Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Pennsylvania State Police V. Suders, Letoyia C. Brooks

Mercer Law Review

In Pennsylvania State Police v. Suders, the United States Supreme Court reached two conclusions. First, the Court wrote that an employee who resigns as a result of sexual harassment may assert a Title VII constructive discharge claim where the employee can show that the "working conditions became so intolerable that a reasonable person in the employee's position would have felt compelled to resign." Second, the Court held that an employer may assert the affirmative defense established in Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth and Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, ("Ellerth/Faragher") in a situation where an employee …

Finding The Sex In Sexual Harassment: How Title Vii And Tort Schemes Miss The Point Of Same-Sex Hostile Environment Harassment, Yvonne Zylan

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

It has been nearly a quarter century since the United States Supreme Court first recognized the cause of action for a sexually hostile work environment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, the Court essentially adopted the view offered by legal academician Catharine MacKinnon that harassment taking the form of a sexually hostile work environment is a manifestation of gender-based power. In so doing, the Court created a remedy for many aggrieved employees, permitting redress in the federal courts for a problem that makes many workplaces unbearable. At the same …

The Four Pillars Of Work Law, Orly Lobel

Michigan Law Review

In our contemporary legal landscape, a student wishing to study the law of the workplace has scarce opportunity to encounter an integrated body of scholarship that analyzes the labor market as the subject of government regulation, contractual duties, collective action, and individual rights. Work law developed in the American legal system as a patchwork of common law doctrine, federal and state statutes, and evolving social norms. Typical law school curricula often include courses relating to the four pillars of work law: "employment law," "labor law," "employment discrimination," and some variation of a tax-oriented "employee-benefits law." Employment law, in most categorizations, …

The Ineffectiveness Of Capped Damages In Cases Of Employment Discrimination: Solutions Toward Deterrence, Vanessa M. Ruggles

ExpressO

Although the Civil Rights Act of 1991 helped victims of employment discrimination in a variety of ways, including the authorization of jury trials and the accompanying possibility of compensatory and punitive damages, the caps Congress placed on damages do not serve the purpose of deterrence. Because the caps are based on the number of employees a defendant employer has, the goal of protecting small businesses from exorbitant damages is accomplished. However, because the top category of the caps is “500 or more” employees, giant corporations escape meaningful awards. This article identifies the problem citing specific examples, and proposes several solutions …

The Day Laborer Debate: Small Town, U.S.A. Takes On Federal Immigration Law Regarding Undocumented Workers, Margaret B. Hobbins

ExpressO

Herndon, Virginia is the latest example of small town immigration issues exploding into the national debate on illegal immigration. This four-square mile town, population 22,000, was propelled into the national spotlight after a dramatic public reaction to Mayor Michael O’Reilly’s proposal to construct a hiring site for day laborers. Three months before the center even opened its doors, Herndon and Fairfax County faced a law suit challenging the legality of funding a day labor center that would inevitably extend its services to undocumented immigrants.

Small towns, adjusting to significant increases in the immigrant worker population, have become a new battlefield …

New International Human Rights Standards On Unauthorized Immigrant Worker Rights: Seizing An Opportunity To Pull Governments Out Of The Shadows, Beth Lyon

Working Paper Series

Governments cannot ignore international human rights standards for unauthorized migrant workers forever. This chapter presents a call for comparative work on the issue of the legal regimes affecting unauthorized immigrant workers in order to bring governments into greater awareness and compliance with their obligations to unauthorized immigrant workers.

Global illegal migration by laborers seeking economic opportunities is expanding, resulting in an increasing number of migrants in every country who are working in violation of immigration laws. Unauthorized immigrant workers are numerous enough to form a recognizable group in every major world economy, because most receiving countries have immigration laws that …

Disability And Employment Discrimination At The Rehnquist Court, Anita Silvers, Michael E. Waterstone, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Latino Inter-Ethnic Discrimination And The "Diversity Defense", Tanya K. Hernandez

