Law Commons^™

Reflections On Brown And The Future, Oliver W. Hill Sr.

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Virginia's Next Challenge: Economic And Educational Opportunity, Mark R. Warner

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Promise Of Equality: Reflections On The Post-Brown Era In Virginia, Robert R. Mehrige Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Clarifying The Federal Fair Housing Act's Exemption For Reasonable Occupancy Restrictions, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

This article argues that a deceptively simple “exemption” to the 1988 Fair Housing Act Amendments (FHAA) for “reasonable” governmental occupancy standards has been misinterpreted by numerous courts, particularly by the Sixth Circuit in Affordable Housing Advocates v. City of Richmond Heights, 209 F.3d 626 (6th Cir. 2000). This misinterpretation undercuts the protection from housing discrimination that the FHAA provides for families, especially families of color. This article sorts through the confusion about the “exemption,” provides a step-by-step analysis for courts’ application of the exemption, and offers two plausible versions of a “reasonable” standard.

Discrimination In Sentencing On The Basis Of Afro-Centric Features, William T. Pizzi, Irene V. Blair, Charles M. Judd

ExpressO

For a long time, social scientists have worried about possible racial discrimination in sentencing in the United States. With a prison population that exceeds two million inmates of whom approximately 48% are African American, the worry over the fairness of the sentencing process is understandable. This article is not about discrimination between racial categories as such, but about a related form of discrimination, namely, discrimination on the basis of a person’s Afro-centric features. Section I of the article describes a line of social science research that shows that a person’s Afro-centric features have a strong biasing effect on judgment such …

Motor Vehicles And Traffic Racial Profiling: Amend The Official Code Of Georgia So As To Require Policies That Prohibit Law Enforcement Officers From Impermissibly Using Race Or Ethnicity In Determining Whether To Stop A Motorist; Require Annual Training Of Law Enforcement Officers On Impermissible Uses Of Race And Ethnicity In Stopping Vehicles; Require Law Enforcement Officers To Document The Race, Ethnicity, And Gender Of A Motorist And Passengers; Provide For Other Matters Relative Thereto; Repeal Conflicting Laws; And For Other Purposes, Jason Sheffield

Georgia State University Law Review

In 2004, the Georgia General Assembly considered a bill to amend the portion of the Georgia Code dealing with motor vehicles and traffic. HB 1327 would have prohibited the use of race or ethnicity in forming probable cause or reasonable suspicion to stop a vehicle and would have mandated data collection for all traffic stops by state and local law enforcement officers. Law enforcement personnel would have recorded this information on a form that the Department of Motor Vehicles would have devised. The Georgia Attorney General would have then analyzed this data to test for racial profiling. Additionally, HB 1327 …

Race And Equality Across The Law School Curriculum: The Law Of Tax Exemption, David A. Brennen

Scholarly Works

What is the relevance of race to tax law? The race issues are apparent when one studies a subject like constitutional law. The Constitution concerns itself explicitly with such matters as defining rights of citizenship, allocating powers of government, and determining rights with respect to property. Given the history of our country -- with slavery followed by periods of de jure and de facto racial discrimination -- these constitutional law matters obviously must have racial dimensions.

Tax law, however, does not generally concern itself explicitly with matters of race. Tax law is often thought of as completely race neutral in …

The Network Economic Effects Of Whiteness, Brant T. Lee

Akron Law Faculty Publications

In this Essay I demonstrate that a network economic analysis of race provides an important and intuitive explanation of racial inequality. In short, Whiteness is Microsoft's Windows operating system, or the QWERTY keyboard, or the standard (non-metric) measurement system, and it is difficult to dislodge for many of the same reasons. Network effects explain how (1) the establishment of a dominant market standard can be contingent on historical context, and it is not necessarily derived from superior intrinsic merit, and (2) a dominant standard exhibits strong self-reinforcing characteristics that can maintain the dominance of the standard in perpetuity, even in …

The Network Economic Effects Of Whiteness, Brant T. Lee

Brant T. Lee

In this Essay I demonstrate that a network economic analysis of race provides an important and intuitive explanation of racial inequality. In short, Whiteness is Microsoft's Windows operating system, or the QWERTY keyboard, or the standard (non-metric) measurement system, and it is difficult to dislodge for many of the same reasons. Network effects explain how (1) the establishment of a dominant market standard can be contingent on historical context, and it is not necessarily derived from superior intrinsic merit, and (2) a dominant standard exhibits strong self-reinforcing characteristics that can maintain the dominance of the standard in perpetuity, even in …

Juror First Votes In Criminal Trials, Stephen P. Garvey, Paula Hannaford-Agor, Valerie P. Hans, Nicole L. Mott, G. Thomas Munsterman, Martin T. Wells

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Our analysis of the voting behavior of over 3,000 jurors in felony cases tried in Los Angeles, Maricopa County, the District of Columbia, and the Bronx reveals that only in D.C. does a juror's race appear to relate to how he or she votes. African-American jurors in D.C. appear more apt to vote not guilty on the jury's first ballot in cases involving minority defendants charged with drug offenses. We find no evidence, however, that this effect survives into the jury's final verdict.

