Law Commons^™

Discrimination And Business Regulation (The Supreme Court And Local Government Law: The 1999-2000 Term), Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

Let's Put Our Cards On The Table When It Comes To Israel, Alan E. Garfield

Alan E Garfield

Civil Rights In Transition: Sections 1981 And 1982 Cover Discrimination On The Basis Of Ancestry And Ethnicity, Eileen R. Kaufman, Martin A. Schwartz

Martin A. Schwartz

No abstract provided.

Civil Rights In Transition: Sections 1981 And 1982 Cover Discrimination On The Basis Of Ancestry And Ethnicity, Eileen R. Kaufman, Martin A. Schwartz

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

Civil Rights In Transition: Sections 1981 And 1982 Cover Discrimination On The Basis Of Ancestry And Ethnicity, Eileen R. Kaufman, Martin A. Schwartz

Martin A. Schwartz

No abstract provided.

Civil Rights In Transition: Sections 1981 And 1982 Cover Discrimination On The Basis Of Ancestry And Ethnicity, Eileen R. Kaufman, Martin A. Schwartz

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

The "Fog Of Law": The Law Of Armed Conflict In Operation Iraqi Freedom, Marc Warren

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Not Just One Of The Boys: A Post-Feminist Critique Of Title Ix's Vision For Gender Equity In Sports, Dionne L. Koller

All Faculty Scholarship

Title IX as applied to athletics is a high-profile, controversial public policy effort that has opened up the world of athletics to millions of girls and women. Yet as it is both celebrated for the opportunities it has created for women, and decried as going too far at the expense of men, a reality persists that women do not pursue or remain committed to sport in numbers comparable to men. This Article seeks to explore this phenomenon by moving the discourse beyond the debate over whether women are inherently as "interested" in sport as men to examine the conception of …

Digital Discrimination, Danielle Citron

Danielle Keats Citron

Social network sites and blogs have increasingly become breeding grounds for anonymous online groups that attack women and minorities. The attacks include rape threats, privacy invasions, defamation, and technological attacks that silence victims. Victims go offline or assume pseudonyms to prevent future attacks, impoverishing online dialogue and depriving victims of the social and economic opportunities associated with a vibrant online presence. Although social and legal norms have dampened offline discrimination, the internet’s Wild West culture and architecture invites bigots to move their hatred to cyberspace. The Internet facilitates anonymity, loosening social norms that constrain noxious behavior. It brings people together …

A Protection Post-Mortem On The "Death" Of Multiculturalism In Germany, Erin Mooney

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Noticeably absent from the recent pronouncements of the “death” of multiculturalism in Germany, including Chancellor Angela Merkel’s own conclusion that the policy had “utterly failed,” has been any interest to seriously examine, let alone address, the reasons for such a failure.

The Defense Of Marriage Act (Doma), Equal Protection And State Authority – Gill V Office Of Personnel Management And Commonwealth Of Massachusetts V United States Dept Of Health And Human Services, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

The issue of the recognition of same-sex marriages and the constitutionality of a refusal to recognize such marriages has received considerable attention in the US state courts in the last decade. A number of state courts have ruled that, state constitutions require the recognition of same-sex marriages. However, relatively few cases had reached the federal courts and in almost all these cases the restrictions had been upheld. However, two recent challenges to a ban on same-sex marriages in California (Proposition 8) and restrictions of the rights of same-sex couples under federal law (DOMA) have now been successful before federal district …

How The Payday Predator Hides Among Us: The Predatory Nature Of The Payday Loan Industry And Its Use Of Consumer Arbitration To Further Discriminatory Lending Practices, Michael A. Satz

Michael A Satz

This Article argues that Payday lending is a predatory lending practice that disproportionately targets minority customers, and that the Payday lending industry utilizes consumer arbitration agreements to further the industry’s discriminatory lending practices. The Article proposes that protections enacted into law to protect military service members from payday lenders should be universally enacted on a national level.