Rutgers Law School (Newark) Faculty Papers

With the growing racial and ethnic diversity of the U.S. population and workforce, scholars have begun to address the ways in which coalition building across groups will continue to be necessary but will become even more complex. The growing scholarship has focused on analyzing how best to promote effective coalition building. Thus far, scholars have not examined what that growing racial and ethnic diversity will mean in the individuated context of racial and ethnic discrimination claims. In other words, what will anti-discrimination litigation look like when all the parties involved are non-White but a racial hierarchy is alleged to exist …

Paid Family Leave In American Law Schools: Findings And Open Questions, Laura T. Kessler

ExpressO

There exists a substantial literature on the status of women in the legal profession, including studies on women students’ experiences in law schools, gender bias on law school faculties, and family leave policies and practices among legal employers. However, no recent study examines the family leave policies and practices in American law schools. This study seeks to fill that gap. Its findings are threefold. First, almost three quarters of law schools provide wage replacement during a family leave that is more generous than required by federal law. Second, there is a positive relationship between teaching at top-tier and private law …

Supplemental Brief For Respondent, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Ry. Co. V. White, 548 U.S. 53 (2006) (No. 05-259), 2006 Wl 690256, Donald A. Donati, William B. Ryan, Eric Schnapper

Court Briefs

Respondent submits this supplemental brief pursuant to Rule 25.5 of this Court.

Under the unique circumstances of this case, the brief for the United States constitutes "intervening matter that was not available in time to be included in a brief." A majority of the government’s argument consists of an attack on the literal reading of section 704(a) advanced respondent. If this Court were to adopt the government’s narrow reading of section 704(a), it is far from certain that respondent would prevail. The original panel of the Sixth Circuit that heard this case applied a version of the "materially adverse" formulation …

Card Check Recognition: The Ongoing Legal And Legislative Battle, Michael E. Aleo

ExpressO

A great debate has been brewing for years over whether unions should be able to organize employees outside of the traditional election procedures provided by the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA” or “the Act”). Typically, in an organizing drive, a union solicits support from employees to indicate a desire to run a National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) election. The union does this by collecting cards from employees affirming the employees’ desire to have a representation election. If the union collects valid cards from at least one-third of eligible employees in the appropriate bargaining unit, the union may then …

The Reckless Pursuit Of Dominion: A Situational Analysis Of The Nba And Diminishing Player Autonomy, Michael Mccann

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines required genetic testing of NBA players from a situational vantage point, integrating socio-psychological, legal, and ethical analyses. The core argument may be expressed as follows: required genetic testing of NBA players appears consistent with a broader and largely deleterious agenda by the NBA to control players. Since implementation of the rookie wage scale in 1995 through the recent imposition of a paternalistic player dress code, the NBA has increasingly usurped player autonomy. The NBA's capacity to do so largely rests in its adroit manipulation of the situational influences that influence fans and media. For instance, because of …

The Fundamental Incoherence Of Title Vii: Making Sense Of Causation In Disparate Treatment Law, Martin J. Katz

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This Article proposes a new approach to both prohibition and compensation. On the prohibition side, it proposes penalties and incentives that are unrelated to compensation. This approach will make clear that discriminatory conduct is prohibited irrespective of its effect on plaintiffs and ensure that such conduct is adequately deterred. On the compensation side, this Article proposes a new causal standard: a “necessity-or-sufficiency” test, along with a comparative fault approach to determine what level of compensation is due. While these proposals may seem radical in the context of disparate treatment law, they are widely accepted in modern tort law—the field from …

From Legally Blonde To Miss Congeniality: The Femininity Conundrum, Anna M. Archer

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article argues that popular movies like Legally Blonde and Miss Congeniality perpetuate harmful gender stereotypes by depicting women as needing to conform to traditional notions of femininity or masculinity to succeed in male-dominated professions. These portrayals contradict the protections provided by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on sex. The article contends that such films send the wrong message by suggesting women must change themselves to fit societal expectations rather than challenging those expectations.