Grutter V. Bollinger: Setting A Path For Diversity At The University Of South Carolina School Of Law, Laurel Rosenberg

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Brown'S Legacy Then And Now: Race And Law School Admissions Debates Continue After Nearly 70 Years, Lauren M. Collins

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Next month marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education. Although this case represents a major victory in the battle for civil rights, the struggle against racism in education began some 20 years prior to Brown. During the 1930s and 1940s, at least seven African-American law school candidates aggressively challenged the unequal treatment of minority applicants in state courts, some eventually reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. Early successes in these cases lead to the more sweeping Brown decision, which then contributed to further law school admission policy reform. Discussion about the role of …

Naming The Dragon: Litigating Race Issues During A Death Penalty Trial, Andrea D. Lyon

Andrea D. Lyon

The issue of racial disparity in the administration of the death penalty is a persistent theme in modern capital jurisprudence. Starting with Furman v. Georgia and continuing on to McCleskey v. Zant courts have struggled to come to grips with this issue. This article does not attempt to explore all of the legal ramifications of race and the death penalty, nor does it speak to its political import. Rather, it tackles some of the practical problems facing a capital defense attorney in the courtroom by providing a brief overview of motions practice in this arena by using a federal capital …

Taking Conservatives Seriously: A Moral Justification For Affirmative Action And Reparations, Kim Forde-Mazrui

Kim Forde-Mazrui

Underlying the debate over affirmative action and reparations for black Americans is a dispute about the extent to which American society is responsible for present effects of past racial discrimination. Although much has been written on the subject, the scholarship too often sheds more heat than light, and tends to be dominated by extreme positions incapable of taking opposing claims seriously. This Article weighs in on this debate in a novel and constructive manner. The Article defends a societal obligation to remedy past discrimination by accepting, rather than dismissing, principles of conservatives who oppose affirmative action and reparations. Taking conservatives …

Race, Corporate Law, And Shareholder Value, Thomas W. Joo

Thomas W Joo

Racial justice is becoming a taboo subject, which often has to be explained and justified in nominally “race-neutral” terms. The rhetorical strategy of linking diversity to the bottom line is potentially powerful in the current political and cultural climate. But the strategy also has limitations and costs. It is not clear that diversity and improved corporate performance always go hand in hand. Furthermore, as a matter of corporate law doctrine, even strong evidence of a correlation between the two would not necessarily constitute a basis to compel corporations to take any action to further racial justice. Finally, there is a …

Two Wrongs Make A Right: Hybrid Claims Of Discrimination, Ming Hsu Chen

Publications

This Note reinterprets and recontextualizes the pronouncement in Employment Division v. Smith (Smith II) that exemptions from generally applicable laws will not be granted unless claims of free exercise are accompanied by the assertion of another constitutional right. It argues that when Arab American Muslims, and others who are of minority race and religion, bring claims for exemption from generally applicable laws on the basis of free exercise and equal protection principles, they ought to be able to invoke Smith II's hybridity exception, thus meriting heightened judicial scrutiny and increased solicitude from courts.

The Conception Of Brown, Robert L. Carter

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article discusses the pervasive racism that continues to exist in the United States and examines the critical role that the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education played in transforming race relations. The Article stresses the need to find a way to rid the country of race and color differentiation and emphasizes the deleterious effect that segregated school systems have on black school childrens ability to learn. The Article examines how Brown came about and states that the Court's rejection of Plessy v. Ferguson is what makes the case so significant. The Article discusses some of the important …

The Judicial Betrayal Of Blacks - Again: The Supreme Court's Destruction Of The Hopes Raised By Brown V. Board Of Education, Nathaniel R. Jones

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article discusses the history of school desegregation beginning with the pivotal decision in Brown v. Board of Education and noting the hopes that the case raised for black americans. The Article notes the resistance that Brown faced, especially from political forces who began to subvert the desegregation process, and examines the Supreme Court's subsequent decisions which aimed to secure Brown's objectives. The Article also examines the desegregation attempts in the North and discusses the difficulties plaintiffs faced in proving racial discrimination in school districts. The Article concludes by stating that the commitment to desegregation is waring and that segregation …

Reparations For Apartheid's Victims: The Path To Reconciliation?, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

United States' Trade Policy And The Exportation Of United States' Culture, Beverly I. Moran

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The United States Trade Representative and the policies that he (or she) attempt to impose on our trading partners have the serious and perhaps unintended effect of destroying local culture particularly in the area of film production.

