Law Commons^™

Latino Education In Texas: A History Of Systematic Recycling Discrimination, Albert H. Kauffman

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

In The Aftermath Of Shelby County: An Analysis On Why Texas Should Be Required To Pre-Clear All Voting Changes., Elizabeth Resendez

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

The history of the Voting Rights Act began with the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. African-Americans have faced numerous roadblocks in exercising their right to vote. A few of these roadblocks include property tests, poll taxes, and gerrymandering of voting districts. The federal government attempted to combat these procedures by passing legislation. Initially, these laws tried to weaponize case-by-case litigation, but these laws were ineffective due to the far reach of voter discrimination and the sluggish pace of the litigation process. To better combat the issue, Congress attempted to use the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to deal with systemic …

Using International Human Rights Law To Combat Racial Discrimination In The U.S. Criminal Justice System., Terrence Rogers

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

Statistics tend to show Black people commit most of the crime in the United States. Those statistics fail to account for unequal treatment of minorities at each stage of the criminal justice system. This unequal treatment may take the form of buy-and-bust operations, racial profiling, street sweeps, and other police activities which target people in low-income communities populated mainly by minorities. The American criminal justice system contains a cyclical, self-perpetuating aspect to the treatment of certain minorities. These perceptions direct a disproportionate amount of law enforcement attention on minorities, which leads to disproportionate arrests of minorities. The result shows racial …

A Primer On Batson, Including Discussion Of Johnson V. California, Miller-El V. Dretke, Rice V. Collins, & Synder V. Louisiana., Mikal C. Watts, Emily C. Jeffcott

St. Mary's Law Journal

Fundamental to the existence of the rights guaranteed to every citizen is the assurance that the right to equal protection under the law will be defended at all costs. Key to the United States’ system of adjudication is the right to a trial by jury, which is embodied in the Sixth and Seventh Amendments to the Constitution. These rights are also incorporated into all state constitutions through the Fourteenth Amendment. During jury selection, the judicial system permits the elimination of a certain number of jurors without cause. This form of elimination is known as a peremptory challenge. Over time, however, …

Justice For None: The Fourth Circuit's Decision In Denny V. Elizabeth Arden Salons, Inc. Undermines The Civil Rights Act Of 1964., Sarah Martinez

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

Since Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, courts continue to grapple with identifying what establishments qualify as public accommodations. More specifically, the most contested section covers places of entertainment. There is a split in interpretation regarding whether to include establishments not expressly listed. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Denny v. Elizabeth Arden Salons, Inc., ruled to exclude establishments not expressly listed, applying a strict textual approach. This Court’s ruling directly undermines the Civil Rights Act’s purpose of affording equal protection by drawing arbitrary distinctions between full-service spas and other spas. The Fourth Circuit Court’s narrow interpretation …

Employment Law - Racial Discrimination - Circumstantial Evidence Of Racial Discrimination May Be Introduced To Raise A Genuine Issue Of Material Fact, Patricia W. Moore

Faculty Articles

In Hopson v. DaimlerChrysler, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided whether summary judgment was appropriate for the defendant on racial discrimination claims based on violations of Title VII, 42 United States Code § 2000e-2000e-17 and the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, Michigan Compiled Laws Annotated 37.2101.

South Africa's Land Reform Programme., Andre J. Groenewald

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

South Africa is committed to land reform.  Because land is what shapes our national identity, the land dispossession of black people by the hand of white colonizers shapes the importance of land reform in South Africa. After the Natives’ Land Act of 1913, rights to own, rent, or even sharecrop land in South Africa depended upon a person’s racial classification. This was furthered by the Native Trust and Land Act of 1936. In 1994, however, the new government passed a Land Restitution Act. The land reform policy, Reconstruction and Development Programme, aimed to redress the injustices of apartheid, foster national …

Speaking The Language Of Exclusion: How Equal Protection And Fundamental Rights Analyses Permit Language Discrimination Comment., Donna F. Coltharp