"If The Train Should Jump The Track.. .": Divergent Interpretations Of State And Federal Employment Discrimination Statutes, Alex B. Long

Georgia Law Review

As interpretational issues surrounding federal employment discrimination statutes have become more complex and controversial, there have arisen more opportunities for parallel state anti-discrimination law to jump the track" and take alternative courses. Not surprisingly, when dealing with their own parallel state statutes, a number of state appellate courts in recent years have chosen this course of action. Even where state and federal employment discrimination have not yet taken different paths, the potential for such divergent interpretations of state and federal anti-discrimination law has increased in recent years to the point where we may enter an era not unlike that of …

Reconsidering The Scope And Consequences Of Appellate Review In The Certification Decision Of Dukes V. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , Nicole Hitch

Cleveland State Law Review

This article will explore the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and their application in the granting or denial of certification in an employment discrimination class action. In doing so, this article will examine how the district court applied these rules in the Wal-Mart action, which resulted in the certification of the largest private class action suit in American history. Additionally, this article will consider the consequences of the Ninth Circuit's utilization of permissive and liberal standards and, alternatively, the consequences of incorporation of stricter standards from various other circuit courts and the possible result of denial of certification.

Harassment Of Sex(Y) Workers: Applying Title Vii To Sexualized Industries, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

Like the women blackjack dealers at the Hard Rock, cocktail servers, exotic dancers, and prostitutes in legal brothels are vulnerable to sexual harassment by customers. The content of the four jobs reveals the fallacy of the "good girl"/"bad girl" dichotomy, because all four jobs require behavior that falls into both categories if we expand the definition of good and bad girls to include gendered behavior as well as sexual behavior. Once the defense applies to discrimination in sexualized environments, it could logically apply to sexual or racial harassment cases in companies that permit their employees to harbor and act upon …

Fugitive Slaves And Ship-Jumping Sailors: The Enforcement And Survival Of Coerced Labor, Jonathan M. Gutoff

Law Faculty Scholarship

This article explores the relationship between the law of maritime labor and the law of slavery. In the eighteenth century, both sailors and slaves were part of a broad regime of unfree labor relations, with slaves, of course, the most oppressed. In the nineteenth century, an era otherwise supposedly devoted to the ideal of "free" labor, sailors and slaves instead remained unfree, subject to federal laws providing for the forced return to their toils if they deserted - the Merchant Seaman's Act and the Fugitive Slave Act. Both of those statutes were deemed to be within Congress' authority, despite questionable …

Skepticism And Expertise: The Supreme Court And The Eeoc, Melissa Hart

Publications

The Supreme Court regularly denies deference to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's interpretations of the federal antidiscrimination laws which that agency is charged with enforcing and interpreting. The Court's lack of deference for EEOC interpretation is in part a function of the analytical framework that the Court has created for assessing the deference due to different types of administrative interpretation. But this essay argues that the Court's lack of deference cannot be entirely explained with reference to these neutral analytical criteria. The Court's attitude toward the EEOC may also be explained as a consequence both of judicial reluctance to view …

The Architecture Of Inclusion: Advancing Workplace Equity In Higher Education, Susan Sturm

Faculty Scholarship

The path to workplace'equality has become a difficult one to navigate. No one can safely rely upon the strategies developed in the 1960s and 1970s to integrate workplaces. Employers face legal and political challenges both for failing to diversify their workplaces and for diversity efforts to overcome that failure. Civil rights and women's rights advocates battle to hold on to the litigation victories of the past, even as they acknowledge judicial remedies' shrinking availability and limited efficacy in addressing many aspects of current-day equality. Anti-discrimination regulators contend with inadequate resources to carry out their traditional enforcement activities, as well as …

Transforming Discriminatory Corporate Cultures: This Is Not Just Women's Work, Cheryl L. Wade

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The Symposium on Women and the "New" Corporate Governance began with an opening address by Sheila Wellington, the President of Catalyst. "Don't change women," she said, "change corporations." I agree with Ms. Wellington, but I would go one step further by observing that companies will change only if men change. The overwhelming majority of the directors and officers who manage and govern large public companies in the United States are white men. Public companies will enjoy healthy relationships with their women employees only to the extent encouraged and facilitated by the men who control these corporations. But how does …

Fielding A Team For The Fans: The Societal Consequences And Title Vii Implications Of Race-Considered Roster Construction In Professional Sport, N. Jeremi Duru

