Law Commons^™

Introduction: Challenging Authority: A Symposium Honoring Derrick Bell, Jasmine Gonzales Rose

Faculty Scholarship

This is the Introduction to the University of Pittsburgh Law Review’s Challenging Authority: A Symposium Honoring Derrick Bell (L.L.B. 1957). This special symposium issue of the 75th volume of the Law Review celebrates and seeks to continue Bell’s critical inquiry into and fight against racial injustice. It features leading and emerging voices that examine and build upon some of Bell’s most eminent concepts, such as the permanence of racism and Interest Convergence Theory; explore Bell’s impact as a professor and activist; and look ahead to the next wave of critical race study.

The Quixotic Search For Race-Neutral Alternatives, Michael E. Rosman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Supreme Court has stated that the narrow-tailoring inquiry of the Equal Protection Clause’s strict scrutiny analysis of racially disparate treatment by state actors requires courts to consider whether the defendant seriously considered race-neutral alternatives before adopting the race-conscious program at issue. This article briefly examines what that means in the context of race-conscious admissions programs at colleges and universities. Part I sets forth the basic concepts that the Supreme Court uses to analyze race-conscious decision-making by governmental actors and describes the role of “race-neutral alternatives” in that scheme. Part II examines the nature of “race-neutral alternatives” and identifies its …

Federalism And Business Decisions In The October 2005 Term, Carter G. Phillips

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lgbtq Experiences With The Courts: The Role Of Gender Nonconformity And Assertiveness, Alexis Forbes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Using lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) and non-LGBTQ participants, a pair of studies explored the influence of LGBTQ identity and gender nonconformity (GNC) in experiences of discrimination in court settings. A one-way ANOVA tested whether LGBTQ participants were more likely to score low on the treatment in court scale. Additionally, two separate multiple regression analyses tested whether high scores on the Gender Nonconformity Scale (GNCS; Forbes & Nadal, under review), were associated with low scores on a measure of treatment in court. It was discovered that LGBTQ identity did not have a statistically significant effect on factor in …

Reasonable Accommodation As Professional Responsibility, Reasonable Accommodation As Professionalism, Alex B. Long

Scholarly Works

The American legal profession has been slow to remove the barriers that exclude individuals with disabilities. As a result, people with disabilities remain underrepresented in the practice of law. While the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits employment discrimination and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities, there remain significant barriers to employment for lawyers with disabilities. This Article argues that the legal profession should view the legal requirements of reasonable accommodation and equal employment opportunities for lawyers with disabilities as fundamental components of professional responsibility and professionalism.

Fighting Hidden Discrimination: Disparate Impact Claims Under The Fair Housing Act, Sean Milford

Missouri Law Review

This Note will provide a brief overview of the history of disparate impact claims under the FHA and outline why they are an important tool in fighting housing discrimination in the United States. The ruling of the Third Circuit preserves this important tool and will help to protect minority homeowners from future discriminatory redevelopment of their neighborhoods. The parties settled this case on November 13, 2013, before the Supreme Court could rule on its merits. Should the Supreme Court hold in a future case that disparate impact claims are not cognizable under the FHA the Court would strike a serious …

The Ninth Circuit's Treatment Of Sexual Orientation: Defining “Rational Basis Review With Bite”, Ian Bartrum

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

On February 10, Nevada's Democratic attorney general decided to stop defending the state's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, which is currently under review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Perhaps even more surprising, Nevada's Republican governor agreed with that decision, concluding that the "case is no longer defensible in court." Ironically, all of this came after the plaintiffs had lost their case in the district court. But the federal constitutional landscape surrounding same-sex marriage is rapidly shifting, and in the nation's largest circuit change is coming quickly indeed. The latest upheaval—the decision that in fact prompted …