St. Mary's Law Journal

In the summer of 1995, the en banc Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Flores v. State upheld a lower court’s ruling to give a drunk-driving (DWI) offender a year in prison as opposed to probation. The trial judge denied the defendant probation due to his inability to speak English. The county in which the defendant was arrested and convicted did not provide a DWI rehabilitation program in Spanish, leading the judge to determine the defendant would not benefit from probation. In his appeal, Mr. Flores claimed the lower court violated his equal protection and due process rights under the …

Adarand Constructors, Inc. V. Pena: The Lochnerization Of Affirmative Action Recent Development., Patricia A. Carlson

St. Mary's Law Journal

The Supreme Court’s decision in Adarand will lead to the invalidation of many federal programs because the decision requires strict scrutiny for all affirmative action programs, including federal programs. The Court ignores both constitutional strictures and American history by resorting to Lochner era rulings of striking down federal socio-economic regulations. Overturning the clear precedent of Fullilove undermines stare decisis by valuing the language of the Court’s decision over its meaning.   The Court in Adarand presumes that the Constitution is color-blind. This presumption ignores the history leading up to the Reconstruction Amendments, the purpose of the Reconstruction Amendments, and the intentions …

Enhanced Punishment Under The Texas Hate Crimes Act: Politics, Panacea, Or Pathway To Hell., David Todd Smith

St. Mary's Law Journal

Nearly without exception, modern legislatures have responded to the reprehensible nature and detrimental social effects of hate crime by enacting laws specifically designed to punish the offender’s discriminatory animus. The term “hate crime” describes criminal conduct which is motivated by the offender’s bias or prejudice against another cognizable group. Although the reprehensible nature of a hate crime is often apparent from the facts of any given case, the repercussions of these offenses exceed the ignoble character of any one specific act. Texas has now joined the ranks of these jurisdictions by adopting legal provisions which authorize heightened penalties upon a …

42 U.S.C. 1981 Does Not Provide A Remedy For Racial Harassment During Employment., Jeffrey A. Lacy

St. Mary's Law Journal

In Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, the United States Supreme Court held 42 U.S.C. § 1981 does not provide a remedy for racial harassment during employment. In 1976, in Runyon v. McCrary, the Court expanded the scope of § 1981 to cover private discrimination in contractual settings, including racial discrimination in private schools, when previously unavailable. More than a decade after the Runyon decision, the Supreme Court in Patterson, established that there were limits to § 1981’s applicability in private racial discrimination claims. Specifically, the Court held while § 1981 prohibits discriminatory conduct while entering into or enforcing a contract, …

Trial And Appellate Criminal Procedure, John M. Schmolesky

Faculty Articles

Recent state and federal decisions significantly influenced Texas criminal procedure at both the trial and appellate levels. These decisions generally affected three main areas of the punishment stage of Texas criminal trials. First, they defined the scope of evidence admissible at the punishment stage. Second, they addressed procedural and substantive questions concerning the special punishment issue of use or exhibition of a deadly weapon. Third, they raised substantial questions about the constitutionality of the death penalty as applied by Texas courts.

Texas courts also faced numerous challenges in the aftermath of several important state and federal constitutional decisions. These decisions …

Law-Givers, Story-Tellers, And Dubin’S Legal Heroes: The Emerging Dichotomy In Legal Ethics (Video Review), Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

Two camps have begun to emerge from the rich ferment in legal ethics teaching and scholarship over the last twenty years. The first group, whose members might be termed “law-givers,” consists of those who view legal ethics as chiefly concerned with the identification, transmission, and enforcement of uniform standards governing the conduct of lawyers. The second group—considerably smaller, but increasingly well-defined—might be called the “story-tellers.” The story-tellers place a higher value on persons and context than on principles and procedures, and on the cultivation of a deeper, less mechanical sense of professionalism than detailed rules can provide.

Larry Dubin’s most …

Toward Domestic Recognition Of A Human Right To Language, Bill Piatt

Faculty Articles

There is no clearly defined “right to language” in the United States. Yet, there do exist sources of such a right. For example, a constitutionally protected right to express oneself or receive communications in a language other than English is supported by a number of federal court decisions. Further, there may be a first amendment right to receive broadcast programming in languages other than English, and some federal statutes even provide a guarantee of the exercise of language rights in a number of public and civic contexts.

In spite of these sources for a right to language, it is an …