Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

The Supreme Court: A Citadel For White Supremacy, Sidney Willhelm

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Race, Racism and American Law by Derrick A. Bell, Jr.

Apartheid In America: A Historical And Legal Analysis Of Contemporary Racial Segregation In The United States, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Apartheid in America: A Historical and Legal Analysis of Contemporary Racial Segregation in the United States by James A. Kushner

To Set The Law In Motion: The Freedmen's Bureau And The Legal Rights Of Blacks, 1865-1868, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of To Set the Law in Motion: The Freedmen's Bureau and the Legal Rights of Blacks, 1865-1868 by Donald G. Nieman

A True Deliverance: The Joan Little Case, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of A True Deliverance: The Joan Little Case by Fred Harwell

Contribution Between Parties To A Discriminatory Collective Bargaining Agreement, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines rules of title VII back pay liability and apportionment. Part I argues that all signatories to a discriminatory collective bargaining agreement should be jointly and severally liable to injured persons for back pay. Although a union or employer may object to joint and several liability if its opponent in collective bargaining proposed and bargained for the discriminatory term, the purposes of title VII require that the parties become jointly and severally liable upon signing the agreement. Since joint and several liability fully serves the compensatory purpose of the statute, Part II of the Note looks to deterrence …

Local Taxes, Federal Courts, And School Desegregation In The Proposition 13 Era, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines a federal court's dilemma when the remedy of school desegregation collides with the trend of tax limitation - when a school desegregation order requires funds that the local school authorities do not have and cannot raise. Can the district court order a local tax levy to fund school desegregation when the school authorities have already reached their maximum taxing limit? Is there a better alternative remedy?

To tackle those questions, this Note first elucidates three equitable principles to guide courts in fashioning desegregation decrees. It then explores the history of judicial power to order state and local …

Title Vi, Title Ix, And The Private University: Defining "Recipient" And "Program Or Part Thereof", Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note explores the meaning of "recipient" and "program or part thereof' in title VI and title IX. Section I studies federal court definitions of "recipient" and the legislative history of title VI; it concludes that only organizations that exercise discretion in disbursing federal funds to students are "recipients." Section II explores the "program or part thereof' language as applied to the university by examining legislative history and recent discrimination cases. It argues that, since Congress sought to protect beneficiaries both from discrimination and from overbroad cutoffs, courts and agencies should draw the perimeters of a funds cutoff by balancing …

Judicial Competence And Fundamental Rights, Earl S. Maltz, Ira C. Lupu

Michigan Law Review

In the April 1979 issue of the Michigan Law Review, Professor Ira Lupu added his valuable contribution to the continuing debate on the problem of defining the nature of fundamental rights under the Constitution. In many respects his article is a wholly admirable piece of scholarship, both well-researched and carefully reasoned. However, on one issue - the question of judicial competence to identify the values he defines as fundamental - Professor Lupu's discussion is seriously deficient. This letter will examine the problem of judicial competence and conclude that it is fatal to Professor Lupu's conception of the appropriate role …

Joint Trials Of Defendants In Criminal Cases: An Analysis Of Efficiencies And Prejudices, Robert O. Dawson

Michigan Law Review

Legislatures and courts, in weighing the relative advantages of joint and separate trials, have unreasonably struck a balance in favor of joint trials. The strongest justification traditionally offered for joint trials is efficiency. This Article shows that courts have greatly exaggerated the supposed efficiencies of joint trials while grossly underestimating the impediments joint trials pose to fair and accurate determinations of individual guilt or innocence. The propriety of joint trials is more than a question of efficiencies. Joint trials usually, although not always, help the prosecutor to get convictions, and thereby modify the balance of advantage in criminal trials. Disputes …

South Africa: Using The Law To Establish And Maintain A Pigmentocracy, Rex S. Heinke

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Human Rights and the South African Legal Order by John Dugard

Racial Prejudice And Scholarly Prejudice: New Confrontations At The Selma Bridge, J. Mills Thornton Iii

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by David J. Garrow

Sexual Harassment And Title Vii: The Foundation For The Elimination Of Sexual Cooperation As An Employment Condition, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Ten years after the enactment of Title VII, the federal judiciary confronted its first Title VII case in which sexual harassment was the primary allegation. In the next three-and-one-half years, six more claims of sexual harassment reached federal district courts, 4 and three federal circuit courts of appeal reviewed lower court holdings.

