Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Civil Challenges To The Use Of Low-Bid Contracts For Indigent Defense, Margaret H. Lemos

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, increasing attention has been directed to the problem of adequate representation for indigent criminal defendants. While overwhelming caseloads and inadequate funding plague indigent defense systems of all types, there is a growing consensus in the legal community that low-bid contract systems-under which the state or locality's indigent defense work is assigned to the attorney willing to accept the lowest fee-pose particularly serious obstacles to effective representation. In this Note, Margaret Lemos argues that the problems typical of indigent defense programs in general-and low-bid contract systems in particular-can and should be addressed through § 1983 civil actions alleging …

Personal Rights And Rule Dependence: Can The Two Co-Exist?, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship

Constitutional doctrine is typically "rule-dependent." Typically, a constitutional litigant will not prevail unless she can show that a particular kind of legal rule is in force, e.g., a rule that discriminates against "suspect classes" in violation of the Equal Protection Clause, or that targets speech in violation of the First Amendment, or that is motivated by a religious purpose in violation of the Establishment Clause. Further, the litigant must typically establish a violation of her "personal rights." The Supreme Court has consistently stated that a reviewing court should not invalidate an unconstitutional governmental action at the instance of a claimant …

Rights And Rules: An Overview, Matthew D. Adler, Michael C. Dorf

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Comparing Race And Sex Discrimination In Custody Cases, Katharine T. Bartlett

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Protecting The Sacred Sites Of Indigenous People In U.S. Courts: Reconciling Native American Religion And The Right To Exclude, Kevin J. Worthen

Faculty Scholarship

The key to understanding current U. S. caselaw concerning the protection of Native American sacred sites is arguably found in the dissenting opinion of an eighteen-year old case involving not religious freedom, not sacred sites, and not cultural heritage - but the right of Indian tribes to impose severance taxes on non-tribal members who extract oil and gas from tribal lands. In Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe, Justice Stevens refused to join the majority’s conclusion that the inherent sovereignty of the Jicarilla Apache Tribe included the power to impose such a tax. In his view, a tribe’s authority to regulate …

Whatever Happened To Anti-Semitism? How Social Science Theories Identify Discrimination And Promote Coalitions Between "Different" Minorities, Clark Freshman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Citizen Of Fine Spirit, Douglas R. Heidenreich

Faculty Scholarship

William T. Francis was (1869-1929), by most measures, the most successful of the early African American alumni of William Mitchell College of Law's predecessor law schools. Francis was a skilled lawyer, an adroit politician, a popular orator, a vigorous crusader for human and civil rights, and a respected U.S. diplomat.

Tort Suits For Injuries Sustained During Illegal Abortions: The Effects Of Judicial Bias , Gail D. Hollister

Faculty Scholarship

Most courts hold that, by agreeing to have an illegal abortion, a woman forfeits her right to recover for injuries tortuously inflicted during that abortion. Nevertheless, most courts do permit suits by those injured in the course of committing other crimes, and they usually do so without considering whether plaintiff's criminal conduct should prevent recovery. Part II of this Article explores and discredits the reasons offered for prohibiting recovery in abortion suits. 21 Part III analyzes, on a chronological basis, each state's decisions prohibiting such recovery. Part IV discusses possible explanations for the abortion decisions, noting that these women's claims …

Sexual Harassment And Racial Disparity: The Mutual Construction Of Gender And Race, Tanya K. Hernandez

Faculty Scholarship

For a number of years, commentators have proffered anecdotal evidence to suggest that women of color figure prominently as sexual harassment plaintiffs. Until recently, a systematic statistical analysis of women's experiences of sexual harassment by race was largely unavailable. For the first time, this Article comprehensively analyzes Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sexual harassment charge statistics, by looking at data from the last seven years along with Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw electronic reports of sexual harassment complaints for the last twenty years. What immediately becomes apparent in this statistical analysis of sexual harassment charges in the United States is the overrepresentation …

Environmental Justice And Natural Areas Protection Trends & Insight, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

There are 3,119,963 square miles in the continental United States. That sounds like plenty of space to put just about anything. However, when the facility seeking a home is environmentally controversial, finding even one square mile can seem almost impossible.

