Law Commons^™

Internal Policing Of The Enduring Issue Of Racism In Professional Team Sports, Chris Davies, Neil Dunbar

The University of Notre Dame Australia Law Review

The issue of racism is one that is covered by both international treaties and domestic legislation. Most major sports, however, now have internal regulations, usually reflecting the treaties and legislation. Case studies from Australian, English and European sport, in particular, football, basketball, cricket and rugby league, indicate that the internal regulations have been effective in dealing with racism issues in those sports. The issues have involved players, managers, coaches, owners, officials and spectators, with the latter representing the main problem area for sport. The reasons for this are that it can be harder to identify the culprits and there is …

Setting The Stage For Ferguson: Housing Discrimination And Segregation In St. Louis, Rigel C. Oliveri

Missouri Law Review

The history of St. Louis is replete with discriminatory housing laws, policies, and practices: racially restrictive covenants, redlining, blockbusting and white flight, and exclusionary zoning. While these were common in virtually every part of the United States, they were particularly egregious, widespread, and pervasive in industrial Midwestern cities like Chicago, Detroit, and St. Louis – which saw a large influx of blacks migrating from the south at the close of the nineteenth century. In fact, three of the most foundational housing cases originated in St. Louis. When we look closely at these cases – not just the legal principles that …

Section 1983 Cases In The October 2004 Term, Martin A. Schwartz

Martin A. Schwartz

No abstract provided.

Barriers To The Ballot Box: Implicit Bias And Voting Rights In The 21st Century, Arusha Gordon, Ezra D. Rosenberg

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

While much has been written regarding unconscious or “implicit bias” in other areas of law, there is a scarcity of scholarship examining how implicit bias impacts voting rights and how advocates can move courts to recognize evidence of implicit bias within the context of a voting rights claim. This Article aims to address that scarcity. After reviewing research on implicit bias, this Article examines how implicit bias might impact different stages of the electoral process. It then argues that “results test” claims under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) present an opportunity for plaintiffs to introduce evidence regarding …

The End Of Preclearance As We Knew It: How The Supreme Court Transformed Section 5 Of The Voting Rights Act, Peyton Mccrary, Christopher B. Seaman, Richard Valelly

Christopher B. Seaman

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 requires certain jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination to obtain “preclearance” of proposed electoral changes from the United States Department of Justice or a three-judge panel in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. This provision, which is set to expire in August 2007, has successfully reduced racial and ethnic discrimination in voting.The United States Supreme Court determined in a 5-4 decision, Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board, 528 U.S. 230 (2000), that Section 5's prohibition on the enforcement of electoral changes which have a discriminatory purpose …

Disparaging Trademarks: Who Matters, Jasmine Abdel-Khalik

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

For more than a century, non-majority groups have protested the use of trademarks comprised of or containing terms referencing the group—albeit for various reasons. Under the 1946 Lanham Act, Congress added a prohibition against registering disparaging trademarks, which could offer protection to non-majority groups targeted by the use of trademarks offensive to members of the group. The prohibition remained relatively unclear, however, and rarely applied in that context until a group of Native Americans petitioned to cancel the Washington NFL team’s trademarks as either scandalous, offensive to the general population, or disparaging, offensive to the referenced group. In clarifying the …

There Are No Racists Here: The Rise Of Racial Extremism, When No One Is Racist, Jeannine Bell

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

At first glance hate murders appear wholly anachronistic in post-racial America. This Article suggests otherwise. The Article begins by analyzing the periodic expansions of the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the protection for racist expression in First Amendment doctrine. The Article then contextualizes the case law by providing evidence of how the First Amendment works on the ground in two separate areas —the enforcement of hate crime law and on university campuses that enact speech codes. In these areas, those using racist expression receive full protection for their beliefs. Part III describes social spaces—social media and employment where slurs and epithets …

Functionally Suspect: Reconceptualizing "Race" As A Suspect Classification, Lauren Sudeall Lucas

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

In the context of equal protection doctrine, race has become untethered from the criteria underlying its demarcation as a classification warranting heightened scrutiny. As a result, it is no longer an effective vehicle for challenging the existing social and political order; instead, its primary purpose under current doctrine is to signal the presence of an impermissible basis for differential treatment. This Symposium Article suggests that, to more effectively serve its underlying normative goals, equal protection should prohibit not discrimination based on race per se, but government actions that implicate the concerns leading to race’s designation as a suspect classification. For …

The Keyes To Reclaiming The Racial History Of The Roberts Court, Tom I. Romero, Ii

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article advocates for a fundamental re-understanding about the way that the history of race is understood by the current Supreme Court. Represented by the racial rights opinions of Justice John Roberts that celebrate racial progress, the Supreme Court has equivocated and rendered obsolete the historical experiences of people of color in the United States. This jurisprudence has in turn reified the notion of color-blindness, consigning racial discrimination to a distant and discredited past that has little bearing to how race and inequality is experienced today. The racial history of the Roberts Court is centrally informed by the context and …

The Struggle For Justice In The Civil Rights March From Selma To Montgomery: The Legacy Of The Magna Carta And The Common Law Tradition, Winston P. Nagan

Winston P Nagan

The article introduces the reader to the idea that justice involves social action and struggle. It then shifts the perspective to the struggle for justice in historic memory. The author focuses on the struggle to limit sovereign absolutism, the outcome of which is reflected in the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta was not a gift of the sovereign, it represented a political struggle to obtain it. The article then traces the evolution of law in the common law tradition and the importance of casuistic legal methods to ground the specific rights of citizens. The article draws reference to the struggle …

A Call To Leadership: The Future Of Race Relations In Virginia, Rodney A. Smolla

Rod Smolla

Not available.

