Law Commons^™

Negotiating Social Change: Backstory Behind The Repeal Of Don’T Ask, Don’T Tell, Linell A. Letendre, Hal Abramson

Scholarly Works

This Article is about negotiating social change in the largest U.S.institution, the Military and its five Services. Inducing social change in any institution and society is notoriously difficult when change requires overcoming clashing personal values among stakeholders. And, in this negotiation over the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), clashing values over open service by gays and lesbians were central to the conflict.

In response to President Obama’s call to repeal DADT, the Secretary of Defense selected a Working Group to undertake studies, surveys and focus groups to inform the debate. During the nine-month process of gathering a massive …

Sexuality And Sovereignty: The Global Limits And Possibilities Of A Lawrence, Sonia K. Katyal

Sonia Katyal

No abstract provided.

International Courts As Agents Of Legal Change: Evidence From Lgbt Rights In Europe, Laurence R. Helfer, Erik Voeten

Faculty Scholarship

Do international court judgments influence the behavior of actors other than the parties to a dispute? Are international courts agents of policy change or do their judgments merely reflect evolving social and political trends? The authors develop a theory that specifies the conditions under which international courts can use their interpretive discretion to have system-wide effects. The authors examine the theory in the context of European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues by creating a new dataset that matches these rulings with laws in all Council of Europe (CoE) member states. The …

From Stonewall To The Suburbs? Toward A Political Economy Of Sexuality, Angela P. Harris

Angela P Harris

No abstract provided.

Discrimination Cases (The Supreme Court And Local Government Law: The 1995-1996 Term), Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

The "Cure" That Harms: Sexual Orientation-Based Asylum And The Changing Definition Of Persecution, Alan G. Bennett

Golden Gate University Law Review

This note will discuss the history of sexual orientation-based asylum law. Further, it will outline the statutory requirements for asylum, explain the legal procedure of gaining asylum, and discuss the case law recognition of lesbians and gay men as "a particular social group." In addition, it will address the standards and definitions of persecution.

Gay Men And Lesbians Down By Law In The 1990'S Usa: The Continuing Toll Of Bowers V. Hardwick, Mary C. Dunlap

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Article will take a look at these developments and will review the progress, stasis and backsliding of the movement for gay/lesbian civil rights, since (although not necessarily because of nor despite) the Supreme Court's decision of the Hardwick case. A review of all gay/lesbian rights cases decided since Hardwick is not contemplated here, even were such an enterprise practicable. Instead, this article attempts an exploration of some cases and situations in the layered social, psychological and political context in which these legal phenomena are occurring. The purpose is to determine what lessons we have learned in the years since …

Survey: Women And California Law, Carol A. King

Golden Gate University Law Review

This survey of California Law, a regular feature of the Women's Law Forum, summarizes recent California Supreme Court and Court of Appeal decisions of special importance to women. A brief analysis of the issues pertinent to women raised in each case is provided.

Transcendent Homosexuals And Dangerous Sex Offenders: Sexual Harm And Freedom In The Judicial Imaginary, Joseph J. Fischel

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Moving Beyond The Immutability Debate In The Fight For Equality After Proposition 8., M.K.B. Darmer, Tiffany Chang

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

On May 15, 2008, the California Supreme Court issued its historic decision regarding marriage rights for same-sex couples. In the course of its opinion, the court found that classifications based upon sexual orientation are subject to the protections of “strict scrutiny” for purposes of the state’s equal protection clause. The court also found that marriage is a fundamental right that extends to same-sex couples. On November 4, 2008, 52% of California voters voted for Proposition 8, which purported to “amend” the state constitution by adding fourteen words in a new clause following the equal protection clause: “only marriage between a …

Erasing Boundaries: Masculinities, Sexual Minorities, And Employment Discrimination, Ann Mcginley

Ann McGinley

This article analyzes the application of employment discrimination law to sexual minorities – lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and intersex individuals. It evaluates Title VII and state anti-discrimination laws’ treatment of these individuals, and is the first article to use masculinities research, theoretical and empirical, to explain employment discrimination against sexual minorities.While the article concludes that new legislation would further the interests of sexual minorities, it posits that it is neither necessary nor sufficient to solving the employment discrimination problems of sexual minorities. A major problem lies in the courts’ binary view of sex and gender, a view that identifies men …

Moving Beyond The 'Immutability Debate' In The Fight For Equality After, M. Katherine B. Darmer

M. Katherine B. Darmer

On May 15, 2008, the California Supreme Court issued its historic decision regarding marriage rights for same-sex couples. In the course of its opinion, the court found that classifications based upon sexual orientation are subject to the protections of "strict scrutiny" for purposes of the state's equal protection clause. The court also found that marriage is a fundamental right that extends to same-sex couples.