This country is now in its third major era in making siting decisions. The first era – unconstrained siting – lasted until the late 1960s. Then began the second era – protecting natural areas. In the early 1990s, we embarked upon a third era – environmental justice. The growing tensions between protecting natural areas and achieving environmental justice suggest that …

Aren't You Latino: Building Bridges Upon Common Misperceptions, Victor C. Romero

Faculty Scholarship

This article addresses minority on minority oppression and itragroup animosity. The author discusses ways in which communities of color can use common misperceptions to their advantage as a bridge to building a larger community.

But Why Not Marriage: Some Thoughts On Vermont’S Civil Unions Law, Same-Sex Marriage, And Separate But (Un)Equal, Barbara Cox

Faculty Scholarship

This article is divided into three sections. Section one considers the positive results from the civil unions law. It recognizes that this legislation represents an important step along the path toward full recognition of same-sex couples by extending significant rights, benefits, and responsibilities beyond opposite-sex marriage." With these benefits, however, come several problems. Section two places the civil unions law along side other examples of "separate but equal" restrictions in the race and sex contexts and considers it within the sexual orientation context. This section explains how government-sponsored segregation has always caused damage to both groups that are taught they …

“The Little Project:” From Alternative Families To Domestic Partnerships To Same-Sex Marriage, Barbara Cox

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Chinese American Challenge To Court-Mandated Quotas In San Francisco's Public Schools: Notes From A (Partisan) Participant-Observer, David I. Levine

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Paving The Road: A Charles Hamilton Houston Approach To Securing Trans Rights, Jennifer L. Levi

Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that securing the rights of transgender people requires a comprehensive and long-term litigation strategy and suggests Charles Hamilton Houston as the architect of the modern Civil Rights movement and the inspiration for a trans rights litigation strategy. Section II briefly details the life of Charles Hamilton Houston and focuses on the legal strategy he designed and carried out to overturn Plessy. It continues by drawing some conclusions about what Houston's plan teaches about the struggle for trans rights and a trans litigation strategy. Section III examines the reasons certain cases challenge assumptions about sex and gender, such …

The Uses Of History In Struggles For Racial Justice: Colonizing The Past And Managing Memory, Katherine M. Franke

Faculty Scholarship

In this Commentary, Professor Katherine Franke offers an analysis on Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic's California's Racial History and Constitutional Rationales for Race-Conscious Decision Making in Higher Education and Rebecca Tsosie's Sacred Obligations: Intercultural Justice and the Discourse of Treaty Rights. These two Articles, she observes, deploy history for the purposes of justifying certain contemporary normative claims on behalf of peoples of color: affirmative action in higher education for Delgado and Stefancic, and sovereignty rights for native peoples in Tsosie's case. Franke explores the manner in which stories of past conquest and discrimination contribute to contemporary conceptions of racial …

Opening Remarks: Reclaiming Yesterday's Future, Kimberlé W. Crenshaw

Faculty Scholarship

Good morning colleagues, friends, and special guests of the Symposium. I have the unenviable task of welcoming you to the UCLA School of Law this morning, a task that under current circumstances carries with it for me quite a few mixed emotions.' I have struggled mightily over how I might convey to you that although my heart is heavy this morning, I am very pleased to see each of you. It is rather like opening the door to welcome close friends into your home which is in a state of utter disarray. Things are strewn all about, you look harried …

Exploration Of The Efficacy Of Class-Based Approaches To Racial Justice: The Cuban Context, An Latcrit Iv Symposium - Rotating Centers, Epanding Frontiers: Theory And Marginal Intersections- Forging Our Identity: Transformative Resistance In The Areas Of Work, Class, And The Law, Tanya K. Hernandez

