Law Commons^™

Romantic Discrimination And Children, Solangel Maldonado

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In recent years, social scientists have used online dating sites to study the role of race in the dating and marriage market. This research has revealed a racialized and gendered hierarchy that disproportionately excludes African-Americans and Asian-American men. For decades, other researchers have studied the risks and outcomes for children who are raised in single-parent homes as compared to children raised by married parents.

Drawing on these studies, this Essay explores how racial preferences in the dating and marriage market potentially disadvantage the children of middle-class African-American women who lack or reject opportunities to intermarry relative to children of married …

Feminist-In-Chief? Examining President Obama's Executive Orders On Women's Rights Issues, Mary Pat Treuthart

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article focuses on President Obama’s use of executive orders in various areas of women’s rights issues including the empowerment of women, gender-based violence, reproductive rights, and employment. As scholars of the American presidency have noted, executive orders can be used either as strategic tools to short-circuit legislative gridlock or to underscore and complement presidential policy measures pending in Congress. Executive orders can also serve to promote projects of special interest groups. Finally, knowing that their directives can be powerfully symbolic, presidents can be particularly effective in the use of executive action to underscore the gulf between the Democratic Party …

Presidential Legitimacy Through The Anti-Discrimination Lens, Catherine Y. Kim

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The Obama administration’s deferred action programs granting temporary relief from deportation to undocumented immigrants have focused attention to questions regarding the legitimacy of presidential lawmaking. Immigration, though, is not the only context in which the president has exercised policymaking authority. This essay examines parallel instances of executive lawmaking in the anti-discrimination area. Presidential policies relating to workplace discrimination, environmental justice, and affirmative action share some of the key features troubling critics of deferred action yet have been spared from serious constitutional challenge. These examples underscore the unique challenges to assessing the validity of actions targeting traditionally disenfranchised groups—be they noncitizens, …

Towards An Outcrit Pedagogy Of Anti-Subordination In The Classroom, Sheila I. Velez Martinez

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This Article discusses how traditional teaching practices can reinforce systemic discrimination, exclusion, subordination and oppression within the classroom in particular detriment to women and students of color. The Article traces the discussions about pedagogy in Outcrit literature and proposes that Outcrit scholars teaching techniques within the classroom should reflect anti-subordination praxis in teaching. Drawing from the work of Paulo Freire, Derrick Bell and others, the Article proposes that teaching from an anti-subordination perspective requires a praxis of collaborative, non-hierarchical teaching that calls for an epistemological shift. A pedagogy that frees the student to think independently and leads to an experience …

"Mancession" Or "Momcession"?: Good Providers, A Bad Economy, And Gender Discrimination, Joan C. Williams, Allison Tait

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In the aftermath of the 2008 economic downturn, two of the hardest hit industries were manufacturing and construction. As a result, men became unemployed at a higher rate than women, and consequently, women—for the first time ever—became over fifty percent of the employment. This "mancession" gave rise to great debate over the place of women in the workforce and the important role that employment plays in shaping male identity. An intervening critique came in the form of the "momcession" discourse that focused on the impact of the recession on mothers, who were often responsible for caretaking, homemaking, and providing the …

Discrimination Outside Of The Office: Where To Draw The Walls Of The Workplace For A "Hostile Work Environment" Claim Under Title Vii, Douglas R. Garmager

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it "an unlawful employment practice for an employer . . . to discriminate against any individual" on the basis of sex. Accordingly, in Meritor Savings Bank, FSB v. Vinson, the Supreme Court recognized that sex discrimination in employment can give rise to a hostile work environment claim under Title VII. The scope of a hostile work environment claim has not been interpreted uniformly by the lower courts, however, as a circuit split exists today over whether conduct occurring outside the workplace is relevant to a hostile work environment claim. …

At A Cross-Road: Anti-Same-Sex Marriage Policies And Principles Of Equity: The Effect Of Same-Sex Cohabitation On Alimony Payments To An Ex-Spouse, Jill Bornstein

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In the wake of anti-gay marriage policies in the United States, courts and state legislature alike are struggling to reconcile these policies with well-established principles of equity in the law. This note examines states' anti-same-sex marriage policies as they relate to the states' respective policies regarding alimony termination. Generally, upon divorce, the dependent spouse from a dissolving marriage will receive alimony payments from the independent spouse until the death or remarriage of the dependent spouse. Many states have expanded the definition of "remarriage" to include a dependent spouse's cohabitation with another individual in a financially interdependent, conjugal relationship. Terminating alimony …

The Quest For A Lactating Male: Biology, Gender, And Discrimination, Maureen E. Eldredge

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This paper analyzes employment discrimination faced by women due to unique biological characteristics, such as breastfeeding, contraception, and infertility. The paper discusses protection from discrimination provided by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, gaps in that protection, and provides suggestions for ways to improve equal opportunity in the workplace.