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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Pariah Principle, Daniel A. Farber, Suzanna Sherry Oct 2018

The Pariah Principle, Daniel A. Farber, Suzanna Sherry

Suzanna Sherry

Argues the decision in the homosexuality case of `Romer versus Evans' means that Colorado's Amendment Two is invalid regardless of the level of judicial scrutiny. Failure of the `Romer' court to invoke familiar doctrinal support; Government's ban on untouchable societal groups; Arguments for invalidating Amendment Two; Definition of the pariah principle.


I'M Confused: How Can The Federal Government Promote Diversity In Higher Education Yet Continue To Strengthen Historically Black Colleges?, Sean B. Seymore Oct 2018

I'M Confused: How Can The Federal Government Promote Diversity In Higher Education Yet Continue To Strengthen Historically Black Colleges?, Sean B. Seymore

Sean Seymore

No abstract provided.


I Could Have Been A Contender: Summary Jury Trial As A Means To Overcome Iqbal's Negative Effects Upon Pre-Litigation Communication, Negotiation And Early, Consensual Dispute Resolution, Nancy A. Welsh Jul 2018

I Could Have Been A Contender: Summary Jury Trial As A Means To Overcome Iqbal's Negative Effects Upon Pre-Litigation Communication, Negotiation And Early, Consensual Dispute Resolution, Nancy A. Welsh

Nancy Welsh

With its recent decisions in Ashcroft v. Iqbal and Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, the Supreme Court may be intentionally or unintentionally “throwing the fight,” at least in the legal contests between many civil rights claimants and institutional defendants. The most obvious feared effect is reduction of civil rights claimants’ access to the expressive and coercive power of the courts. Less obviously, the Supreme Court may be effectively undermining institutions’ motivation to negotiate, mediate - or even communicate with and listen to - such claimants before they initiate legal action. Thus, the Supreme Court’s recent decisions have the potential to deprive …


Fighting Fines & Fees: Borrowing From Consumer Law To Combat Criminal Justice Debt Abuses, Neil L. Sobol Jul 2018

Fighting Fines & Fees: Borrowing From Consumer Law To Combat Criminal Justice Debt Abuses, Neil L. Sobol

Neil L Sobol

Although media and academic sources often describe mass incarceration as the primary challenge facing the American criminal justice system, the imposition of criminal justice debt may be a more pervasive problem. On March 14, 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ) requested that state chief justices forward a letter to all judges in their jurisdictions describing the constitutional violations associated with the illegal assessment and enforcement of fines and fees. The DOJ’s concerns include the incarceration of indigent individuals without determining whether the failure to pay is willful and the use of bail practices that result in impoverished defendants remaining in …


Lessons Learned From Ferguson: Ending Abusive Collection Of Criminal Justice Debt, Neil L. Sobol Jul 2018

Lessons Learned From Ferguson: Ending Abusive Collection Of Criminal Justice Debt, Neil L. Sobol

Neil L Sobol

On March 4, 2015, the Department of Justice released its scathing report of the Ferguson Police Department calling for “an entire reorientation of law enforcement in Ferguson” and demanding that Ferguson “replace revenue-driven policing with a system grounded in the principles of community policing and police legitimacy, in which people are equally protected and treated with compassion, regardless of race.” Unfortunately, abusive collection of criminal justice debt is not limited to Ferguson. This Article, prepared for a discussion group at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools conference in July 2015, identifies the key findings in the Department of Justice’s report …


Charging The Poor: Criminal Justice Debt & Modern-Day Debtors' Prisons, Neil L. Sobol Jul 2018

Charging The Poor: Criminal Justice Debt & Modern-Day Debtors' Prisons, Neil L. Sobol

Neil L Sobol

Debtors’ prisons should no longer exist. While imprisonment for debt was common in colonial times in the United States, subsequent constitutional provisions, legislation, and court rulings all called for the abolition of incarcerating individuals to collect debt. Despite these prohibitions, individuals who are unable to pay debts are now regularly incarcerated, and the vast majority of them are indigent. In 2015, at least ten lawsuits were filed against municipalities for incarcerating individuals in modern-day debtors’ prisons. Criminal justice debt is the primary source for this imprisonment.