Neither these cases nor the considerable journalistic and academic attention they received reveals a consensus regarding the appropriate application of Title VII to cases of sexual harassment. This Note, therefore, examines the application of Title VII to the problem of sexual harassment and suggests a coherent framework for …

Racial Vote Dilution In Multimember Districts: The Constitutional Standard After Washington V. Davis, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that the effect-oriented standard for multimember-district vote-dilution claims is unaffected by the Washington intent requirement. Part I outlines the manner in which multimember districts can dilute minority voting strength. After summarizing Washington's intent requirement, Part II surveys the post-Washington vote dilution cases and demonstrates that the applicability of the intent standard to vote dilution claims is uncertain. Part III first suggests two ways in which White and Washington may be reconciled. That section then argues that White is unaffected by the intent requirement because the standard for vote dilution fits within a fundamental interest analysis …

Applicability Of Federal Antidiscrimination Legislation To The Selection Of A Law Partner, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The decision by the members of a law partnership to invite an associate of the firm to become a partner involves careful consideration of the associate's qualifications. Recently some associates who have been denied advancement to partnership have alleged improper consideration of religion, national origin, or sex in the partner selection process. There are, of course, practical difficulties in proving discrimination in the subjective context of partnership selection. Assuming clear evidence of such discrimination, this Note addresses the question whether an associate may invoke the protection of federal antidiscrimination legislation.

Retirement Communities: The Nature And Enforceability Of Residential Segregation By Age, Mary Doyle

Michigan Law Review

Although age segregation in retirement communities can be established in a variety of ways, the Article focuses primarily on age-restrictive zoning ordinances, the method most directly involving governmental action. The Article first considers those persons adversely affected by age-restrictive retirement communities and suggests that potential plaintiffs may be divided into three classes-neighboring property owners whose land values are affected by the establishment of a retirement community, those excluded from such a community solely by virtue of ·their age, and those excluded or potentially excluded because of the age of persons with whom they choose to live. Next, the constitutional arguments …

Aliens And Equal Protection: Why Not The Right To Vote?, Gerald M. Rosberg

Michigan Law Review

A constitutional right of at least some aliens to vote does not seem to me at all unthinkable. Throughout much of the nineteenth century and part of the twentieth, aliens enjoyed the right to vote in a great many states. The states that extended the franchise to aliens plainly did not believe that they were acting under constitutional compulsion. But given our present understanding of the mission of the equal protection clause, much can now be said in defense of such a constitutional right. My purpose here is to outline the case that might be made for the right of …

Implication Of Civil Remedies Under The Indian Civil Rights Act, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note will discuss neither -the wisdom of the express provisions of ICRA nor the desirability of express creation by Congress of a federal civil remedy. The purpose of this Note is, instead, to analyze the bases upon which remedies have been implied by federal courts and to question whether implication is consistent with standards of statutory interpretation appropriate for Indian law. It is contended that the implication of federal civil remedies against Indian governments is improper and that if such remedies are to be created, precedent and policy mandate that they be the product of Congress. The Note will …

The Inadequacy Of Judicial Remedies In Cases Of Exclusionary Zoning, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note presents and evaluates the possible judicial responses to cases, like Mount Laurel, that involve challenges to entire zoning ordinances on exclusionary grounds. It argues that pragmatic and legal difficulties militate against any judicial imposition of affirmative relief not tailored to specific tracts of land and suggests that the most effective resolution of the problems confronted by low-income housing advocates lies in comprehensive legislative programs.

Proportional Representation By Race: The Constitutionality Of Benign Racial Redistricting, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Wilson raises two questions that are basic to the use of "benign" racial classifications in drawing legislative districts. First, is there a constitutional right to proportional representation and, second, if there is no such right, are there circumstances under which a scheme devised to provide proportional representation is constitutionally permissible. This Note will demonstrate that, while the Supreme Court recognizes the constitutional right of each individual to participate on an equal basis in the community's political process and to enjoy an undiluted vote, it denies any constitutional right of groups to proportional political representation. It will then show that the …

The Impact Of Michigan's Common-Law Disabilities Of Coverture On Married Women's Access To Credit, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In the United States, credit is indispensable to the improvement of one's economic status and life style. Its availability often dictates •the extent to which one has access to education, homeownership, entrepreneurship, and investment, and its unobtainability inhibits full participation in the activities and opportunities of American society. American women have long been systematically excluded from equal access to credit by lending institutions of all types and ·thus have been denied their rightful role in the economic life of the country. It is only recently, however, that the women's movement has begun to focus attention on credit discrimination and that …

The Constitutionality Of The 1972 Amendment To Title Vii's Exemption For Religious Organizations, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This note will examine the constitutionality of the title VII exemption for religious associations, focusing on the extent to which the exemption is required by the free exercise clause and the extent to which it must be limited to avoid conflict with the establishment clause. The religion clauses will be considered solely in the context of the private business sector; this note will not consider the possibility that the establishment clause would require a narrower exemption for a quasi-public institution, such as a broadcast licensee or a religious association receiving public funds.

