Law Commons^™

Patterson V. Mclean Credit Union: Preventing Backdoor Discrimination Actions Or Closing The Door?, Elsa R. Miller

Northern Illinois University Law Review

This recent United States Supreme Court decision interprets 42 U.S.C. § 1981 as not allowing an action for racial harassment during employment. This note examines the antecedent cases to Patterson along with Congressional actions which appear to indicate a lack of tolerance of racial discrimination in the public and private sectors. The author concludes that Patterson is a step in the wrong direction and calls into question the commitment of the United States Supreme Court to move in the direction of eliminating workplace distinctions based on the race of the worker.

Innocence And Affirmative Action, Thomas Ross

Vanderbilt Law Review

When we create arguments, when we act as rhetoricians, we reveal ourselves by the words and ideas we choose to employ. Verbal structures that are used widely and persistently are especially worth examination. Arguments made with repeated, almost formulaic, sets of words suggest a second argument flowing beneath the apparent argument. Beneath the apparently abstract language and the syllogistic form of these arguments, we may discover the deeper currents that explain, at least in part, why we seem so attached to these verbal structures.

Argument about affirmative action in the context of racial discrimination is particularly wrenching and divisive, especially …

Insurance And The Limits Of Rational Discrimination, Martin J. Katz

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

As the state of the insurance industry indicates, policy makers and academics have reached little consensus about how to address the implications of rational discrimination. This Current Topic argues that rational discrimination should not be viewed simply as a question of profitability or financial interests, but must also be approached from a moral perspective. Part One examines the underlying cause of rational discrimination in one particular insurance market,' locating its ultimate source in the historical injustices perpetrated against Blacks. This section condemns rational discrimination for perpetuating and even exacerbating social inequalities. The analysis suggests that our society will not fully …

The Tolerant Society: A Response To Critics, Lee C. Bollinger

Faculty Scholarship

In writing The Tolerant Society I was, and yet remain, interested in the treatment of speech behavior in this country, a treatment notably more liberal than in other Western democracies. Liberality, however, is not its only surprising or distinguishing hallmark; so too is how the world is characterized under the free speech concept.

For some time, even after I began teaching in the first amendment area, the scope and nature of protection afforded speech seemed to me obviously right. But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me quite extraordinary. Existing free speech theory provided less …

Affordable Housing Forum, Richard F. Bellman, John M. Armentano, Alan Mallach

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

After We're Gone: A Commentary, Michael A. Middleton

Faculty Publications

Professor Bell has placed before us a basic question that must be dealt with by all who wish to resolve the difficulties inherent in governing a free society. That question is one with which the framers of our Constitution grappled and that baffles us still. How does a society effectively govern itself and at the same time guarantee equal liberty for all? More specifically, in the racial context presented by The Chronicle of the Space Traders, when may government act for the benefit of society in a manner that is detrimental to some of its citizens because of their race?

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 …