Law Commons^™

The Ninth Circuit's "Hybrid Rights" Error: Three Losers Do Not Make A Winner In Thomas V. Anchorage Equal Rights Commission, Eric J. Neal

Seattle University Law Review

Because the Ninth Circuit, in reaching its Thomas decision, relied on Smith's hybrid rights language, this Note will focus on the court's analysis of that subject. By applying the hybrid rights' dicta instead of following the actual holding in Smith, the Ninth Circuit reached a conclusion that is illogical and does not comport with current Supreme Court free exercise jurisprudence. This Note will discuss the Thomas court's analysis and will propose a logical interpretation of Smith that more closely reflects the Supreme Court's actual position regarding the Free Exercise Clause.

Comparing Race And Sex Discrimination In Custody Cases, Katharine T. Bartlett

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Insurance Contracts And Judicial Decisions Over Whether Insurers Must Defend Insureds That Violate Constitutional And Civil Rights: An Historical And Empirical Review Of Federal And State Court Declaratory Judgments 1900-2000, Willy E. Rice

Faculty Articles

Empirical findings suggest that extralegal factors, such as geographic location, ethnicity, gender, disability, perceived sexual orientation, and age of third-party victims, influence judicial decisions as to whether liability carriers must defend or reimburse the costs of defending various lawsuits. After the introduction, Part II of this article presents a brief discussion of state and federal declaratory judgment statutes and of the public policy behind liability and indemnification insurance contracts. Part III examines the origin and scope of insurers’ duty to defend, duty to pay legal expenses, and duty to reimburse litigation costs when third-party victims sue policyholders. Part IV argues …

Blood Will Tell: Scientific Racism And The Legal Prohibitions Against Miscegenation, Keith E. Sealing

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This article first examines the miscegenation paradigm in terms of a seven-point conceptual framework that not merely allowed but practically demanded anti-miscegenation laws, then looks at the legal arguments state courts used to justify the constitutionality of such laws through 1967. Next, it analyzes the Biblical argument, which in its own right justified miscegenation, but also had a major influence on the development of the three major strands of scientific racism: monogenism, polygenism and Darwinian theory. It then probes the concept upon which the entire edifice is constructed-race--and discusses the continuing vitality of this construct. Next, this article turns to …

Lowering The Preclearance Hurdle Reno V. Bossier Parish School Board, 120 S. Ct. 866 (2000), Alaina C. Beverly

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Case Note examines a recent Supreme Court decision that collapses the purpose and effect prongs of Section 5, effectively lowering the barrier to preclearance for covered jurisdictions. In Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board II the Court determined that Section 5 disallows only voting plans that are enacted with a retrogressive purpose (i.e., with the purpose to "worsen" the position of minority voters). The Court held that Section 5 does not prohibit preclearance of a plan enacted with a discriminatory purpose but without a retrogressive effect. Evidence of a Section 2 violation alone will not be enough to prove …

The Adversity Of Race And Place: Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence In Illinois V. Wardlow, 528 S. Ct. 673 (2000), Adam B. Wolf

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Case Note lays out Wardlow's pertinent facts, describes the decisions of the Court and lower courts, and then analyzes the ramifications of the Court's holding. In particular, this Case Note argues that the Court's ruling recognizes substantially less Fourth Amendment protections for people of color and indigent citizens than for wealthy Caucasians. This perpetuates a cycle of humiliating experiences, as well as fear and mistrust of the police by many poor people of color.

Racial Profiling: "Driving While Mexican" And Affirmative Action, Victor C. Romero

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Essay will focus on "racial profiling" not just in the way many people think about the term-that is, with respect to stopping motorists for traffic violations based solely on their race, so-called "Driving While Mexican" or "Driving While Black"-but also in the context of "affirmative action"-namely, using race as a factor in employment and educational decisions. More broadly, then, the author wants us to think of "racial profiling" as simply "the use of race to develop an understanding of an individual," which moves us slightly away from more pejorative notions of the phrase that have seeped into the national …

Charitable Choice And The Critics, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

First, the statute prohibits the government from discriminating with regard to religion when determining whether providers are eligible to deliver social services under these programs. Second, the statute imposes on government the duty not to intrude into the religious autonomy of faith-based providers. Third, the statute imposes on both government and participating FBOs the duty not to abridge certain rights of the ultimate beneficiaries of these programs. I will touch on these three principles below, and do so in reverse order.

Agency, Equality, And Antidiscrimination Law, Tracy E. Higgins, Laura A. Rosenbury

UF Law Faculty Publications

Some commentators, perhaps a minority, have argued that the Equal Protection Clause should be read to require the use of race-conscious policies when necessary to eradicate or remedy the most serious consequences of racial inequality. Others have argued that such policies, though not required, should be permitted when duly adopted by the majority of the populace to promote the interests of an historically oppressed minority. Still others, including now a majority of the Supreme Court, take the view that the Constitution forbids virtually all explicit uses of race by the state.