Bottlenecks And Antidiscrimination Theory, Samuel R. Bagenstos

Reviews

In American antidiscrimination theory, two positions have competed for primacy. One, anticlassification, sees the proper goal of antidiscrimination law as being essentially individualistic. The problem with discrimination, in this view, is that it classifies individuals on the basis of an irrelevant or arbitrary characteristic—and that it, as a result, denies them opportunities for which they are otherwise individually qualified. The other position, antisubordination, sees the proper goal of antidiscrimination law as being more group oriented. The problem with discrimination, in this view, is that it helps constitute a social system in which particular groups are systematically subject to disadvantage and …

Supreme Court, Sullivan County, Holman V. Goord, Eric Pack

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ledbetter V. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Derrick A. Bell Jr.

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dismissing Deterrence, Ellen D. Katz

Articles

The proposed Voting Rights Amendment Act of 20144 (VRAA)[...]’s new criteria defining when jurisdictions become subject to preclearance are acutely responsive to the concerns articulated in Shelby County[ v. Holder]. The result is a preclearance regime that, if enacted, would operate in fewer places and demand less from those it regulates. This new regime, however, would not only be more targeted and less powerful, but, curiously, more vulnerable to challenge. In fact, the regime would be more vulnerable precisely because it is so responsive to Shelby County. Some background will help us see why.

Applying Sex Offender Registry Laws To Juvenile Offenders: Biases Against Adolescents From Stigmatized Groups, Jessica M. Salerno, Margaret Stevenson, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Tisha R.A. Wiley, Bette L. Bottoms, Liana Peter-Hagene

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

The need to protect children from dangerous sex offenders has led to policies that require juvenile sex offenders to register on public online registries. It is important to determine the implications of these laws for the wellbeing of child victims and also for juvenile offenders on these registries. Is the application of these laws—designed for adult offenders—to juveniles appropriate, necessary, and supported by public sentiment? The chapter reviews current sex offender registration policies and psychological research addressing whether the assumptions underlying these laws are supported by research, public sentiment toward these laws, factors that might drive biases against stigmatized youth …

Globally Speaking—Honoring The Victims' Stories: Matsuda's Human Rights Praxis, Berta Esperanza Hernández-Truyol

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

Globally speaking, international law and the vast majority of domestic legal systems strive to protect the right to freedom of expression. The United States' First Amendment provides an early historical protection of speech-a safeguard now embraced around the world. The extent of this protection, however, varies among states. The United States stands alone in excluding countervailing considerations of equality, dignitary, or privacy interests that would favor restrictions on speech. The gravamen of the argument supporting such American exceptionalism is that free expression is necessary in a democracy. Totalitarianism, the libertarian narrative goes, thrives on government control of information to the …

A Tale Of Two Minority Groups: Can Two Different Minority Groups Bring A Coalition Suit Under Section 2 Of The Voting Rights Act Of 1965, Sara Michaloski

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Neither Panacea, Placebo, Nor Poison: Examining The Rise Of Anti-Unemployment Discrimination Laws, Seth Katsuya Endo

Pace Law Review

Since 2009, the unemployment rate in the United States has remained above eight percent, which means that more than twelve million individuals have been looking for work at any given time. With so many affected individuals, unemployment has become an issue of public concern, particularly as stories describing employers refusing to consider currently unemployed candidates for job opportunities have proliferated. In response to these trends, about twenty states and the federal government have passed, or are considering, legislation designed to prohibit employers from discriminating against individuals based on their employment status.

The goal of this Article is to survey the …

Snopa And The Ppa: Do You Know What It Means For You? If Snopa (Social Networking Online Protection Act) Or Ppa (Password Protection Act) Do Not Pass, The Snooping Could Cause You Trouble, Angela Goodrum

Journal of Public Law and Policy

This article discusses the importance of passing the Social Networking Online Protection Act and the Password Protection Act to afford vital protection against discrimination in hiring and admission decisions. Existing laws fail to adequately provide protection against discrimination after the advent of social media. Furthermore, failure to provide to provide protection via federal laws will create a disparity in the protection afforded individuals across the United States.

