Law Commons^™

Rights In Recession: Toward Administrative Antidiscrimination Law, Stephanie Bornstein

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article documents how, over the past six years and coinciding with the “Great Recession of 2008,” both public and private antidiscrimination enforcement mechanisms have become increasingly constrained, such that the ability to enforce the mandate of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 - the main federal law prohibiting employment discrimination - may be facing a crisis point. While enforcement mechanisms for federal antidiscrimination law have long left room for improvement, recent developments in the economy, due to the 2008 recession, and in federal case law, due to a series of procedural decisions by the Roberts Court, …

Work Wives, Laura A. Rosenbury

UF Law Faculty Publications

Traditional notions of male and female roles remain tenacious at home and work even in the face of gender-neutral family laws and robust employment discrimination laws. This Article analyzes the challenge of gender tenacity through the lens of the “work wife.” The continued use of the marriage metaphor at work reveals that the dynamics of marriage flow between home and work, creating a feedback loop that inserts gender into both domains in multiple ways. This phenomenon may reinforce gender stereotypes, hindering the potential of law to achieve gender equality. But such gender tenacity need not always lead to subordination. The …

Marital Status And Privilege, Laura A. Rosenbury

UF Law Faculty Publications

This essay challenges the privilege attaching to marriage as a distinct form of relationship. Responding to Angela Onwuachi-Willig’s new book, According to Our Hearts: Rhinelander v. Rhinelander and the Law of the Multiracial Family, the essay identifies the legal and extralegal privileges flowing not just to monoracial marriage but to marriage. States recognize and support one form of relationship between adults to the exclusion of all others, creating privilege that flows outside of the home into the workplace and beyond. Instead of arguing that such privilege should be distributed more equally between monoracial and multiracial couples, this essay seeks …

Intellectual Property And Employee Selection, Elizabeth A. Rowe

UF Law Faculty Publications

In today’s marketplace, companies from Disney to Hooters are increasingly integrating their image into the service that they provide. This has come to be known as “branded service.” The human wearing the trade dress merges with the brand image. When a company chooses this strategy to differentiate itself from its competitors in the marketplace, it will often incorporate some intellectual property, and the result then necessarily influences hiring decisions. If a business decides not to hire a prospective employee because she does not fit the company’s image, and that decision is challenged under the antidiscrimination laws, to what extent should …

Title Vii V. Seniority: The Supreme Court Giveth And The Supreme Court Taketh Away, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

UF Law Faculty Publications

Congress intended to solve the widespread problem of nonegalitarian hiring practices by enacting title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (the Act), during the apogee of the civil rights era. The Act represented a national commitment to end discrimination and to promote equality in employment. The enactment of title VII spawned extensive commentary on the effect of facially neutral employment practices that perpetuated pre-Act discrimination. Particular controversy arose concerning the application of seniority rules to blacks in jobs or seniority units from which they previously had been excluded because of their race.

The problem of accommodating seniority systems …