Law Commons^™

Spelling Out Lgbt: Enumerating Sexual Orientation In Virginia's Bullying Law, Melissa Wright

Law Student Publications

This comment explores the various steps being taken to stop LGBT bullying in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Section I discusses why it is important to address the issue of bullying and the deep impact that bullying can have on students' lives. Section II provides a comprehensive look at how other states have addressed bullying and provided enumerated protection for LGBT students. This section also examines federal laws that have been used in bullying claims in the absence of federal anti-bullying legislation. Section III focuses specifically on Virginia anti-bullying legislation and the steps that Virginia has taken to combat LGBT bullying …

The Application Of Anti-Discrimination Laws To Religious Institutions: The Irresistible Force Meets The Immovable Object, Oliver S. Thomas

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

An Overview Of The Federal Eeo Administrative Hearings Process, Audrey M. Scott

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Have The Amendments To The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act Razed Rowley And Raised The Substantive Standard For "Free Appropriate Public Education?", Perry A. Zirkel

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Rights Lawyer Essentialism And The Next Generation Of Rights Critics, Alan K. Chen

Michigan Law Review

Richard Thompson Ford does not care much for the current state of civil rights. In his provocative new book, Rights Gone Wrong: How Law Corrupts the Struggle for Equality, Ford lends an original, if often misdirected, voice to the chorus of contemporary critics of the American legal regime of rights. Situating himself among "second generation" rights critics (p. 259), Ford lays out a comprehensive indictment of current approaches to civil rights litigation as well as civil rights activism. His work is both intriguing and provocative, and it raises a number of issues that are surely worth serious consideration and discussion. …

Tyrone Garner's Lawrence V. Texas, Marc Spindelman

Michigan Law Review

Dale Carpenter's Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas has been roundly greeted with well-earned praise. After exploring the book's understanding of Lawrence v. Texas as a great civil rights victory for lesbian and gay rights, this Review offers an alternative perspective on the case. Built from facts about the background of the case that the book supplies, and organized in particular around the story that the book tells about Tyrone Garner and his life, this alternative perspective on Lawrence explores and assesses some of what the decision may mean not only for sexual orientation equality but also for …

Sex Matters: Considering Gender In Consumer Contracts, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

We hear about the so-called “War on Women” and persisting salary gaps between men and women in the popular media, but contracts scholars and policymakers rarely discuss gender. Instead, dominant voices in the contracts field often reflect classical and economics-driven theories built on assumptions of gender neutral and economically rational actors. Furthermore, many mistakenly assume that market competition and antidiscrimination legislation address any improper biases in contracting. This Article therefore aims to shed light on gender’s importance by distilling data from my own e-survey of Colorado consumers along with others’ research regarding gender differences in contract outcomes, interests and behaviors. …

Next Generation Of Civil Rights Lawyers: Race And Representation In The Age Of Identity Performance, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Anthony Alfieri

Faculty Scholarship

This Book Review addresses two important new books, Professor Kenneth Mack’s Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer and Professors Devon Carbado and Mitu Gulati’s Acting White? Rethinking Race in Post-Racial America, and utilizes their insights to both explore the challenges that face the next generation of civil rights lawyers and offer suggestions on how this next generation of civil rights lawyers can overcome these difficulties. Overall, this Book Review highlights one similarity in the roles of black civil rights attorneys past and present: the need for lawyers in both generations to perform their identities in ways …

Proposition 8 Is Unconstitutional, But Not Because The Ninth Circuit Said So: The Equal Protection Clause Does Not Support A Legal Distinction Between Denying The Right To Same-Sex Marriage And Not Providing It In The First Place, Nathan Rouse

Seattle University Law Review

In Perry v. Brown, the Ninth Circuit held that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. But in doing so, the court stepped back from the breadth of the district court’s decision. The Ninth Circuit did not address whether same-sex marriage is a fundamental constitutional right. Nor did the Ninth Circuit address whether the Equal Protection Clause categorically prevents states from limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. Instead, the Ninth Circuit reached the narrow conclusion that Proposition 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause because it withdrew a preexisting legal right from a marginalized group without any legitimate purpose. The Ninth Circuit should have held …

Disparate Impact: Fairness Or Efficiency?, Larry Alexander

San Diego Law Review

Here is a stylized, simplified account of the disparate impact branch of discrimination law. Employer (E) uses certain criteria—which I shall call “the test”—to determine whom to employ. Those who qualify under the test may be disproportionately of a certain race, sex, national origin, or religion. I shall call those races, sexes, et cetera, that are disproportionately qualified under the test “the preferred,” and those races, sexes, et cetera, that are disproportionately unqualified under the test “the dispreferred.” In a disparate impact discrimination case—and again, I am simplifying somewhat, though immaterially—an employee candidate (C) who is both a member of …

Mobility Allowance And The Law, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