On November 4, 2008, 52% of California voters voted for Proposition 8, which purported to "amend" the state constitution by adding fourteen words in a new clause following the equal protection clause: "only marriage between a …

"No Drinking, No Drugs, No Lesbians": Sexual Orientation Discrimination In Intercollegiate Athletics, Barbara Osborne

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Gay Rights And American Constitutionalism: What’S A Constitution For?, J. Harvie Wilkinson Iii

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Foreword: Disabling Brown, Michael Ashley Stein

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Sexuality And Sovereignty: The Global Limits And Possibilities Of A Lawrence, Sonia K. Katyal

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

From Stonewall To The Suburbs? Toward A Political Economy Of Sexuality, Angela P. Harris

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Unanimously Wrong, Dale Carpenter

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The Supreme Court was unanimously wrong in Rumsfeld v. FAIR. Though rare, it's not the first time the Court has been unanimously wrong. Its most notorious such decisions have come, like FAIR, in cases where the Court conspicuously failed even to appreciate the importance of the constitutional freedoms under attack from legislative majorities. In these cases, the Court's very rhetoric exposed its myopic vision in ways that now seem embarrassing. Does FAIR, so obviously correct to so many people right now, await the same ignominy decades away? FAIR was wrong in tone, a dismissive vox populi, adopted by a Court …

Miss Susan’S Etiquette Tips For The Socially Conscious Judge: A Guide To Honorable Conduct Toward Gays And Lesbians In The Courtroom, Bradley Zane Haumont, Susan Ann Koenig

Saint Louis University Public Law Review

No abstract provided.

Beyond Gay Rights: Lawrence V. Texas And The Promise Of Liberty, Philip Chapman

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Lawrence V. Texas And Judicial Hubris, Nelson Lund, John O. Mcginnis

Michigan Law Review

The republic will no doubt survive the Supreme Court's decision, in Lawrence v. Texas, to invalidate laws against private, consensual sodomy, including those limited to homosexual behavior. Such laws are almost never enforced, and the rare prosecutions for such acts are necessarily capricious. So the principal direct effect of the Court's decision is likely to be extremely limited, and largely salutary: a few individuals will be spared the bad luck of getting a criminal conviction for violating laws that are manifestly out of step with prevailing sexual mores. Nor are we likely to see anything like the intense political …

Sexual Orientation And The Paradox Of Heightened Scrutiny, Nan D. Hunter

Michigan Law Review

In Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court performed a double move, creating a dramatic discursive moment: it both decriminalized consensual homosexual relations between adults, and, simultaneously, authorized a new regime of heightened regulation of homosexuality. How that happened and what we can expect next are the subjects of this essay. The obvious point of departure for an analysis of Lawrence is its decriminalization of much sexual conduct. Justice Scalia began this project with his dire warning that "[s]tate laws against bigamy, samesex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity are . . . sustainable only in …

The Unknown Past Of Lawrence V. Texas, Dale Carpenter

Michigan Law Review

On the night of September 17, 1998, someone called the police to report that a man was going crazy with a gun inside a Houston apartment. When Harris County sheriff's deputies entered the apartment they found no person with a gun but did witness John Lawrence and Tyron Gamer having anal sex. This violated the Texas Homosexual Conduct law, and the deputies hauled them off to jail for the night. Lawyers took the men's case to the Supreme Court and won a huge victory for gay rights. So goes the legend of Lawrence v. Texas. Do not believe it. …

Surviving Lawrence V. Texas, Marc Spindelman

Michigan Law Review

The lesbian and gay communities have reacted to the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas - striking down state sodomy laws on Due Process grounds - with unbridled enthusiasm. Lawrence has variously been praised as an unmitigated victory for lesbian and gay rights, a turning point in our community's history, and the moment when we have gone from second-class political outcasts to constitutional persons with first-class rights. Obviously, something remarkable happened in Lawrence. In an opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Court declared that John Geddes Lawrence and Tyrone Gamer, who had been convicted under Texas's sodomy …

Tumbling Towers As Turning Points: Will 9/11 Usher In A New Civil Rights Era For Gay Men And Lesbians In The United States?, Susan J. Becker

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Tumbling Towers As Turning Points: Will 9/11 Usher In A New Civil Rights Era For Gay Men And Lesbians In The United States?, Susan J. Becker

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This article examines the events of 9/11, and the potential resultant shifts in attitude, policies, and laws in the United States, through the lens of civil rights extended to gay and lesbian citizens. It seeks, but does not purport to definitively discover, the true meaning of the phrase "life will never be the same." It asks, but does not purport to fully answer, whether historians a century or two hence will look back on 9/11 as the turning point when the United States began to fulfill its promise of liberty to all people, or whether this date will be earmarked …

Performance And Politics: An Argument For Expanded First Amendment Protection Of Homosexual Expression, Jennifer Minear

Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Don't Ask Us To Explain Ourselves, Don't Tell Us What To Do: The Boy Scouts' Exclusion Of Gay Members And The Necessity Of Independent Judicial Review, Taylor Flynn

Faculty Scholarship

In Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, the U.S. Supreme Court held by a five to four majority that the Boy Scouts of America is entitled to ban gay persons from membership despite New Jersey's prohibition against sexual orientation discrimination. The Dale majority sharply departed from the Court's long line of expressive association cases, in which it has rejected the claims of private clubs that application of civil rights laws to their membership policies violates their associational rights. This Author argues that by "reading" the plaintiff in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale as a cipher for gay sex, and …

Insiders And Outsiders: What The American Law Institute Has Done For Gay And Lesbian Families, Mary I. Coombs

Articles

No abstract provided.

How Democratic Are Initiatives?, Richard B. Collins

Publications

No abstract provided.