Law Commons^™

The New Intersectional And Anti-Racist Lgbtqia + Politics: Some Thoughts On The Path Ahead, Marc Spindelman

ConLawNOW

This article examines the changes to LGBTQIA+ consciousness and the politics they are producing. One result of these consciousness shifts is the increasing number of LGBTQIA+-identified people and organizations reconstituting themselves, their identities, and their politics around pro-Black, anti-racist positions, and doing so as foundational elements of their LGBTQIA+ liberation work. At the same time as these developments are unfolding, however, they are on a collision course with emergent social conservative positions and obstacles. These obstacles include developments at a Supreme Court that is increasingly deciding based on constitutional originalism. This article begins to show how the Court’s conservative originalism …

Symposium: Examining Black Citizenship From Reconstruction To Black Lives Matter: Falling Short Of The Promise Of The Thirteenth Amendment: Time For Change, Michael A. Lawrence

ConLawNOW

This Essay seeks to shine additional light on the potential of the underutilized Thirteenth Amendment (as contrasted to the much-litigated Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause) for advancing racial justice and equity. The Essay suggests the Thirteenth Amendment provides strong constitutional basis for an unapologetic embrace of the sorts of new, race-conscious measures that will be necessary to begin to achieve true racial equity in a country that for centuries has erected massive structural barriers to Black opportunity and advancement

Youth Suffrage: In Support Of The Second Wave, Mae C. Quinn, Caridad Dominguez, Chelsey Omega, Abrafi Osei-Kofi, Carlye Owens

Akron Law Review

The 19th Amendment is talked about as central to our nation’s suffrage story, with many situating women's suffrage work within feminist theory "wave" discourse. However, with this telling, scholars and others too frequently overlook young voters and efforts relating to their election law rights. This article seeks to remedy this oversight and complicate the voting rights canon, in addition to supporting efforts of today’s youth voting rights advocates. It does so by turning our attention to youth suffrage movements, which we argue also can be examined by way of a framework of "waves." The first to offer such an historical …

Felony Disenfranchisement And The Nineteenth Amendment, Michael Gentithes

Akron Law Review

The Nineteenth Amendment and the history of the women’s suffrage movement can offer a compelling argument against felony disenfranchisement laws. These laws leave approximately six million citizens unable to vote, often for crimes wholly unrelated to the political process. They also increasingly threaten gains in female enfranchisement.

Today’s arguments in support of felony disenfranchisement laws bear striking similarities to the arguments of anti-suffragists more than a century earlier. Both suggest that a traditionally subordinated class of citizens is inherently incapable of bearing the responsibility that the right to vote entails, and that their votes are somehow less worthy than others. …

The Temperance Movement's Impact On Adoption Of Women's Suffrage, Richard H. Chused

Akron Law Review

This paper examines the nature of the Progressive Era and the Prohibition Movement and the important links between the sentiments giving rise to prohibition and those stimulating adoption of suffrage. Though each arose from a somewhat distinct array of reform impulses and overcame varying opposition groups, they were closely related in some ways, supported by overlapping groups of people, advanced by large numbers of women, and, in part, lifted to enactment by similar motivations. Indeed, without the support of many conservative citizens approving both Amendments, it is not clear what the fate of suffrage would have been after World War …

"A Woman Stumps Her State": Nellie G. Robinson And Women's Right To Hold Public Office In Ohio, Elizabeth D. Katz

Akron Law Review

In recognition of the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, this essay provides an introduction to a largely overlooked yet essential component of the women’s movement: the pursuit of women’s legal right to hold public office. From the mid-nineteenth century through ratification of the federal suffrage amendment in 1920, women demanded access to appointed and elected positions, ranging from notary public to mayor. Because the legal right to hold office had literal and symbolic connections to the right to vote, suffragists and antisuffragists were deeply invested in the outcome. Courts and legislatures varied in their responses, with those in the Midwest …

Suffragist Prisoners And The Importance Of Protecting Prisoner Protests, Nicole B. Godfrey

Akron Law Review

This paper examines the role that public exposure to the conditions experienced by suffragist prisoners played in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Using the experience of the suffragists as an example of how prisoner protest impacted democratic debate, the paper argues that robust protection of prisoners’ First Amendment rights is fundamental to the nation’s democratic values and political discourse and debate.

The paper begins with an historical overview of the arrests, convictions, and incarceration of the Silent Sentinels, women who began picketing outside the White House in 1917. Over the course of several months, local officials in the District …

Divorce - Pendente Lite Awards - Counsel Fees - Costs - Alimony - Effect Of Equal Rights Amendment; Wiegand V. Wiegand, Joseph M. Donley

Akron Law Review

THE PENNSYLVANIA SUPERIOR COURT, in Wiegand v. Wiegand,struck out at one of the true bastions of sex discrimination incorporated into the Anglo-American legal system. The legislated discrimination of the Pennsylvania Divorce Law was the object of the court's scrutiny. Appellee Sara Wiegand had filed a complaint in divorce a mensa et thora, a petition for alimony, and an initial petition for alimony pendente lite, counsel fees, and expenses. On August 14, 1967, the Court of Common Pleas, Allegheny County, ordered appellant Myron Wiegand to pay $875 per month alimony pendente lite and $250 preliminary counsel fees. Subsequently, appellee filed additional …

Standing; Assertion Of Jus Tertii; Sex Discrimination; Equal Protection; Twenty-First Amendment; Craig V. Boren, Anthony Sadowski

Akron Law Review

"A PPELLANTS brought an action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. The complaint charged that the operation of two Oklahoma statutes, which prohibited the sale of 3.2% beer to males under the age of 21 while allowing females over the age of 18 to purchase the commodity, violated the fourteenth amendment to the Federal Constitution. The three-judge court held that the gender-based classification did not violate the equal protection clause. In Craig v. Boren, on direct appeal, the United States Supreme Court reversed, finding that the gender-based classification could …

Container Legislation, Equal Protection, Commerce Clause, Minnesota V. Clover Leaf Creamery Company, Craig B. Paynter

Akron Law Review

The problems of litter, solid waste, and natural resource depletion are often inexorably linked to the liquid manufacturing and packaging industry. Legislative efforts to ameliorate these problems may therefore involve various controls of containers. When states enact container legislation, however, terms must be carefully chosen to avoid conflict with both state and federal constitutions.

Affirmative Action, Reverse Discrimination Bratton V. City Of Detroit, John T. Dellick

Akron Law Review

In Bratton v. City of Detroit, the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals examined charges of reverse discrimination' arising from a voluntary affirmative action plan adopted by the City of Detroit. These reverse discrimination claims were presented as alleged violations of Title VIP and the fourteenth amendment. The Bratton court reviewed the leading Title VII reverse discrimination case, United Steelworkers of America v. Weber, and the leading fourteenth amendment reverse discrimination case, Regents of University of California v. Bakke. From these cases, the court in Bratton extracted the major guidelines of each, comingled them, and developed …

Teaching Slavery In American Constitutional Law, Paul Finkelman

Akron Law Review

From 1787 until the Civil War, slavery was probably the single most important economic institution in the United States. On the eve of the Civil War, slave property was worth at least two billion dollars. In the aggregate, the value of all the slaves in the United States exceeded the total value of all the nations railroads or all its factories. Slavery led to two major political compromises of the antebellum period, as well as to the most politically divisive Supreme Court decision in our history. Vast amounts of political and legal energy went into dealing with the institution. It …