The Irish government has recently announced the abolition of the mobility allowance and motorised transport grant. It appears that this decision was heavily influenced by the Government’s view that ‘the schemes are illegal in the context of the Equal Status Acts’. Although the reform options considered and legal advice received have not been specified, the impression has been created that reform would be very complex and that it would be impossible to reform the existing scheme to make it legally compliant without a major increase in its budget. This note discuses the legal issues concerning the operation of the mobility …

Equal Treatment And Objective Justification In Social Security Cases Under The European Convention On Human Rights, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

This article discusses recent UK case law on equal treatment and social security with particular reference on objective justification in two important recent decisions: the Supreme Court decision in Humphreys and the Court of Appeal’s judgement in Burnip. There has been a marked and progressive improvement in the analysis of equal treatment issues under the ECHR by the UK courts. Decisions of European Court have helped to clarify that Article 14 is not narrowly confined to the grounds set out in Article 14 and that a broader range of statuses are also covered. The more flexible approach to comparators has …

Complex Claimants And Reductive Moral Judgments: New Patterns In The Search For Equality, Kathryn Abrams

Kathryn Abrams

No abstract provided.

Critical Strategy And The Judicial Evasion Of Difference, Kathryn Abrams

Kathryn Abrams

No abstract provided.

Bundy V. Jackson: Eliminating The Need To Prove Tangible Economic Job Loss In Sexual Harassment Claims Brought Under Title Vii, Terence J. Bouressa

Pepperdine Law Review

In the case of Bundy v. Jackson, the federal appellate court eliminated the need to prove tangible job loss in claims under Title VII relating to sexual harassment. The holding in Bundy thus promotes the viability of sexual harassment claims under Title VII and deters employers from engaging in subtle sexual harassment as "part of the job." The decision provides a model for the nation to follow in the pursuit of the worthy goal of eliminating sexual harassment in the workplace.

A Short Road To Statehood, A Long Road To Washington, Rachel J. Anderson

Scholarly Works

This article documents the election in 2012 of the first African-American to represent Nevada in the U.S. Congress, Steven Horsford. It is part of "A Special Series on African Americans in Nevada Politics - Past and Present" on pages 16-21 of the issue." Sources are on page 21 of the issue.

Workers’ Compensation And The Right To Interstate Travel – Schatz V Interfaith Care Centre, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

In Schatz, the Minnesota supreme court considered the interesting question of the right to interstate travel as it affects workers’ compensation. While we know that durational residence requirements for welfare benefits and medical care are likely to be found to be unconstitutional, the US courts have to date not greatly explored where other conditions of social security, workers compensation or welfare schemes may impinge on the right to interstate travel. In order to set the groundwork, Part 1 of this note sets out the Supreme Court’s decisions concerning benefits and the right to travel, focusing on the aspects of most …

Discrimination In The Work Place On The Increase, Jamie Knop

Jamie Knop

As we all know, unemployment rates are on the increase at the moment. Conversely, what many of us don’t know is that when the economy is poor, claims for discrimination in the workplace subsequently increase.

Savagery In The Subways: The First Amendment, Anti-Muslim Ads And The Efficacy Of Counterspeech, Engy Abdelkader

Engy Abdelkader

From San Francisco to Washington, D.C. to Detroit to Chicago to New York, anti-Muslim hate placards have recently appeared on government-owned transit systems in cities around the country. Anti-Muslim hate groups designed, funded and placed the inflammatory advertisements, representing a well-orchestrated campaign to demean and attack the minority Muslim community. The ads have culminated in hate crime charges in the subway pushing death of an immigrant of South Asian descent, diverse manifestations of counter official and private speech and First Amendment litigation in at least three jurisdictions where well-meaning transit officials attempted to prevent the ads’ placement. Interdisciplinary in its …

Beyond Mcdonnell Douglas, Sandra F. Sperino

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Since 1973, the McDonnell Douglas framework has been a key analytical structure in employment discrimination law. Academic debate regarding the framework has alternately sounded its death knell, posited its irrelevance, or asserted its continued vitality. What has gone unnoticed in this discussion is the gradual weakening of the framework over the past two decades. Rather than casting this test into oblivion, courts are slowly chipping away at its preeminent place as a proof structure.

Little by little, courts are gradually eroding the McDonnell Douglas test's power through both procedural and substantive means. Procedurally, courts have questioned, rejected or diminished the …

Revitalizing State Employment Discrimination Law, Sandra F. Sperino

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Over the past few decades, federal discrimination law has become captive to an increasingly complex web of analytical frameworks. The courts have been unable to articulate a consistent causation or intent standard for federal law or to provide a uniform account of the type of injury the plaintiff is required to suffer. Part of this failure is demonstrated in the ever-increasing rift between how courts construct the discrimination inquiry for federal age discrimination claims and claims based on other traits, such as sex and race.