Response To "Snyder V. Louisiana: Continuing The Historical Trend Towards Increased Scrutiny Of Peremptory Challenges", Bidish J. Sarma

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

John P. Bringewatt's recent note makes several important observations about the Supreme Court's opinion in Snyder v. Louisiana. Although he provides reasonable support for the claim that Snyder represents a sea change in Batson jurisprudence, the US Supreme Court's fresh opinion in Thaler v. Haynes (rendered on February 22, 2010) reads the Snyder majority opinion narrowly and suggests the possibility that Snyder is not as potent as it should be. The Haynes per curiam's guarded reading of Snyder signals the need for courts to continue to conduct the bird's-eye cumulative analysis that the Court performed in Miller-El v. Dretke[hereinafter Miller-El …

Introduction: Dukes V. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Scholarly Works

This short introduction to Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. aims to explain the case and to set the table for what promises to be thought-provoking roundtable discussion hosted by Vanderbilt Law Review En Banc. Accordingly, what follows is a concise overview of the legal background and current debate over the two procedural issues that the Ninth Circuit explored in detail – how to evaluate Rule 23(a)(2)’s commonality when common questions heavily implicate the case’s merits, and when a Rule 23(b)(2) class can include relief apart from injunctive or declaratory relief without endangering due process.

Social Security, Modes Of Communication For Blind And Visually Impaired Persons And The Rehabilitation Act – American Council Of The Blind V Astrue, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

This note examines a recent District Court decision in which the plaintiffs successfully challenged the adequacy of modes of communication by the Social Security Administration in its notices and other correspondence to blind and visually impaired persons. The case shows the potential of the Rehabilitation Act to improve services to persons with disabilities.

Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis And Equal Protection In Kentucky – Cain V Lodestar Energy, Gardner V Vision Mining And Martinez V Peabody Coal, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

This note discusses a number of recent decisions of the Kentucky courts concerning coal workers pneumoconiosis and equal protection. The Kentucky Court of Appeals has recently found unconstitutional a special ‘consensus’ procedure by which coal workers affected by pneumoconiosis were required to prove their claim for workers compensation. The case is currently under appeal to the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Statistical Evidence On The Gender Gap In Law Firm Partner Compensation, Marina Angel, Eun Young Whang, Rajiv Banker, Joseph F. Lopez

Marina Angel

Our study compiled the largest research sample on the gender gap in compensation at the 200 largest law firms by combining two large databases to examine why women partners are compensated less: because they are less productive than men partners or because they are women. The AmLaw 100 and 200 studies include gross revenue, profits, number of equity and non-equity partners, and the total number of lawyers at each firm. The Vault/MCCA Law Firm Diversity Programs study (Vault/MCCA) includes the gender ratios at each AmLaw 200 firm. Our study covers the years 2002 to 2007.

The ratio of women equity …

Inheriting Inequality: Wealth, Race, And The Laws Of Succession, Palma Joy Strand

palma joy strand

The article begins by documenting deep inequality in the form of Black-White wealth disparities: While the overall wealth distribution in the United States is highly unequal from both historical and international perspectives, racial wealth disparities are particularly acute, with median Black net worth approximately a tenth of median White net worth (as compared to median Black income that is approximately two-thirds of median White income). Next, the article ties the perpetuation of this inequality to current inheritance law. It then confronts this inequality as a civil rights issue in terms of its social effects, its historical causes, and legal avenues …

Racial Cartels, Daria Roithmayr

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article argues that we can better understand the dynamic of historical racial exclusion if we describe it as the anti-competitive work of "racial cartels." We can define racial cartels to include a range of all-White groups - homeowners' associations, school districts, trade unions, real estate boards and political parties - who gained signficant social, economic and political profit from excluding on the basis of race. Far from operating on the basis of irrational animus, racial cartels actually derived significant profit from racial exclusion. By creating racially segmented housing markets, for example, exclusive White homeowners' associations enjoyed higher property values …

Federal Employer Sanctions As Immigration Federalism, Darcy M. Pottle

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

For low-skilled workers in much of the world, U.S. admission policies make illegal immigration the most viable means of entering the country. Low average schooling, which disqualifies many potential immigrants from employment-based visas, and long queues affecting family preference immigration from high-traffic countries, make the admission criteria outlined in the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) prohibitive for most would-be immigrants to the United States. Perhaps due to this failure of immediate legal avenues, many immigrants enter the country illegally. Though many eventually gain legal status, in the meantime they live and work in the United States without documentation. "Illegal …

Equal Protection, Workers Compensation And Offset Of Benefits – Merrill V Utah Labor Commission And Satterlee V Lumberman's Mutual Casualty Company, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

The Underwhelming Impact Of The Americans With Disabilities Act Amendments, Stacy A. Hickox