Denial Of Tax Exempt Status For Racially Discriminatory Schools, Bob Jones University V. U.S., Margaret K. Cassidy

Akron Law Review

The extent to which the government may deny tax-exempt status in order to further its goal of eliminating racial discrimination is a question of paramount importance. The United States Supreme Court recently addressed this question in the case of Bob Jones University v. U.S., a consolidated action which involved a conflict between two established public policies: racial equality and religious freedom. The Court held that this nation's policy of racial equality overrides any interest that an educational and religious institution may have in promoting racial discrimination.

Affirmative Action: Alive And Well After Stotts, Ralph J. Conrad

Akron Law Review

This comment examines the current state of affirmative action in light of the special protection that the Supreme Court grants seniority systems. This comment also discusses the future of affirmative action and how the changes in affirmative action will affect collective bargaining agreements and consent decrees.

Batson V. Kentucky: Can The 'New' Peremptory Challenge Survive The Resurrection Of Strauder V. West Virginia?, Brian Wilson

Akron Law Review

It cannot be denied that our jury selection process has lent itself to invidious racial discrimination in the selection of jurors who ultimately decide the black defendant's guilt or innocence. This practice manifested itself in a line of decisions, beginning with Strauder v. West Virginia. The Strauder Court held that excluding qualified venirepersons on the basis of race violated the fourteenth amendment. However, the Supreme Court's refusal in Swain v. Alabama to subject petit jury peremptory challenges to constitutional scrutiny spawned much criticism from courts and commentators. As a result, the Court in Batson v. Kentucky decided to re-examine …

Giving Effect To Equal Protection: Adarand Constructors, Inc. V. Pena, Leslie Gentile

Akron Law Review

This Note will examine affirmative action jurisprudence, and explore the broader implications of the Court's present narrow course. Section II presents a brief historical background of the cases preceding Adarand, and traces the Court's fragmented approach to this issue and its deep divisiveness over the correct standard of review. Section IV examines the tension between the colorblind approach and the requirements of equal protection within the in escapable reality of our racist society. Finally, Section V calls for a focus by the Court on outcome, rather than a myopic fixation on process, toward the larger end of the realization of …

How To Establish Flying The Confederate Flag With The State As Sponsor Violates The Equal Protection Clause, L. Darnell Weeden

Akron Law Review

The issue to be addressed is whether it is constitutionally permissible under the Equal Protection Clause for a state to fly a Confederate flag over its state capitol dome or other public property.

Like many of the South’s ghosts of the past slavery, racial discrimination, and race relations in general, the battle over the Confederate flag continues to impact national politics and rages on about the state of South Carolina. South Carolina is again the catalyst for a conflict about Southern Confederate values. South Carolina, the first state to secede from the Union and the only state where the Confederate …

Newsroom: Nason '05 Cited By U.S. Supreme Court, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Testing, Discrimination, And Opportunity: A Reply To Professor Harvey Gilmore, Dan Subotnik

Dan Subotnik

This article was written as part of an ongoing dialog about the author’s previous article, "Does Testing = Race Discrimination?: Ricci, The Bar Exam, the LSAT, and the Challenge to Learning," which defended the Supreme Court’s decision in Ricci v. DeStefano, as well as defending testing more generally against charges of irrelevance, racial obtuseness, and most seriously, race discrimination. This article specifically responds to an article written by Professor Harvey Gilmore which focuses mostly on the SAT and the LSAT.

Unseen Exclusions In Voting And Immigration Law, César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Shelby, Race, And Disability Rights, Ravi Malhotra

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Preferential Judicial Activism, Sudha Setty

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Frederick Douglass On Shelby County, Olympia Duhart

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Post Oppression, Christian B. Sundquist

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Legal Post-Racialism As An Instrument Of Racial Compromise In Shelby County V. Holder, Pantea Javidan

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Shelby County V. Holder: A Critical Analysis Of The Post-Racial Movement’S Relationship To Bystander Denial And Its Effect On Perceptions Of Ongoing Discrimination In Voting, Abra S. Mason

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Electoral Silver Linings After Shelby, Citizens United And Bennett, Ciara Torres-Spelliscy

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Setting Congress Up To Fail, Margaret B. Kwoka

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

The Voting Game, Sarah R. Robinson

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

The Second Reconstruction Is Over, Robert V. Ward Jr.

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Still Fighting After All These Years: Minority Voting Rights 50 Years After The March On Washington, Deborah N. Archer

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.