Faculty Scholarship

The growing discord over the continuing use of race-conscious social justice programs in the United States has given rise to the consideration of replacing them with color-blind class-based affirmative action programs. Although there are a number of theoretical investigations into the proposal for class-based affirmative action, the discourse is short on practical assessments. This Article amplifies the class-based affirmative action debate by drawing lessons from Socialist Cuba's socioeconomic redistribution measures. Inasmuch as Socialist Cuba attempts to diminish racial disparities with the use of colorblind socioeconomic redistribution programs one can classify their strategy as a class-focused rather than a race-focused attack …

Reconstructive Tasks For A Liberal Feminist Conception Of Privacy, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

If liberal conceptions of privacy survive appropriately vigorous feminist critique and re-emerge in beneficially reconstructed forms, then why haven't more feminists gotten the message and embraced, rather than spurned, such privacy? If liberal privacy survives feminist critique, does it face an even more serious threat if contemporary society has both diminishing expectations of and taste for privacy? Does the transformation of the very notion of "private life," due in part to the rise of such new technologies as the Internet and its seemingly endless possibilities for making oneself accessible to others and gaining access to others, suggest the need for …

Employer Liability For Harassment Under Title Vii: A Functional Rationale For Faragher And Ellerth, Michael C. Harper

Faculty Scholarship

In two decisions concerning sexual harassment, Faragher v. City of Boca Raton' and Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth,² the Supreme Court, on the last day of its 1997-1998 term finally articulated coherent vicarious liability rules critical for bounding the scope of the discrimination prohibitions in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.³ The Court did so by explaining the meaning of the inclusion of "any agent" in Title VII's definition of "employer.'" The meaning of "agent" in this definition is critical for establishing employer liability because almost all Title VII-protected employees work for corporations and other …

The Woody Allen Blues: “Identity Politics,” Race, And The Law, Jerome M. Culp

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Do Wives Own Half? Winning For Wives After Wendt, Joan C. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Is Law An Art Or A Science?: Comments On Objectivity, Feminism, And Power, Joan C. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Tribute To Curt Berger, Joan C. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Implementing Antiessentialism: How Gender Wars Turn Into Race And Class Conflict, Joan C. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Broadening Our World: Citizens And Immigrants Of Color In America, Victor C. Romero

Faculty Scholarship

This article was originally presented at a symposium. The article discusses affirmative action and ways of increasing diversity in higher education.

Social And Legal Repercussions Of Latinos' Colonized Mentality, Laura M. Padilla

Faculty Scholarship

This essay begins by defining internalized oppression and racism and exposing the harms they cause. It dissects the reasons we engage in internalized racism and explains how once exposed, it will be easier to engage in a conscious effort to eradicate internalized racism. It will then describe how the intersectionality of internalized oppression and racism is expressed in the Latino community. The essay will then re-imagine Latino identity without internalized oppression and racism. It will include ideas on how to overcome internalized oppression and racism generally, both at the corporate and individual levels. The essay concludes that exposing internalized oppression …

Supervisory Liability In Section 1983 Cases, Kit Kinports

Faculty Scholarship

The topic of this presentation is supervisory liability in Section 1983 cases. Assume for present purposes that a plaintiff's constitutional rights have been violated - that some state official has acted in violation of the Constitution. The question to be addressed here is whether that state official's supervisors can be held liable for damages stemming from the constitutional violation.

Market Work And Family Work In The 21st Century, Joan C. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Police Reform And The Department Of Justice: An Essay On Accountability, Debra A. Livingston

Faculty Scholarship

In 1994, Congress promulgated a significant piece of legislation that may prove to have an extremely important impact on the operation of local police departments. Section 14141 of Title 42, enacted as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, prohibits governmental authorities or those acting on their behalf from engaging in "a pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officials" that deprives persons of "rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States." Whenever the Attorney General has reasonable cause to believe that a violation has occurred, …