Criminal justice debt includes fines, restitution charges, court costs, and fees. Monetary charges exist …


Review Of The Fight For Fair Housing: Causes, Consequences And Future Implications Of The 1968 Federal Fair Housing Act, Tim Iglesias Dec 2017

Review Of The Fight For Fair Housing: Causes, Consequences And Future Implications Of The 1968 Federal Fair Housing Act, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

This is a book review of The Fight for Fair Housing: Causes, Consequences and Future Implications of the 1968 Federal Fair Housing Act  ed. Gregory D. Squires (Routledge 2018).
In addition to summarizing and evaluating all 15 chapters this review highlights the two major contributions of the volume: (1) Some chapters (especially chapters 10, 11, 13, and 15) begin to articulate an argument that effective implementation of fair housing law is not just good for members of protected classes but valuable for everyone because it can help markets work better, promote democracy, and expand opportunity for all; (2) the chapters addressing …


Threading The Needle Of Fair Housing Law In A Gentrifying City With A Legacy Of Discrimination, Tim Iglesias Dec 2017

Threading The Needle Of Fair Housing Law In A Gentrifying City With A Legacy Of Discrimination, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

This essay tells the story of an extended and complex conflict between San Francisco and HUD and the creative solution that emerged from their negotiations. The conflict concerned the application of a community preference to a proposed senior housing development that would be located in a traditional African American neighborhood in San Francisco and its potential violation of federal fair housing law. After a brief background discussion of some of the policy and legal issues raised by community preferences, the essay tells the story of the conflict and its resolution. The essay concludes with reflections on the potential value of …


Torgerson's Twilight: The Antidiscrimination Jurisprudence Of Judge Diana E. Murphy, David Schraub Dec 2017

Torgerson's Twilight: The Antidiscrimination Jurisprudence Of Judge Diana E. Murphy, David Schraub

David Schraub

An essay for the Minnesota Law Review's symposium honoring the memory of Judge Diana E. Murphy, United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.


Business Methods, Technology, And Discrimination, Daniel Harris Brean Dec 2017

Business Methods, Technology, And Discrimination, Daniel Harris Brean

Daniel Harris Brean

The United States is obligated under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) treaty to make patent rights available and enjoyable without discrimination as to the “field of technology” of the invention.  No specific areas of technology may be singled out for unjustified special treatment.  Yet the United States is doing just that with respect to computer-implemented business methods.  Doctrinally, such methods are subject to an especially high bar for patentability.  Statutorily, patents on such methods may be challenged in invalidity proceedings that are exclusively available for so-called “covered business method patents.” The law seems to reflect a skepticism …


Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity Discrimination, Holning Lau Dec 2017

Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity Discrimination, Holning Lau

Holning Lau

Laws concerning sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) have undergone a sea change. Still, legal protections against SOGI discrimination vary widely around the world. As jurisdictions wrestle with whether and how to protect people against SOGI discrimination, several conceptual questions emerge. This Brill volume reviews and discusses legal developments and scholarly commentary concerning these questions. Specifically, this volume examines the following five questions: (1) Is SOGI discrimination encompassed by existing laws prohibiting discrimination based on sex? (2) Should sexual orientation and gender identity be considered protected categories in and of themselves? (3) Is there a standard sequence of steps for …


From Loving To Obergefell: Elevating The Significance Of Discriminatory Effects, Holning Lau Dec 2017

From Loving To Obergefell: Elevating The Significance Of Discriminatory Effects, Holning Lau

Holning Lau

Loving v. Virginia and Obergefell v. Hodges are both landmark Supreme Court cases that advanced marriage equality. In Obergefell, the Court invalidated bans on same-sex marriage by building upon precedent it set nearly five decades earlier in Loving, which declared antimiscegenation laws unconstitutional. Indeed, commentators often describe Loving as an important precursor to Obergefell. Yet Obergefell’s reasoning deviated from that of Loving. The differences between the two cases are all too often overlooked. This Essay thus seeks to address this blind spot by drawing attention to a critical distinction: Loving and Obergefell differ in their …