Law Commons^™

Ordered Into Oblivion: How Courts Have Rendered The Georgia Whistleblower Act Useless, And How To Fix It, Micah Barry

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Pursuing Diversity: From Education To Employment, Amy L. Wax

All Faculty Scholarship

A central pillar of the Supreme Court’s educational affirmative-action jurisprudence is that the pedagogical benefits of being educated with students from diverse backgrounds are sufficiently “compelling” to justify some degree of race-conscious selection in university admissions.

This essay argues that the blanket permission to advance educational diversity, defensible or not, should not be extended to employment. The purpose of the workplace is not pedagogical. Rather, employees are hired and paid to do a job, deliver a service, produce a product, and complete specified tasks efficiently and effectively. Whether race-conscious practices for the purpose of creating a more diverse workforce will …

Zarda And Sexual Orientation Expression: A New High For Title Vii Interpretation, Nico Ramos

Catholic University Law Review

Under current federal law, a majority of jurisdictions decline to extend Title VII protections based on sexual orientation; however, a growing number of circuits have reversed precedent and held that Title VII prohibits discrimination sexual orientation discrimination. The Second Circuit’s en banc decision in Zarda v. Altitude Express reached the conclusion that sexual orientation discrimination is as a cognizable claim under Title VII because in order to discriminate against a person sexual orientation, you naturally first have to take their gender into account. The Supreme Court granted certiorari and has now heard oral arguments.

Part I of this note provides …

A Textuary Ray Of Hope For Lgbtq+ Workers: Does Title Vii Mean What It Says?, Eduardo Juarez

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

Abstract forthcoming.

Stop Punishing Our Kids: How Title Vii Can Protect Children Of Color In Public School’S Discipline Practices, Lizette Rodriguez

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

Section I of this comment considers the evolution of education in the United States and how American society dealt with racial discrimination in public schools in the past, and how those facts and decisions differ from the issues that students of color are facing today. Section II explains the Equal Protection Clause (EPC) and analyzes the seminal cases that demonstrate the power of the EPC and when it is appropriate to use it. Section III introduces Title VII and walks through violations of disparate impact discrimination and disparate treatment discrimination. Section IV explains what the Department of Education’s Civil Rights …

Contracting Free From Racial Animus: Comcast Corporation V. National Association Of African American-Owned Media And Entertainment Studios, Catherine Tarantino

Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Sidebar

The United States has come a long way in promoting racial equality since the 1866 and 1964 Civil Rights Acts, but racial animus still plays an impermissible role in many contracting and employment decisions. Comcast Corporation v. National Association of African American-Owned Media and Entertainment Studios offers the Supreme Court the opportunity to decide which causal standard applies to claims alleging racial bias in contracting under 42 U.S.C. § 1981. Specifically, the Court will decide whether § 1981 requires a plaintiff to demonstrate that racial animus was the but-for cause or simply a motivating-factor in the defendant’s refusal to contract. …

Questioning The Definition Of "Sex" In Title Vii: Bostock V. Clayton County, Ga., Katherine Carter

Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Sidebar

In October of 2019, the Supreme Court heard the arguments of two cases presenting the same inquiry: whether Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination encompasses discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Currently, twenty-one states as well as the District of Columbia expressly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation by statute or regulation. Other states offer protection in the form of agency interpretation or court ruling. However, for the remaining states with no established protections, Title VII stands as the only potential safeguard against sexual orientation discrimination.

The following Commentary considers the case of Gerald Bostock, a gay man from …

Lgbt Discrimination As Religious Discrimination: Ruse Or Resolution?, Craig Westergard

Barry Law Review

No abstract provided.

Title Vii And The Unenvisaged Case: Is Anti-Lgbtq Discrimination Unlawful Sex Discrimination, Ronald Turner

Indiana Law Journal

As discussed herein, courts and individual judges recognizing or not finding actionable Title VII anti-LGBTQ14 claims have offered different rationales in support of their conflicting positions, including three justifications discussed in this project: (1) the meaning of Title VII’s “because of sex” prohibition, (2) the Supreme Court’s and circuit courts’ construction of the “because of sex” provision in the context of sex stereotyping and gender nonconformity discrimination as applied to the anti- LGBTQ question, and (3) associational discrimination theory. Claim-recognizing jurists have looked to Title VII’s text, Supreme Court and circuit court precedent, and the views of the Equal Employment …

Breaking The Binary: Desegregation Of Bathrooms, Timothy J. Graves

Georgia State University Law Review

This note discusses how the binary view of gender in relation to public bathroom segregation is insufficient to meet the diverse needs of the public and proposes the desegregation of bathrooms as the solution to promote gender equality and reduce gender-based social imbalances. This note will focus on the bathroom rights of individuals who identify outside of the binary options of male and female, viewed through the lens of how transgender people identifying within the binary have been treated by the courts. For the purposes of this note, the term non-binary will be used to refer to these individuals. Part …

Disparate Impact Under The Adea: Applicants Need Not Apply, L. Whitney Woodward

Georgia State University Law Review

Part I of this Note addresses the current debate on this topic, illustrated through case law in the Eleventh Circuit, the Seventh Circuit, and a recent federal district court ruling in the Ninth Circuit. Part II analyzes the unambiguous, textual differences between the various subsections of the ADEA as well as the textual differences between Title VII and the ADEA. This Note explores these textual arguments through an analysis of the statutes and interpretative case law and concludes that, as drafted, the disparate impact theory of age discrimination should not be available to non- employee job applicants. Part III illustrates …

The Politics Of Pregnancy Accommodation, Stephanie Bornstein

UF Law Faculty Publications

How can antidiscrimination law treat men and women “equally” when it comes to the issue of pregnancy? The development of U.S. law on pregnancy accommodation in the workplace tells a story of both legal disagreements about the meaning of “equality” and political disagreements about how best to achieve “equality” at work for women. Federal law has prohibited sex discrimination in the workplace for over five decades. Yet, due to long held gender stereotypes separating work and motherhood, the idea that prohibiting sex discrimination requires a duty to accommodate pregnant workers is a relatively recent phenomenon—and still only partially required by …