Law Commons^™

Lilly Ledbetter, Take Two: The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Of 2009 And The Discovery Rule's Place In The Pay Discrimination Puzzle, Nancy Zisk

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Sex And Slavery: An Analysis Of Three Models Of State Human Trafficking Legislation, Melynda H. Barnhart

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

A Disparate Impact On Female Veterans: The Unintended Consequences Of Veterans Affairs Regulations Governing The Burdens Of Proof For Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Due To Combat And Military Sexual Trauma, Jennifer C. Schingle

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Cryopreserved Embryos As America's Prospective Adoptees: Are Couples Truly "Adopting" Or Merely Transferring Property Rights?, Alexia M. Baiman

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Same-Sex Relationships And The Full Faith And Credit Clause: Reducing America To The Lowest Common Denominator, Rena M. Lindevaldsen

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This Article examines the legal and policy implications that arise when a state that expressly prohibits recognition or enforcement of any rights arising from a same-sex relationship is confronted with a request to register and enforce a child custody order issued by another state that gives custody or visitation rights to a biological mother’s former same-sex partner. As more states confer marital rights to same-sex couples, this issue will occur with increasing frequency. The first reported case in the nation to address the issue, Miller-Jenkins v. Miller-Jenkins, has garnered attention from the national media, including a cover story in the …

Sex, Booze, And Clarity: Defining Sexual Assault On A College Campus, Justin Neidig

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Women And The Constitution: An Historical Argument For Recognizing Constitutional Flexibility With Regards To Women In The New Republic, Samantha Ricci

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

On Lilly Ledbetter's Liberty: Why Equal Pay For Equal Work Remains An Elusive Reality, Katie Putnam

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Incremental Independence: Conforming The Law To The Process Of Adolescence, Megan E. Hay

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Lawrence As An Eighth Amendment Case: Sodomy And The Evolving Standards Of Decency, Sheldon Bernard Lyke

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This Article offers an alternate reading of Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down the Texas sodomy statute that criminalized private, consensual, and adult same-sex intercourse. While most scholars discuss Lawrence as a substantive due process case and struggle to find meaning in the ambiguity of the decision's language, I propose that Lawrence is better read as an Eighth Amendment case. This Article argues that the majority opinion analyzed the constitutionality of the Texas sodomy law as it would analyze the cruelty and unusualness of a criminal law in an Eighth Amendment evolving standards of …

Separate But Unequal - When Overcrowed: Sex Discrimination In Jail Early Release Policies, Lara Hoffman

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

It is currently constitutional to house male and female prisoners in separate jail facilities based solely on gender. But is it also constitutional to provide separate early release policies to male and female prisoners convicted of the same crime, in the same county, and sentenced to the same length of time based solely on gender and separate housing arrangements? For decades, jail officials in many counties have released some prisoners before the end of their judicially mandated sentences to relieve overcrowding and meet budget constraints. A small study of jails around the country conducted as research for this Article reflects …

Transforming Transsexual And Transgender Rights, L. Camille Hebert

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

State and federal employment anti-discrimination statutes have failed to adequately protect transsexual and transgendered individuals in the workplace. Although advancements have been made in recent years regarding the protection of sexual minorities, transsexual and transgendered employees continue to receive sporadic and noncomprehensive protection. Various approaches have been taken to extend protection against discrimination to these individuals, including the utilization of disability protection statutes, the expansion of anti-discrimination statutes, and the protection of transsexual and transgendered individuals as a class; however, these approaches have proven flawed in providing adequate protection.

An examination of anti-discrimination law shows that these measures, while perhaps …

Roe At Thirty-Six And Beyond: Enhancing Protection For Abortion Rights Through State Constitutions, Linda J. Wharton

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

In a series of decisions over the past three decades, the Supreme Court has seriously undermined Roe v. Wade's promise of full and meaningful federal constitutional protection for women's access to abortion. While the new Obama administration will enhance protection for reproductive rights at the federal level, the reality remains that reconstituting the Supreme Court with a majority of Justices amenable to fully restoring Roe's strict protections will likely take many years. This Article considers whether state constitutions are a promising avenue for enhancing protection for abortion rights.