Stacy A. Hickox

The 2008 amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) were intended to expand the protection against discrimination for persons with disabilities beyond the Supreme Court’s narrow interpretation of who is “disabled.” While the amendments and the proposed Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulations address some of the Court’s narrow interpretations of the ADA, lower courts may still be able to limit coverage of persons with disabilities who are still able to perform tasks which utilize the major life activity which is limited by their impairment, and persons who have impairments with temporary or intermittent effects. Claimants may also be excluded …

Physical-Strength Rationales For De Jure Exclusion Of Women From Military Combat Positions, Maia Goodell

Seattle University Law Review

Women have been serving in the military in steadily increasing numbers for decades. Nevertheless, the military remains one of the few areas in which the U.S. government decides what roles are open to women based on de jure exclusions. This Article examines the law governing de jure classification, noting that a mere normative belief about women’s proper place in society is an insufficient basis to justify a sex-based exclusion. It then probes the most common rationale advanced in support of the continued de jure exclusion of women: physical strength. The Article examines four problems with the physical strength rationale: (1) …

An Agenda For Women Lawyers: Pandora's Box, Ann Fagan Ginger

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Familiar Stories: An International Suggestion For Lgb Family Military Benefits After The Repeal Of “Don’T Ask, Don’T Tell”, Maureen Brocco

Maureen Brocco

This Article advocates for Congress to make benefits available to the families of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) servicemembers after the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, by passing an amended version of the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009 (DPBOA). Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is only one element of the quandary of laws preventing LGB servicemembers from receiving military family benefits equal to those of their heterosexual peers. The federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) limits the federal definition of a marriage to opposite-sex couples and explicitly bars same-sex couples from receiving federal recognition, regardless of the …

Book Review Of What Blood Won't Tell: A History Of Race On Trial In America, By Ariela J. Gross, Lucy E. Salyer

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Discretionary Pricing, Mortgage Discrimination, And The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm, Jeffrey L. Taren

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

For generations, mortgage lending has always been the gateway to the American dream of homeownership, and, historically, has also been characterized by widespread discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities and their communities. Mortgage discrimination in the modem era has often been accomplished through a technique known as discretionary pricing, in which lenders allow their loan officers and brokers to increase borrowers' costs from an objectively determined base rate. In the past decade alone, discretionary pricing has cost minority homeowners billions of dollars in extra payments, which, in tum, has led these minorities to suffer higher foreclosure rates than whites and …

Role Of Individuals Discrimination In Free Exercise Claims: Putting Iqbal In Its Place, The, Leila Mcneill

Missouri Law Review

Ashcroft v. Iqbal has been widely discussed for three reasons: (1) its extension of Twombly's pleading standard to cases outside the realm of antitrust suits, (2) its application of the collateral order doctrine to a district court order denying an official's motion to dismiss on the basis of qualified immunity in a Bivens claim, and (3) its implication for national security and postSeptember 11th terrorist detainments and investigations. However, Iqbal also implicates the nature of what constitutes unconstitutional religious discrimination under the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause. Therefore, the Iqbal Court's discussion of religious liberty will present problems of interpretation …

Conceptualizing Disability Discrimination, Michael C. Harper

Faculty Scholarship

In a series of law review articles written over the past decade, Professor Bagenstos has established himself as the preeminent academic voice on disability discrimination law. Indeed, the transferable utility of the conceptual insights developed and applied in these articles, in my view, warrants a claim for Bagenstos as the most important scholar of the decade in the general field of employment discrimination law. Anyone with a serious intellectual interest in discrimination law who has not read Bagenstos’s articles should take the occasion of the publication of this pithy and trenchant little volume to familiarize themselves with Bagenstos’s analysis of …

Please Check One—Male Or Female?: Confronting Gender Identity Discrimination In Collegiate Residential Life, Katherine A. Womack

Law Student Publications

While litigation in this field has rarely involved colleges and universities, collegiate environments are often the “forefront for social activism,”5 so it is likely the issue of transgender housing discrimination will soon explode on campus. It is now critical that colleges, universities, and the counsel who represent them either prepare to address these issues when they arise or explore possibilities to preempt the legal issues that will surely arise at their schools. Part II of this comment discusses the legal definition of transgender. Part III examines the history of the treatment of transgender persons in American courts, as well as …