Social media has introduced a new world of opportunities for sharing, networking, but it has also created ample opportunities for others to snoop around, discriminate, and base their hiring or admission decisions, in …

All For One, And One For All-Comers! University Nondiscrimination Policies In Light Of Hosanna-Tabor And The Ministerial Exception, Zach Tafoya

Pepperdine Law Review

In light of the more recent Hosanna-Tabor decision, this Comment seeks to answer these questions by extending the reasoning behind the ministerial exception to the university context in order to build a foundation upon which a future exception can be built to ensure that religious student groups are sufficiently free to choose their own leaders. Part II sets forth a brief history of the ministerial exception and its application in the circuit courts. Part III addresses two recent Supreme Court cases, Martinez and Hosanna-Tabor, and their practical effect on religious liberty, as well as the public’s perception of both cases. …

Brief For Constitutional Law Professors As Amici Curiae Supporting Appellee, Brown Et Al. V. Livingston, Leslie C. Griffin

Supreme Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

Torts And Civil Rights Law: Migration And Conflict: Symposium Introduction, Sandra F. Sperino

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Curiously, the connection between civil rights and civil wrongs has not been a topic that has captivated the attention of large numbers of legal scholars over the years. The distance that has developed between the two fields likely reflects their placement on opposite sides of the public-private divide, with Title VII and other anti-discrimination statutes forming part of public law, while torts is a classic, private law subject. To compound the division, both subjects are to some extent still under-theorized. Employment discrimination scholarship is often caught up in the process of analyzing the doctrinal implications of the latest Supreme Court …

Let's Pretend Discrimination Is A Tort, Sandra F. Sperino

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

In the past decade, the Supreme Court has repeatedly invoked tort common law to interpret federal discrimination statutes. During this same time period, the Supreme Court increasingly invoked textualism as the appropriate methodology for interpreting these statutes. One immediate effect of these two trends - tortification and textualism - is to restrict discrimination law by tightening causal standards.

This Article explores how interpreting discrimination statutes through the lenses of tort law and textualism can expand, rather than restrict, discrimination law. It assumes that courts will continue to characterize discrimination statutes as torts and as deriving from the common law, despite …

Accommodating Every Body, Brad Areheart

College of Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article contends that workplace accommodations should be predicated on need or effectiveness instead of group identity status. It proposes that, in principle, “accommodating every body” be achieved by extending Americans with Disabilities Act type reasonable accommodation to all work-capable members of the general population for whom accommodation is necessary to enable their ability to work. Doing so shifts the focus of accommodation disputes from the contentious identity-based contours of “disabled” plaintiffs to the core issue of alleged discrimination. This proposal likewise avoids current problems associated with excluding “unworthy” individuals from employment opportunity — people whose functional capacity does not …

An Evaluation Of The Prospects For Successful Implementation Of The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities In The Islamic World, Brenton Kinker

Michigan Journal of International Law

This note will examine the CRPD’s aspirations in light of Islamic law, comparing whether the two are—or can be—consistent. Part I will provide background on the CRPD, including the intent of the treaty, the negotiations leading to the final wording, and the solid obligations it contains for state parties. Part II examines the background of Shari’a and its provisions regarding disability. Part III compares the treatment of the disabled under Islamic law with that required by the CRPD in order to gage consistency. Where tensions exist, alternative interpretations of both Islamic law and the CPRD are proposed that might facilitate …

The Tort Label, Sandra F. Sperino

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Courts and commentators often label federal discrimination statutes as torts. Since the late 1980s, the courts increasingly applied tort concepts to these statutes. This Article discusses how courts placed employment discrimination law within the organizational umbrella of tort law without examining whether the two areas share enough theoretical and doctrinal affinities.