Conjugal Visitation Rights And The Appropriate Standard Of Judicial Review For Prison Regulations, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Conjugal visitation rights allow prison inmates and spouses to visit privately and have sexual relations. A number of countries, particularly in Latin America, permit conjugal visits. Although in the United States only Mississippi and California currently permit conjugal visitation, the experience of these two states shows that such programs are workable. Conjugal visitation has met with varied reaction in the literature, but persuasive arguments have been made that it would offer potential psychological benefits to the prisoner, reduce prison homosexuality, and allow the inmate to preserve his or her marital ties. Nevertheless, the reaction of penal administrators in this country …

The Constitutionality Of Laws Forbidding Private Homosexual Conduct, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The laws of forty-three states and the District of Columbia impose criminal penalties on consenting adults who engage in private homosexual conduct. Most of these laws are sodomy statutes, which also prohibit oral and anal intercourse between heterosexuals and sexual acts with animals. Two states have statutes explicitly limited to homosexual conduct. These statutes also prohibit nonconsensual homosexual activity and homosexual acts involving a minor, but this Note addresses only prohibitions on private consensual adult homosexual conduct.

The Tentative Settlement Class And Class Action Suits Under Title Vii Of The Civil Rights Act, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note will examine the potential utility of a tentative settlement class (TSC) in suits initiated under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The advantages and disadvantages of the TSC will be discussed in the context of analyzing whether the use of a TSC is valid under rules 23(a) and 23(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The discussion of the merits of the TSC in the title VII context will illustrate the problems inherent in the use of a tentative class for encouraging settlements of any class action.

Discriminatory Membership Policies In Federally Chartered Nonprofit Corporations, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Since 1791 the United States has created federal corporations by specific acts of Congress. These corporations fall into three general types, including corporations organized in the District of Columbia, corporations that carry out a federal governmental or public function, and private nonprofit corporations that undertake educational, charitable, historical, cultural or similar purposes. About fifty groups comprise the third category, including the American National Red Cross, the Girl Scouts of America, the Boy Scouts of America, the United States Olympic Committee, the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States (VFW), and the Little League.

Recently, the discriminatory …

United States V. Falk: Developments In The Defense Of Discriminatory Prosecution, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note will first review the origin and development of the defense of discriminatory prosecution and will then analyze the situation in United States v. Falk. The Note concludes that Falk is significant in that it continues the device of shifting the burden to the prosecution once a prima facie case of discriminatory enforcement has been established. More importantly, by implicitly eliminating the necessity of showing purposeful discrimination, Falk represents an important and praiseworthy development.

Boraas V. Village Of Belle Terre: The New, New Equal Protection, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In Boraas v. Village of Belle Terre a group of unrelated college students who rented a home in Belle Terre challenged a zoning ordinance that limited home occupancy to persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, finding for the students, decided the case using a novel equal protection theory, and the Supreme Court reversed. This Note deals with the theory adopted by the Second Circuit, its sources, and its future in light of the subsequent Supreme Court opinion in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez and the Supreme Court's analysis of …

Title Vii And Nlra: Protection Of Extra-Union Opposition To Employment Discrimination, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act guarantees freedom from employment discrimination based on race, religion, sex, or national origin and establishes remedial procedures for aggrieved employees. A nondiscrimination clause in a collective bargaining agreement may also protect employees from discriminatory treatment; typically, the contract will also contain grievance machinery through which the employee, with the aid of his union, can present his complaint. The question remains: When both title VII and contract grievance procedures are available, can an individual employee or a group of employees take direct action against an allegedly discriminatory employer independently of the union and …

Beyond The Eye Of The Beholder: Aesthetics And Objectivity, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The term "aesthetic legislation," as used in this Note, refers only to legislation that bears upon the visual character of the physical environment, rather than to legislation on problems of noise and odor. The legal system has handled problems of the latter sort much better; only the sense of sight has been left unprotected. Perhaps one reason for its neglect is that in order to make an area visually pleasing positive programs, such as zoning, must be used, as well as passive prohibitions of such noxious uses as billboards. Noise and odor problems, which can be resolved by prohibitions alone, …

Segregation Of Poor And Minority Children Into Classes For The Mentally Retarded By The Use Of Iq Tests*, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Comment deals with the inadequacies of IQ tests as devices for identifying those children who are to be relegated to classes for the mentally retarded and with the constitutional ramifications of these inadequacies. The present use of standardized tests may violate due process and equal protection guarantees. Additionally, certain procedural due process requirements, heretofore ignored in this context, may apply to the placement process.