Unfortunately, the courts are unnecessarily taking state employment discrimination claims into this federal morass. When …

Decoding Civility, Kerri Lynn Stone

Faculty Publications

If women outnumber men in graduate schools and are entering professional and other workplaces in unprecedented numbers, and if Title VII has aimed to eradicate workplace discrimination for almost fifty years, why are women still so woefully underrepresented at the highest levels of power, leadership, wealth, and prestige in the contemporary workplace? This Article is about abusive speech in the workplace. It explores how the expression of bias in the workplace has evolved and been shaped by anti-discrimination legislation and jurisprudence. It identifies a category of biased speech that eludes prosecution under Title VII. Moreover, this Article seeks to provide …

'Baton Bullying': Understanding Multi-Aggressor Rotation In Anti-Harassment Cases, Kris Franklin

Articles & Chapters

Schools are increasingly expected to intervene to prevent the sorts of bullying behavior that can interfere with education. If they do so inadequately, as a number of recent cases show, school districts may be held liable under Title IX for their “deliberate indifference” to harassment that effectively prevents the victim from receiving the benefits of public education. In popular imagination, “bullying” usually consists of one aggressor terrorizing one victim, sometimes with the assistance or tacit approval of other students. But least with respect to the many cases of students being targeted because they were, or were perceived to be, gay, …

"All Areas Of Suspected Disability", Mark Weber

College of Law Faculty

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires school districts to assess children “in all areas of suspected disability.” It further provides that each child’s individualized education program (IEP) must contain measurable annual goals designed to “meet each of the child’s . . . educational needs that result from the child’s disability,” and a statement of special education and related services that will be provided for the child “to advance appropriately toward attaining annual goals.” Courts have strictly enforced these requirements in the last several years, remedying violations of IDEA when school districts fail to assess in all areas of …

"All Areas Of Suspected Disability", Mark Weber

College of Law Faculty

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires school districts to assess children “in all areas of suspected disability.” It further provides that each child’s individualized education program (IEP) must contain measurable annual goals designed to “meet each of the child’s . . . educational needs that result from the child’s disability,” and a statement of special education and related services that will be provided for the child “to advance appropriately toward attaining annual goals.” Courts have strictly enforced these requirements in the last several years, remedying violations of IDEA when school districts fail to assess in all areas of …

Modernizing State Vital Statistics Statutes And Policies To Ensure Accurate Gender Markers On Birth Certificates: A Good Government Approach To Recognizing The Lives Of Transgender People, Lisa Mottet

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Across the country, laws governing corrections to gender markers on birth certificates are relatively uniform, in large part because many states adopted the relevant provisions of the 1977 revision of the Model State Vital Statistics Act (MSVSA). The MSVSA, developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, guides states on the most efficient laws and procedures related to maintaining accurate birth, death, and other vital records at the state, local, and territorial level. At the time when the government promulgated the MSVSA provision related to gender corrections, it served as a forward-thinking model because it acknowledged that vital …

Outing The Majority: Gay Rights, Public Debate, And Polarization After Doe V. Reed, Marc Allen

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

In 2010, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Doe v. Reed that Washington citizens who signed a petition to eliminate legal rights for LGBT couples did not have a right to keep their names secret. A year later, in ProtectMarriage.com v. Bowen, a district court in California partially relied on Reed to reject a similar request from groups who lobbied for California Proposition 8-a constitutional amendment that overturned the California Supreme Court's landmark 2008 gay marriage decision. These holdings are important to election law, feminist, and first amendment scholars for a number of reasons. First, they flip the traditional …

Bathroom Bias: Making The Case For Trans Rights Under Disability Law, Daniella A. Schmidt

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Disability law is one of the more successful tools currently being used to protect trans people fom discrimination. While the use of disability law as a framework for affirming or creating trans rights has come with some success, many in the community remain reluctant to use disability law for fear of the policy implications and stigma associated with medicalization of trans identity. After exploring the current state of the law on both the federal and state level, this Note will argue how disability law both could and should be used more often to further trans protections. In particular, this Note …

Flexible Scheduling And Gender Equiality: The Working Families Flexibility Act Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Lane C. Powell

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

The Working Families Flexibility Act (“WFFA”) as proposed in 2012 would create a federal right for employees to request flexible work arrangements. However, the bill contains no private right of action for employees to enforce this new right. By reframing the WFFA as an anti-discrimination statute targeting unconstitutional sex discrimination on the part of the States, the WFFA could be upheld under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment, allowing Congress to provide a private right of action for both private and state employees. This Note uses the Supreme Court’s decisions on the Family Medical Leave Act in Hibbs and Coleman …

Whose Choice Are We Talking About: The Exclusion Of Students With Disabilities From For-Profit Online Charter Schools, Matthew Bernstein

Matthew Bernstein

By examining the history of special education law against the emergence of the for-profit and online education movements, this paper explores the charter school movement from a consumer law perspective. It aims to explain why much of the current debate over test scores, “accountability,” and teacher evaluation obscures other systemic faults that implicate the very reasons we have a public education system in the first place. In the last fifteen years, information technologies have fostered the emergence of a new kind of school: the fully-online “cyber” or “virtual” charter. These schools, operated almost exclusively by for-profit, publicly-traded private companies, are …