While discrimination statutes are torts in some general sense that they do not arise out of criminal law and are not solely contractual, it is far from clear that these statutes are enough like traditional torts to justify the reflexive and automatic use of tort law. Employment discrimination statutes …

The Jewish Law Firm: Past And Present, Eli Wald

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The rise and growth of large Jewish law firms in New York City during the second half of the twentieth century was nothing short of an astounding success story. As late as 1950, there was not a single large Jewish law firm in town. By the mid-1960s, six of the largest twenty law firms were Jewish, and by 1980, four of the largest ten prestigious law firms were Jewish firms. Moreover, the accomplishment of the Jewish firms is especially striking because, while the traditional large White Anglo-Saxon Protestant law firms grew at a fast rate during this period, the Jewish …

Fisher V. Texas: The Limits Of Exhaustion And The Future Of Race-Conscious University Admissions, John A. Powell, Stephen Menendian

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article investigates the potential ramifications of Fisher v. Texas and the future of race-conscious university admissions. Although one cannot predict the ultimate significance of the Fisher decision, its brief and pregnant statements of law portends an increasingly perilous course for traditional affirmative action programs. Part I explores the opinions filed in Fisher, with a particular emphasis on Justice Kennedy’s opinion on behalf of the Court. We focus on the ways in which the Fisher decision departs from precedent, proscribes new limits on the use of race in university admissions, and tightens requirements for narrow tailoring. Part II investigates the …

"The Evolution Of Employment Discrimination Law: Changed Doctrine For Changed Social Conditions ", Michael Selmi

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Times change, and when they do, the law must as well. Much of the most important employment discrimination case law was established in the 1970s during an era when discrimination was both overt and pervasive. Moving forward forty years, discrimination has receded dramatically and is no longer seen as a default explanation for workplace decisions or statistical imbalances in a workforce. At the same time, the discrimination that remains is more complex, more subtle in nature and more difficult to identify. This article explores how the Supreme Court has navigated the declining but more complex nature of employment discrimination. In …

Indiana Journal Of Law And Social Equality, Michael Selmi

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This essay reviews the Obama Administration’s civil rights record during its first Administration, with a particular focus on theCivil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”). The review finds that although the Obama Administration has generally been supportive of progressive causes, particularly in the Supreme Court and among issues relating to gay men and lesbians, its enforcement activities have generally been quite limited. On a quantitative basis, the Obama Administration’s civil rights enforcement typically fall at the same or below levels of the prior BushAdministration, and with a few exceptions (mortgage discrimination and …

Federally Recognized Rights Of Lgbtq Students To Form Gay-Straight Alliance Organizations (Gsas), Jerry Foxhoven

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

The purpose of this article is to explore the various avenues that have been used in the federal courts to ensure the right to organize Gay Straight Alliances (GSAs), and to detail the use of the federal courts by students who assert the right to express contrary views on sexual orientation issues.

The Limits Of Christian Legal Society, William E. Thro

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

In Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, a sharply divided Supreme Court held that officials at a public institution might require a student religious group to admit all-comers from the student body, including those who disagree with its beliefs, as a condition of being a recognized student organization. Put another way, the Court declared that the government, through university officials, might force religious groups to choose between compromising their values and receiving benefits that other student groups receive as a matter of constitutional right.

While Christian Legal Society remains the controlling constitutional rule until explicitly overruled, there are significant limits …

Federalism, Diversity, Equality, And Article Iii Judges: Geography, Identity, And Bias , Sharon E. Rush

Missouri Law Review

Each individual has a background, and that background shapes the individual's views about life, creating an inevitable form of bias referred to as "experiential bias." Experiential bias is shaped by many identity traits, including, among others, race, sex, sexual orientation, religion and even geography. The geographic identity of state judges and their potential unfair experiential bias is the common justification for federal court diversity jurisdiction. But experiential bias is inescapable, affecting everyone who's ever had an experience, and is generally not unfair, as demonstrated by most studies regarding the "fairness" justification for diversity jurisdiction. More recently, Justice O'Connor connected racial …