Law Commons^™

What Can We Hope For From Law?, Ellen S. Pryor

Pepperdine Law Review

What can a lawyer of faith hope for, and expect from, law? This Essay, based on the 2008 Louis Brandeis Lecture given at Pepperdine University, discusses why and how this question matters not just as a matter of theory but to our real-world lawyering journeys. The Essay discusses two of the frameworks that can shape our answer to the question: a natural law viewpoint and what the Essay calls a “Lutheran” view. After explaining how these two perspectives might lead to different expectations about the effects of law, the Essay discusses whether either of these approaches is more sustaining or …

The Thirteenth Amendment And Pro-Equality Speech, William M. Carter Jr.

Articles

The Thirteenth Amendment’s Framers envisioned the Amendment as providing federal authority to eliminate the “badges and incidents of slavery.” The freemen and their descendants are the most likely to be burdened with the effects of stigma, stereotypes, and structural discrimination arising from the slave system. Because African Americans are therefore the most obvious beneficiaries of the Amendment’s promise to eliminate the legacy of slavery, it is often mistakenly assumed that federal power to eradicate the badges and incidents of slavery only permits remedies aimed at redressing the subordination of African Americans. While African Americans were the primary victims of slavery …

The Paradox Of Political Power: Post-Racialism, Equal Protection, And Democracy, William M. Carter Jr.

Articles

Racial minorities have achieved unparalleled electoral success in recent years. Simultaneously, they have continued to rank at or near the bottom in terms of health, wealth, income, education, and the effects of the criminal justice system. Social conservatives, including those on the Supreme Court, have latched onto evidence of isolated electoral success as proof of “post-racialism,” while ignoring the evidence of continued disparities for the vast majority of people of color.

This Essay will examine the tension between the Court's conservatives' repeated calls for minorities to achieve their goals through the political process and the Supreme Court's increasingly restrictive "colorblind" …