In this Essay, we do not enter this debate …

The Beltway And Beyond: The Struggle For Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual And Transgender Equality, Rebecca Isaacs

Cleveland State Law Review

I will focus primarily on the struggle in the legislative arena in Washington, DC and more importantly, in states and local communities. And I will focus on three key issues for the GLBT community: families; civil rights and the intersection with religious liberty rights; and finally, violence and hate crimes. In summary, the GLBT community is pushing ahead of these and other issues in all 50 states.

Canadian Same Sex Relationship Recognition Struggles And The Contradictory Nature Of Legal Victories, Brenda Cossman

Cleveland State Law Review

I want to pick up on one of the themes running through virtually all of the papers in this symposium-the contradictory nature of law. Legal victories-and defeats-are always fragile, partial and contradictory. The perspective I bring to this theme is a Canadian one, where in the context of gay and lesbian struggles, legal victories now outweigh legal defeats. I will tell a story of these legal victories, which resulted in a much celebrated case in 1999 known as M v. H., in which the Supreme Court of Canada recognized the equality rights of same sex couples, and struck down a …

The First Amendment's Petition Clause As An Alternative Basis For Challenging Voter Initiatives That Burden The Enactment Of Anti-Discrimination Protection For Gays, Lesbians, And Bisexuals, Kevin Francis O'Neill

Cleveland State Law Review

The purpose of my remarks today is to suggest that the First Amendment-specifically, the Petition Clause of the First Amendment provides an alternative basis for vindicating gay, lesbian, and bisexual rights in certain cases. At least in the context of voter initiatives that seek to abolish anti-discrimination protection for sexual orientation, the Petition Clause is a promising alternative to equal protection and substantive due process. My objective here was merely to plant a seed: to identify an alternative basis for vindicating the rights of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals-especially when combatting homophobic voter initiatives like those in Romer and Cincinnati. It's …

Risk Reduction In Office Workplace Encounters Between Newly-Disabled Employees And Management Of New York City Companies, Marta B. Varela

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article describes potential pitfalls for employers arising from the ADA protections afforded to employees with no prior record of disability returning to work after medical certification of a disability requiring accommodation. The Article describes Federal laws protecting disabled employees from unnecessary intrusion in their private lives (such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993, and the Occupation Health and Safety Act of 1970) and sets out the requirements imposed on employers. The Article also describes New York City disability laws enforced by the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Finally, …

Developments In Housing Law And Reasonable Accommodations For New York City Residents With Disabilities, John P. Herrion

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Essay examines the New York Human Rights Law, which prohibits discrimination in the sale or rental of a housing accommodation and provides persons with disabilities the right to request and receive reasonable accommodations from their housing providers. The Essay concludes that the recent interpretation of this law by New York City Commission on Human Rights Law is a move toward protecting the rights of persons with disabilities and removing unnecessary discrimination from their lives.

Race And The Right To Vote After Rice V. Cayetano, Ellen D. Katz

Articles

Last Term, the Supreme Court relied on Gomillion [v. Lightfoot] to hold that Hawaii, like Alabama before it, had segregated voters by race in violation of the Fifteenth Amendment. The state law at issue in Rice v. Cayetano provided that only "Hawaiians" could vote for the trustees of the state's Office of Hawaiian Affairs ("OHA"), a public agency that oversees programs designed to benefit the State's native people. Rice holds that restricting the OHA electorate to descendants of the 1778 inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands embodied a racial classification that effectively "fenc[ed] out whole classes of ...ci tizens from decisionmaking …

Protection Of Domestic Violence Victims Under The New York City Human Rights Law's Provisions Prohibiting Discrimination On The Basis Of Disability, Marta B. Varela

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article analyzes the need to create a new protected class of domestic violence victims to shield them from discrimination in employment. The Article examines arguments for and against proposed legislation to revise the human rights law governing disability, section 8-107 of the New York City Administration Code. The Article concludes that this legislation is unnecessary because the law already provides sufficient protection to domestic violence victims without requiring that victims disclose their domestic violence status to their employers.

The Bank Manager Always Rings Twice: Stereotyping In Equity After Garcia, Richard Haigh, Samantha Hepburn

Articles & Book Chapters

Stereotyping is an inevitable part of human interaction. Everyone is judged, to some extent, according to individual perception, with reference to such factors as physical appearance, social position, marital status, language facility and ethnicity. It is not possible to eradicate stereotyping because it is a natural, automatic - sometimes instinctive - human response. In a legal context, however, there is a need for some mechanisms to control the degree to which stereotyping influences judicial decision-making so as to ensure that justice is administered in as neutral and impartial a manner as possible. Whether it be in the determination of facts …

The Power Of The Treasury: Racial Discrimination, Public Policy, And "Charity" In Contemporary Society, David A. Brennen

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The Treasury Department is empowered to enforce “established public policy” with respect to tax-exempt charities. Under this public policy power, the Treasury has revoked the tax-exempt charitable status of organizations that discriminated against blacks, organizations whose members engaged in civil disobedience against war, and organizations involved in illegal activity. The Treasury interprets its public policy power as applying to any activity that violates clear public policy. Thus, presumably, the Treasury could use this power to deny tax-exempt charitable status to an organization that engages in conduct that violates assisted suicide laws, anti-abortion laws, or other sufficiently “established” public policies.

