Law Commons^™

Seniority Layoffs: The Bitter Fruits Of Victory, Andrea Krill

Akron Law Review

IT IS UNDENIABLE that the inertia of the civil rights laws has speeded the progress of equal employment opportunity. Minorities and women at last have enjoyed some measure of increased job entries and upward mobility. The current recession threatens to reverse this process. Seniority is the ambrosia of the working classes conferring a kind of employment immortality in return for their efforts. Those who have drunk deeply from the cup are secure, for their longer service renders them impervious to the furies of economic change. In many instances, those who have merely whetted their thirst are the more recently hired …

Seniority Layoffs: The Bitter Fruits Of Victory, Andrea Krill

Akron Law Review

IT IS UNDENIABLE that the inertia of the civil rights laws has speeded the progress of equal employment opportunity. Minorities and women at last have enjoyed some measure of increased job entries and upward mobility. The current recession threatens to reverse this process.

Seniority is the ambrosia of the working classes conferring a kind of employment immortality in return for their efforts. Those who have drunk deeply from the cup are secure, for their longer service renders them impervious to the furies of economic change. In many instances, those who have merely whetted their thirst are the more recently hired …

Racial Credit Steering As A Discriminatory Credit Practice Under The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Warren L. Dennis, Charles G. Field

Akron Law Review

This article will explore the possible application of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act with its multiple remedies and enforcement methods to racial credit steering practices as described above.

Title Vii, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Disclosure Policy, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission V. Associated Dry Goods Corp, Kenneth L. Wittenauer

Akron Law Review

Amid judicial turmoil, the EEOC developed procedural guidelines to best effectuate its interpretation of Title VII policies. The Commission's procedural regulations permit the disclosure of the investigative files of the individual and of individuals with similar charges against the same employer even before a lawsuit has been filed. However, the EEOC has been forced to restrict access to its files in those jurisdictions which follow Sears while maintaining a more liberal disclosure policy in the remaining jurisdictions.

The Writ-Writers: Jailhouse Lawyers Right Of Meaningful Access To The Courts, John F. Myers

Akron Law Review

This comment will focus on the evolution of jailhouse lawyers, the rights they possess and the problems they face in a system that continually seeks to limit their activities

Civil Rights In The 1990'S: Non-Discrimination Or Quotas?, Donald B. Ayer

Akron Law Review

I would like today to offer some thoughts on the way that we as a country have handled the issue of reverse discrimination as a means of pursuing equal opportunity.

My first observation is that there is an undeniable tension between competing approaches to racial and gender justice that have been advanced and pursued in recent years. I take as my starting point the fundamental principle embodied in the Equal Protection Clause (as well as the Declaration of Independence), that, as the elder Justice Harlan said in dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson,' the Constitution is colorblind, and does not allow …

The Supreme Court's Impact On Litigation, Stephen L. Wasby

Akron Law Review

The focus of this article is on that segment of the litigation cycle in which lawyers' attention to the Court's rulings affects the cases they bring and how they bring them. To indicate the Court's importance for litigating organizations' existence and functioning, we first explore a set of cases involving the NAACP. These cases, involving the organization's survival, show how the need for organizational maintenance affects an organization's ability to litigate as it would like to do. Drawing on the law of procedure, we next examine cases affecting organizations' ability to bring cases. Then we turn to see how Supreme …

The Second Rodney King Trial: Justice In Jeopardy?, Robert C. Gorman

Akron Law Review

This Comment will trace the roots of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the U.S. Constitution and provide a detailed look at the development of the dual sovereignty doctrine. After this overview, it will analyze the historical, legal and policy arguments advanced by supporters and opponents of the doctrine. It will examine proposals for altering or abolishing the doctrine. Finally, in light of the underlying analysis, it will revisit the Rodney King case and examine whether the defendants' second trial - or any successive prosecution - is justified.

The Shift Of The Balance Of Advantage In Criminal Litigation: The Case Of Mr. Simpson, David Robinson Jr.

Akron Law Review

The intense public interest in the extraordinary trial and acquittal of Mr. O.J. Simpson provides an appropriate occasion to look at the criminal justice system more generally, to note where we have been in the balance of advantage between prosecution and defense, where we are now, and where, perhaps, we should be.

The First Justice Harlan By The Numbers: Just How Great Was "The Great Dissenter?", Gabriel J. Chin

Akron Law Review

Considering these kinds of evidence together may offer an informed picture of a judge’s disposition. By these measures, Harlan cannot be regarded as a defender of Asian civil rights. Based on his voting record, he was the most ardent defender of African American civil rights. By contrast, his record in Asian cases was one of the worst. His votes in favor of African American civil rights were in critical cases. In most of the critical cases with respect to Asian litigants, he voted against them.

