunities, Richard Delgado

Michigan Law Review

It is difficult enough identifying areas within a current field of scholarship that are underdeveloped and in need of further attention. In science, one thinks of missing elements in the periodic table or planets in a solar system that our calculations tell us must be there but that our telescopes have not yet spotted. In civil-rights law, one thinks of such areas as women's sports or the problems of intersectional groups, such as women of color or gay black men. One also thinks of issues that current events are constantly thrusting forward, such as discrimination against Arabs or execution of …

Interracial Marriage In The Shadows Of Jim Crow: Racial Segregation As A System Of Racial And Gender Subordination, Reginald Oh

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Essay works through essentialist language to reveal the multidimensional nature of racial segregation as a system of subordination. Specifically, it examines how racial segregation in public schools and laws prohibiting interracial marriage mutually reinforce racial and gender inequality. Part I discusses Brown and the traditional analysis of that decision as a case dealing with race, racial stigma, and equal educational opportunity. Part II reviews laws prohibiting interracial marriage, the reasoning and purpose behind these laws, and the Loving decision that rendered such laws unconstitutional. Part III then examines racial segregation in public schools as more than just a system …

This Bridge Called Our Backs: An Introduction To “The Future Of Critical Race Feminism”, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

On April 1, 2005, the U.C. Davis Law Review hosted in its annual symposium an extremely distinguished group of scholars, who addressed central theories of Critical Race Feminism (“CRF”) in a daylong series of inspiring, thought-provoking, cutting-edge, and captivating presentations. The panelists at the symposium — in front of a packed room of students, professors, and local residents — delved into issues as diverse as the unique role of immigrant women in community economic development, societal failure to deal with domestic violence from a multidimensional perspective, the proposal of a contractual good faith claim based on Professors Devon Carbado and …

Environmental Justice And The Role Of Criminology: An Analytical Review Of 33 Years Of Environmental Justice Research, Lisa Anne Zilney, Danielle Mcgurrin, Sammy Zahran

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

An increasing number of scholars and activists have begun to tackle a variety of issues relevant to environmental justice studies. This study attempts to address the role of criminologists in this domain. The authors examine 425 environmental justice articles in 204 academic journals, representing 18 programs/departments between 1970 and 2003. First, they measure the environmental justice contributions in the literature by academic department or activist affiliation. Second, they identify the major themes in the literature as they have developed and reveal the current and future directions of environmental justice studies. Such themes include the spatial distribution of hazards, social movements, …

Colorblind Must Not Mean Blind To The Realities Facing Black Children, Zanita E. Fenton

Articles

No abstract provided.

When "Victory" Masks Retreat: The Lsat, Constitutional Dualism, And The End Of Diversity, D. Marvin Jones

Articles

No abstract provided.

Clifford V. Commonwealth: Admission Of Racial Voice Identification Testimony, Regressive Or Progressive?, D. Christopher Robinson

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

How Should A Court Deal With A Primary Question That The Legislature Seeks To Avoid?, Gidon Sapir

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Legislative avoidance of principled decisions on substantive questions by transferring the decision-making task to the executive branch, is a frequent scenario. The legislature does this by way of either express or hidden delegation, i.e., by using ambiguous wording that on its face only requires interpretation but which in fact requires a substantive decision on the matter at stake. The Israeli legislature resorted to the hidden delegation tactic to avoid the adoption of a substantive decision in the dispute over the question of who is a Jew--a dispute that has divided Israeli society and World Jewry (especially its U.S. component) since …

Skin-Tone Effects Among African Americans: Perceptions And Reality, Joni Hersch

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

It is commonly assumed that lighter skinned African Americans receive preferential treatment over darker skinned counterparts. Using individual data from three sources, this paper examines the influence of skin tone on education and on wages. Lighter skin tone has a consistent positive impact on educational attainment but has a less consistent influence on wages. Possible mechanisms by which skin tone differences might influence economic outcomes are investigated, including measurement error, perceived attractiveness, access to integrated schools or work groups, perceived discrimination, and genetic differences. The perception that there is differential treatment on the basis of skin tone is more pronounced …

The Current State Of International Law, S. James Anaya

Publications

No abstract provided.

"Peoples Distinct From Others": The Making Of Modern Indian Law, Charles Wilkinson

Publications

No abstract provided.

A Brief History Of The U.S.-American Indian Nations Relationship, Richard B. Collins

Publications

No abstract provided.

Mestizaje And The Mexican Mestizo Self: No Hay Sangre Negra, So There Is No Blackness, Taunya Lovell Banks

Faculty Scholarship

Many legal scholars who write about Mexican mestizaje omit references to Afromexicans, Mexico’s African roots, and contemporary anti-black sentiments in the Mexican and Mexican American communities. The reasons for the erasure or invisibility of Mexico’s African roots are complex. It argues that post-colonial officials and theorists in shaping Mexico’s national image were influenced two factors: the Spanish colonial legacy and the complex set of rules creating a race-like caste system with a distinct anti-black bias reinforced through art; and the negative images of Mexico and Mexicans articulated in the United States during the early nineteenth century. The post-colonial Mexican becomes …

The Riddle Of Hiram Revels, Richard A. Primus

Articles

In 1870, a black man named Hiram Revels was named to represent Mississippi in the Senate. Senate Democrats objected to seating him and pointed out that the Constitution specifies that no person may be a senator who has not been a citizen of the United States for at least nine years. Before the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, the Democrats argued, Revels had not been a citizen on account of the Supreme Court's 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford. Thus, even if Revels were a citizen in 1870, he had held that status for only two years. …

Greasers And Gringos: Latinos, Law, And The American Imagination By Steven W. Bender, Chelsy A. Castro

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Arab Stereotyping: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective, Rachel Saloom

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Living By The Sword: The Free Exercise Of Religion And The Sikh Struggle For The Right To Carry A Kirpan, Rishi S. Bagga

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

I Am Certain He Is The Man...I Think, Tim Harris

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Against Bipolar Black Masculinity: Intersectionality, Assimilation, Identity Performance, And Hierarchy, Frank Rudy Cooper

Scholarly Works

In this article, Professor Frank Rudy Cooper contends that popular representations of heterosexual black men are bipolar. Those images alternate between a Bad Black Man who is crime-prone and hypersexual and a Good Black Man who distances himself from blackness and associates with white norms. The threat of the Bad Black Man label provides heterosexual black men with an assimilationist incentive to perform our identities consistent with the Good Black Man image.

The reason for bipolar black masculinity is that it helps resolve the white mainstream's post-civil rights anxiety. That anxiety results from the conflict between the nation's relatively recent …