This Article looks back on thirty years of reproductive rights litigation under …

When Gender Meets Sex: An Exploratory Study Of Women Who Seduce Adolescent Boys, Kay L. Levine

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This article describes the origins, design, and implications of a new study exploring female-perpetrated statutory rape against adolescent boys in the United States. In contrast to both legal frameworks, which typically regard statutory rape as a male-on-female phenomenon, and existing literature from the fields of psychology and psychiatry derived from clinical samples and sex offender registries, this study examines the incidence of female-perpetrated statutory rape using data from electronic news reports covering the period 1990-2008. In this short article, the author explains the advantages of her approach over those taken by prior scholars, in terms of the size of the …

Female Investors And Securities Fraud: Is The Reasonable Investor A Woman?, Joan Macleod Heminway

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Let's face it. Women and men are different in more than just the biological sense. These differences play themselves out in a variety of contexts. Some of them are meaningful in theory or in reality; others are not.

Given an increase in women's involvement in business and finance, it is unsurprising that a multidisciplinary literature is emerging at the intersection of sex or gender differences and corporate governance. Much of the work in this area has centered on women and boards of directors and women in the executive ranks. However, it is important to focus on women not only as …

Kairos And Safe Havens: The Timing And Calamity Of Unwanted Birth, Susan Ayres

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

It is impossible to know the number of infants killed or illegally abandoned at birth. No official reporting requirements exist, but conservative estimates claim that in the United States, 150-300 infants are killed within twenty-four hours of life and that over 100 infants are illegally abandoned. Beginning in 1999, in an effort to stem the problem of neonaticide and illegal abandonment, states began enacting laws to legalize abandonment. By 2008, all fifty states had enacted safe haven laws, which allow parents to anonymously abandon newborns by delivering them to designated providers, such as hospitals. This article provides a practical and …

Judging Vanessa: Norm Setting And Deviance In The Law Of Motherhood, Michelle Oberman

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This article, by an author who has devoted over a decade to the study of women whom the law deems "bad" mothers, undertakes a more probing consideration of what truly separates the deviant mother from the "good" mother. In this article, she exposes the flaws in a binary classification of mothers as either "good" or "bad." She accomplishes this task by juxtaposing the stories, both legal and personal, of Vanessa, a woman whom society has judged to be a "bad" mother, and the author, a mother most in society would view as "good." In the end, the author not only …

When Freedom Is Not Free: Investigating The First Amendment's Potential For Providing Protection Against Sexual Profiling In The Public Workplace, Michele Alexandre

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This article explores the ways in which bodily expression can constitute symbolic speech that courts should protect pursuant to the First Amendment of the Constitution. In a previous article, I referred to this type of bodily speech as "body protest."' Body protest can refer to actions that individuals undertake to assert their autonomy, identity, and freedom from societal restrictions. For women, body protest may be used "to challenge gender restrictions and to activate women-centric legal reforms."2 For example, women may express body protest through dance, dress, or performance arts. These individuals are often sexually profiled because of how they use …

Rhetoric Versus Reality: The Jurisdiction Of Rape, The Indian Child Welfare Act, And The Struggle For Tribal Self-Determination, Maire Corcoran

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This note examines the rape crisis affecting Native American women today and the jurisdictional issues that affect how and whether tribes may prosecute and punish rapists. This note also examines the efficacy of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in preventing inappropriate removal of Native children from their tribal environment. A comparison of these two subjects reveals that, although tribes are theoretically experiencing an era of tribal "self-determination," federal Indian law and policy, both old and new, continue to prevent tribes from achieving health and independence. Ultimately, the note concludes that a true solution to the problems affecting tribes can …

Mothers Without Borders: Undocumented Immigrant Mothers Facing Deportation And The Best Interests Of Their U.S. Citizen Children, Satya Grace Kaskade

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This note addresses how deportation of undocumented immigrants affects the U.S. citizen children of those immigrants. The author examines this issue by studying the story of Marta Escoto, a woman facing deportation and also the mother and sole caregiver of a U.S. citizen child with a severely debilitating disease. If Escoto is deported and forced to return to her home country of Honduras, her daughter will likely be unable to continue to receive adequate and necessary health care. Mothers like Escoto who face deportation often plead the well-being of their children, but few can satisfy the high burden of proving …