From Rights To Resources: The Southern Federal District Courts And The Transformation Of Civil Rights In Education, 1968-1974, Charles L. Zelden

Akron Law Review

This situation would change. Seemingly out of nowhere, and in a very short period of time, the federal courts transformed the concept of civil rights, taking it in a new and expansive direction almost impossible to predict a mere decade before. Reinterpreting a mix of government laws, regulations and past judicial orders, the courts, along with other branches of the federal government, began to reallocate social and economic resources such as access to education, jobs, political power and housing away from the majority toward the social margins. By 1974, a system of governmnt-ordered, race and gender-based, redistributive remedies to the …

The Constitutional Politics Of Interpreting Section 5 Of The Fourteenth Amendment, Christopher P. Banks

Akron Law Review

This essay analyzes the Rehnquist Court’s Section 5 cases by first, in Section I, establishing how the Supreme Court has historically assumed the task of interpreting Congress’ power to act under the Fourteenth Amendment. Two periods, Reconstruction and then the mid- 1960s, are examined because they present contrasting views about the scope of what the Fourteenth Amendment and its enforcement section means. Section II then surveys Section 5 cases from the Rehnquist Court in order to illustrate how its jurisprudence mirrors the antifederalist rhetoric established in the post-reconstruction era while, not surprisingly, departing from the principles set forth in the …

Congressional Enforcement Of Civil Rights And John Bingham's Theory Of Citizenship, Rebecca E. Zietlow

Akron Law Review

In the Twentieth Century, Congress’ power to enact civil rights legislation, and make it privately enforceable against states and private parties, became widely recognized as one of the most important functions of the federal government. Yet in recent years, the Supreme Court has greatly restricted this function with its rulings restricting Congress’ commerce power and its power to enforce the Equal Protection Clause under Section five of the Fourteenth Amendment. Cases such as United States v. Morrison, Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v. Garrett and Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents have left Congress in a vacuum, …

Unintended Consequences Of The Fourteenth Amendment And What They Tell Us About Its Interpretation, Richard L. Aynes

Akron Law Review

Much of the literature, understandably, seeks to find out what the framers of the amendment or the ratifiers of the amendment “intended.”...This article treats that issue as well, but begins with a different question: Does the amendment have consequences which were unintended by the framers? Over one and a quarter centuries ago, Justice Joseph Bradley answered that question in the affirmative: “It is possible that those who framed the article were not themselves aware of the far ranging character of its terms.” I suggest those unintended consequences include the effect of the Citizenship Clause on the force of the Fourteenth …

Professional Women Silenced By Men-Made Norms, Maritza I. Reyes

Akron Law Review

This Article proceeds in eight Parts. Part I narrates my path to “academic feminism” and the legal academy. In the tradition of feminist scholars before me, I set forth the personal to provide the background for the socio-legal-political views that inform this Article...Part II explains the need for broader perspectives and approaches to legal scholarship. It is important for the legal academy to recognize that, just like the legal market is calling for changes, we have to stop silencing the development of scholarship andperspectives that can bring forth the change we need. The academy has already benefited from the work …

Rebuilding The Slaughter-House: The Cases' Support For Civil Rights, David S. Bogen

Akron Law Review

This Article sets forth the Slaughter-House Cases’ support for civil rights. Justice Miller used federalism in order to protect Reconstruction legislatures where significant numbers of African-Americans participated fully for the first time. His recital of the history and purpose of the Civil War Amendments centered on the Amendments’ design to protect African-Americans, and suggested sweeping federal power to accomplish that end. Gutting the Privileges and Immunities Clause compelled the Court to read the Equal Protection Clause broadly, and was indirectly responsible for the reapportionment decisions of the Warren Court. The Slaughter-House Court’s structural analysis and its view of federal protective …

Southern Free Women Of Color In The Antebellum North: Race, Class, And A "New Women's Legal History", Bernie D. Jones

Akron Law Review

This article develops Welke’s theme and proposes that in the field of legal history, the analyses can not be limited to “race, gender, or class,” but that matrices of race, gender, and class must be considered at their intersections, “race, and gender, and class,” where they might shed light on the significance of shifting legal modalities. It explores how race, gender, and class as legal policy in the 19th century could be crucial for the formation of family and marital relationships in the private sphere. The focus here is upon free women of color living in the antebellum North who …

To Catch The Lion, Tether The Goat: Entrapment, Conspiracy, And Sentencing Manipulation, Derrick Augustus Carter

Akron Law Review

This article examines how sentencing enhancement schemes play into undercover operations and manipulation ploys. This article reviews entrapment doctrines, starting with the common law principles of unclean hands and estoppel, to settled principles of objective and subjective entrapment. Through principles of conspiracy, the undercover operation ensnares perpetrators who intend factually impossible crimes, as long as an overt step is taken. Sentencing enhancement crimes, induced by government agents, must be proven before a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. A reciprocal corollary is that the accused must be able to defend enhancement accusations through defenses such as sentencing manipulation and sentencing entrapment. …

The Politics Of Procedure: An Empirical Analysis Of Motion Practice In Civil Rights Litigation Under The New Plausibility Standard, Raymond H. Brescia, Edward J. Ohanian

Akron Law Review

This Article attempts to assess, empirically, whether the Court’s introduction of the so-called “plausibility standard” in the context of civil pleadings has had a disparate impact on civil rights claims, particularly in employment and housing discrimination cases. In a previous study conducted by one of the co-authors of this Article, it was revealed that in a sample of employment and housing discrimination cases, courts were more likely to dismiss these cases based on the lack of specificity of the pleadings after the Court’s decision in Iqbal. Furthermore, that study also found, after Iqbal, a significant rise in both the number …