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Professional sports organizations' relationships with their players are, like other employer-employee relationships, subject to scrutiny under the antidiscrimination mandates embedded in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Professional sports organizations are, however, unique among employers in many respects. Most notably, unlike other employers, professional sports organizations attract avid supporters who identify deeply with the teams and their players. To the extent an organization racially discriminates, therefore, such discrimination creates the risk that fans will identify with the homogenous or racially disproportionate roster that results. The consequences of such race-based team identification are wide-reaching and potentially tragic. Through …

Overruling The Jury: Duncan V. Gmc And Appellate Treatment Of Hostile Work Environment Judgments, Dara Purvis

Faculty Scholarship

In 2002, the Eighth Circuit reversed a one million dollar jury award to the plaintiff in a sexual harassment suit against General Motors Corporation. This reversal demonstrates the danger of appellate review of such verdicts, limiting sexual harassment verdicts to the lowest common denominator in that circuit.

Disability, Disparate Impact, And Class Actions, Michael Ashley Stein, Michael E. Waterstone

Faculty Publications

Following Title VII's enactment, group-based employment discrimination actions flourished due to disparate impact theory and the class action device. Courts recognized that subordination that defined a group's social identity was also sufficient legally to bind members together, even when relief had to be issued individually. Woven through these cases was a notion of panethnicity that united inherently unrelated groups into a common identity, for example, Asian Americans. Stringent judicial interpretation subsequently eroded both legal frameworks and it has become increasingly difficult to assert collective employment actions, even against discriminatory practices affecting an entire group. This deconstruction has immensely disadvantaged persons …

Learning From Wal-Mart, Melissa Hart

Publications

This article considers the landmark gender discrimination class action, Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, both as a prototype of an emerging litigation strategy and also as a case that is entirely unique. As part of a growing trend of gender discrimination class claims, Dukes has the potential to push the boundaries of the law to confront the pervasive, tenacious stereotypes that continue to limit women's workplace opportunities. The plaintiffs' arguments - both the narrative of discrimination their evidence set out and the legal strategies they chose - are strikingly similar to claims that have been made in many class action …

Against "Academic Deference": How Recent Developments In Employment Discrimination Law Undercut An Already Dubious Doctrine, Scott A. Moss

Publications

When the defendant in an employment case is a college or other institution of higher education, the plaintiff usually will face an "academic deference" argument. Citing the importance of their "academic freedom," defendants and sympathetic courts have asserted that federal courts should decline to "invade" higher education with "federal court supervision." Whether or not courts cite the "academic deference" doctrine expressly, they certainly have proven hostile to professors' claims of discrimination, dismissing as a matter of law claims that seemed quite strong, or at least solid enough to allow a factfinder to rule either way. Indeed, empirical evidence shows that …

Deconstructing The Maternal Wall: Strategies For Vindicating The Civil Rights Of "Carers" In The Workplace, Joan C. Williams, Elisabeth S. Westfall

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

That Pernicious Pop-Up, The Prima Facie Case, Michael Hayes

All Faculty Scholarship

This article first explains the role the prima facie case has played in discrimination cases, from its creation in McDonnell Douglas through the Supreme Court's decisions in Aikens and Reeves, up to the application of Reeves by lower courts in the past several years. Next, this article focuses on Reeve's identification of "strength of the prima facie case" as a factor to be considered on summary judgment, and discusses why it would be unwise and unworkable to interpret the words "prima facie case" in that factor as having the same meaning as the "prima facie case" proved in the first …

Let's Talk About Sex Baby: Lyle V. Warner Brothers Television Productions And The California Court Of Appeal's Creative Necessity Defense To Hostile Work Environment Sexual Harassment, Sarah Pahnke Reisert

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Grutter At Work: A Title Vii Critique Of Constitutional Affirmative Action, Jessica Bulman-Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

This Note argues that Title VII doctrine both illuminates internal contradictions of Grutter v. Bollinger and provides a framework for reading the opinion. Grutter's diversity rationale is a broad endorsement of integration that hinges on the quantitative concept of critical mass, but the opinion's narrow-tailoring discussion instead points to a model of racial difference that champions subjective decisionmaking and threatens to jettison numerical accountability. Title VII doctrine supports a reading of Grutter that privileges a view of diversity as integration and therefore cautions against the opinion's conception of narrow tailoring. Grutter, in turn, can productively inform employment discrimination law. The …