The …

"Trapped" In Sing Sing: Transgendered Prisoners Caught In The Gender Binarism, Darren Rosenblum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

A transgendered woman, who has undergone extensive hormonal therapy and cosmetic surgery, is convicted and imprisoned. Because she still has a penis, albeit a nonfunctioning one, prison officials categorize her as a male, and place her in a men's prison. "You were born a boy, and you're going to stay a boy," the prison doctor says, rejecting continuation of her long-term estrogen treatment. Her body begins to regain the masculinity she had largely escaped. Bruised by the changes, her body no longer feels like her own, but one imposed on her by the criminal justice system. Her femininity stands …

Scaling Back The Ada: How The Sutton V. United Airlines Decision Affects Employees With Bipolar Disorder., Kevin Wiley Jr.

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

The Sutton v. United Airlines decision went too far in the Supreme Court’s effort to scale back the protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  Congress should review the Sutton decision and amend the ADA to consider disabilities as they exist without regard to mitigating measures based on the severity of the illness. To seek protection under the ADA, one must have a discernable disability, and one’s impairment must be diagnosed and disclosed to the employer. Disability, however, was not specifically defined in the ADA, and no agency or regulation has specifically defined disability for the courts to utilize …

The Employment Law Decisions Of The October 1999 Term Of The Supreme Court: Review And Analysis, Ann C. Hodges

Law Faculty Publications

The five employment law cases decided by the Supreme Court during the October 1999 Term bring to nineteen the total number of significant employment law cases decided by the Court during the last three terms. The October 1997 Term cases were marked by primary focus on employer liability, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, for sexual harassment by supervisors. Primary focus during the 1998 Term was on disability discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and on the constitutionality of actions brought by private parties against states under the Fair Labor Standards Act …

The Power Of The Treasury: Racial Discrimination, Public Policy And "Charity" In Contemporary Society, David A. Brennen

Scholarly Works

The Treasury Department is empowered to enforce “established public policy” with respect to tax-exempt charities. Under this public policy power, the Treasury has revoked the tax-exempt charitable status of organizations that discriminated against blacks, organizations whose members engaged in civil disobedience against war, and organizations involved in illegal activity. The Treasury interprets its public policy power as applying to any activity that violates clear public policy. Thus, presumably, the Treasury could use this power to deny tax-exempt charitable status to an organization that engages in conduct that violates assisted suicide laws, anti-abortion laws, or other sufficiently “established” public policies.

The …

¡Viva La Evolución!: Recognizing Unconscious Motive In Title Vii, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

This article analyzes the different proof mechanisms developed under Title VII discriminatory treatment doctrine, demonstrating their ability to identify unconscious, as well as conscious, discriminatory behavior. It demonstrates that soon after its enactment Title VII began to evolve, expanding its reach to unconscious discrimination. Although in many instances courts were unaware of this expansion, courts appear to have followed their intuition to further the broad remedial and preventive purposes of the statute. In response to the evolution and to the courts' failure to articulate a justification for their decisions, a counter-evolution is currently occurring, with many courts attempting rigidly to …

Recent Case Developments, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Recent case developments in Insurance Law in the years 1999 and 2000.

The Bill Of Rights And The Constitution: Facing The Challenge Of The Future, Stephen Wermiel

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Legislative Focus: Extending Asylum Eligibility To Include Gender-Related Persecution, Natasha Parassram Concepcion

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Employment Discrimination In Higher Education, Oren R. Griffin, Thomas P. Hustoles

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

During 1999, the most significant development in employment discrimination law involving colleges and universities, by a large margin, was a series of cases affirming that Eleventh Amendment immunity from private money damage claims brought pursuant to various federal employment discrimination statutes applied to state colleges and universities. This development eventually culminated in the Supreme Court's year 2000 decision in Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents.' Numerous other interesting decisions were rendered that, although not creating any bold new law, either affirmed trends in past cases, or illustrated important practical implications for generally predicting judicial outcomes given certain fact patterns. After …

History Unbecoming, Becoming History, Toni M. Massaro

Michigan Law Review

The last few decades have seen a torrent of legal commentary supporting gay equality and attacking the punishment, failure to protect, and refusal to affirm gay conduct and identity. William Eskridge, a prominent voice in this fin-de-siecle literature, now draws together and expands on his previous work in Gaylaw: Challenging the Apartheid of the Closet. Though far more successful in shaping the uses of the past than in showing the way to the future, the book instructs even where it fails. It augurs a century that could well witness the end of official discrimination against gay individuals, and the relegation …

Discrimination After Death, Mark E. Wojcik

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Discrimination And Business Regulation (The Supreme Court And Local Government Law: The 1999-2000 Term), Eileen Kaufman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.