The Racial Gap In Ability: From The Fifteenth Century To Grutter And Gratz, Kevin D. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Justice O'Connor’s opinion for the United States Supreme Court in Grutter v. Bollinger upheld the University of Michigan Law School’s affirmative action plan. Beneficiaries of affirmative action clearly meet the necessary qualifications for admissions to selective colleges, universities, and graduate programs. But, the justifications for affirmative action articulated by Justice O'Connor implicitly recognized that underrepresented minorities with a history of discrimination are not as academically qualified as their non-Hispanic white (and Asian counterparts). Their inclusion in affirmative action plans is based on the belief that they provide enough educational and non-educational benefits to offset their academic shortcomings.

There are measurable …

Is There A Place For Race As A Legal Concept, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

What does "race" mean? The word "race" is omnipresent in American social, political, and legal discourse. The concept of "race" is central to contemporary debate about affirmative action, racial profiling, hate crimes, health inequities, and many other issues. Nevertheless, the best research in genetics, medicine, and the social sciences reveals that the concept of "race" is elusive and has no reliable definition.

This article argues that "race" is an unnecessary and potentially pernicious concept. As evidenced by the history of slavery, segregation, the Holocaust, and other human tragedies, the idea of "race" can perpetuate prejudices and misconceptions and serve as …

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other: Analogizing Ageism To Racism In Employment Discrimination Cases, Rhonda M. Reaves

Journal Publications

The development of anti-discrimination law in the employment context was designed and applied with the elimination of race discrimination in mind. The expansion of anti-discrimination law to older workers has taken place within a legal system that encourages groups to present themselves as "similar to" African Americans. This article explores the difficulty of applying general anti-discrimination principles to the uniquely positioned group of older workers.

Brown Did Not Fail America, America Failed Brown, Patricia A. Broussard

Journal Publications

It is my belief that the failure of Brown v. Board of Education and the continuing problem of race in America stems from the fact that America never took ownership of the promise of Brown, and instead, viewed the decision purely in terms of desegregation, as opposed to integration. Consequently, integration has remained a concept instead of an action item. Implicit in this notion of desegregation is the idea that the races sit next to one another, while the concept of integration carries with it a much heavier burden. It appears that the races have never made a personal …

A Thirteenth Amendment Framework For Combating Racial Profiling, William M. Carter Jr.

Articles

Law enforcement officers’ use of race to single persons out for criminal suspicion (“racial profiling”) is the subject of much scrutiny and debate. This Article provides a new understanding of racial profiling. While scholars have correctly concluded that racial profiling should be considered a violation of the Fourth Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, and existing federal statutes, this Article contends that the use of race as a proxy for criminality is also a badge and incident of slavery in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment.

Racial profiling is not only a denial of the right to equal treatment, but …

Race, Face, And Rawls, Anita L. Allen

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Racial Profiling: A Critique Of The Economics, Civil Liberties, And Constitutional Literature, And Of Criminal Profiling More Generally, Bernard Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

New reporting requirements and data collection efforts by over four hundred law enforcement agencies across the country – including entire states such as Maryland, Missouri, and Washington – are producing a continuous flow of new evidence on highway police searches. For the most part, the data consistently show disproportionate searches of African-American and Hispanic motorists in relation to their estimated representation on the road. Economists, civil liberties advocates, legal and constitutional scholars, political scientists, lawyers, and judges are poring over the new data and reaching, in many cases, quite opposite conclusions about racial profiling.

A Glimpse Behind And Beyond Grutter, Evan H. Caminker

Articles

Many people have suggested that the recent battle over affirmative action was a defining moment for the contemporary relevance of Brown v. Board of Education and that it would determine the promise and potential for widespread societal integration. In my remarks, I want to comment upon a couple of comparisons and links between the Brown, Bakke, Grutter, and Gratz cases.

Bolling Alone, Richard A. Primus

Articles

Under the doctrine of reverse incorporation, generally identified with the Supreme Court's decision in Bolling v. Sharpe, equal protection binds the federal government even though the Equal Protection Clause by its terms is addressed only to states. Since Bolling, however, the courts have almost never granted relief to litigants claiming unconstitutional racial discrimination by the federal government. Courts have periodically found unconstitutional federal discrimination on nonracial grounds such as sex and alienage, and reverse incorporation has also limited the scope of affirmative action. But in the presumed core area of preventing federal discrimination against racial minorities, Boiling has virtually no …

Degrees Of Freedom: Building Citizenship In The Shadow Of Slavery, Rebecca J. Scott

Articles

By seeing events in the past as part of a dynamically evolving system with a large, but not indefinite, number of degrees of freedom, we can turn our attention to the multiple possibilities for change, and to the ways in which societies that are initially similarly situated may go on to diverge very sharply. Thus it is, I will argue, with societies in the 19th century that faced the challenge of building citizenship on the ruins of slavery.