Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

A Comparison Of A Mentally Ill Individual's Right To Refuse Medication Under The United States And The New York State Constitutions, William M. Brooks

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Authoritarianism And The Rule Of Law, Lynne Henderson

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No abstract provided.

Choosing The Insidious Path: West Virginia University Hospitals, Inc. V. Casey And The Importance Of Experts In Civil Rights Litigation, Eileen R. Kaufman

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No abstract provided.

The Pension Game: Age- And Gender-Based Inequities In The Retirement System, Camilla E. Watson

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This Article begins by stressing the importance of retirement benefits in general and employer-provided benefits in particular. It then addresses specific current issues of age and gender discrimination under both the private retirement and Social Security systems. Gender-based discrimination is emphasized because of the overlap between gender-based discrimination and age discrimination. Finally, this Article suggests specific reforms for a fairer and more adequate systems in the twenty-first century.

Patterson And Civil Rights: What Rough Beast Slouches Towards Bethlehem To Be Born?, Peter Brandon Bayer

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Contrary to its assertions, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Patterson decision marks a stark departure from the federal courts' former practice of according Congressional civil rights enactments a broad reading to effectuate their remedial purposes. Indeed, Patterson offers an exceedingly narrow interpretation of this nation's oldest civil rights law, the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

In addition to its effect on the scope and application of § 1981, Patterson must be read in conjunction with several other decisions issued during the same term that limit—indeed retreat from—the application of civil rights laws designed to restore both lost opportunities and …

Civil Rights In Employment: The New Generation, Linda H. Edwards

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In July 1989, Title VII was twenty-five years old. It is generally assumed that the first twenty-five years have seen significant changes in the economic opportunities available to America’s minorities and women. But with the rise to power of the Reagan appointees, the Supreme Court is clearly fashioning a new approach to issues of civil rights in employment. This article analyzes the new Court’s emerging themes and proposes a congressional response.

Affirmative Action Doctrine And The Conflicting Messages Of Croson, Doug D. Scherer

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No abstract provided.

In Lieu Of Preclusion: Reconciling Administrative Decisionmaking And Federal Civil Rights Claims, Marjorie A. Silver

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No abstract provided.

After The Fall: The Employer's Duty To Accommodate Employee Religious Practices Under Title Vii After Ansonia Board Of Education V. Philbrook, Peter Zablotsky

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No abstract provided.

Evening The Odds: The Case For Attorneys' Fee Awards For Administrative Resolution Of Title Vi And Title Vii Disputes, Marjorie A. Silver

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In this Article Professor Silver addresses the shifting of attorneys' fees in administratively resolved claims under Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Professor Silver begins by establishing Congress' commitment to provide informal methods for resolving disputes under these statutes and its intent to use fee-shifting provisions as a means of inducing effective access to counsel. She then discusses the United States Supreme Court's decision in North Carolina Department of Transportation v. Crest Street Community Council, Inc. and contrasts its reasoning with two earlier Court decisions dealing with administrative proceedings and attorneys' fees. Professor Silver argues …

The Supreme Court's Denial Of Reasonable Attorney's Fees To Prevailing Civil Rights Plaintiffs, Jean R. Sternlight

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The Supreme Court, through a series of recent decisions has effectively overridden Congress’ dictate that prevailing civil rights plaintiffs are entitled to recover reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. The solution to the current crisis lies not in reluctant court-appointed attorneys, but rather in a broad-based reform of the law regarding court-awarded attorney’s fees.

This article argues that only action by Congress will suffice to override the Supreme Court’s erroneous ruling and ensure just compensation for civil rights attorneys. Absent such legislation, it seems virtually certain that both the quantity and quality of civil rights litigation will continue to decrease. Fewer …

Watson V. Ft. Worth Bank And Trust: The Changing Face Of Disparate Impact, Linda H. Edwards

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Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 constitutes this country’s first serious commitment to eradicating the enormous economic disadvantages caused by hundreds of years of racial and gender-related prejudice. But there is also cause for concern. While members of once excluded groups have entered the mid-level workforce, most have not progressed to top-level positions. Perhaps not surprisingly, the elimination of barriers to mid-level employment has spotlighted the unique barriers to equal employment in top-level jobs. Title VII’s capacity to deal effectively with these barriers will be its major challenge for the next quarter-century. Its success will depend, in …

The Preiser Puzzle: Continued Frustrating Conflict Between The Civil Rights And Habeas Corpus Remedies For State Prisoners, Martin A. Schwartz

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No abstract provided.

Addendum: Civil Rights In Jeopardy, Martin A. Schwartz, Eileen Kaufman

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No abstract provided.

Rationality - And The Irrational Underinclusiveness Of The Civil Rights Laws, Peter Brandon Bayer

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Congress has enacted a series of civil rights laws designed to protect individuals from public an private forms of irrational discrimination. To be lawful, such civil rights statutes must conform with the definition of rationality required by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Yet, in one fashion, these statutes are as irrational as the behavior they seek to control. The statutes protect only certain classes of individuals in limited instances. This article argues that the existing civil rights laws, although integral to a free society, are but a first step. The statute will never be fully rational, never completely fair, until …

A Democratic Response To Foreign Political Offenses: The Need For Legislation To Counter Anti-Terrorism Excesses, Daniel H. Derby

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No abstract provided.

Civil Rights In Transition: Sections 1981 And 1982 Cover Discrimination On The Basis Of Ancestry And Ethnicity, Eileen R. Kaufman, Martin A. Schwartz

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No abstract provided.

The Uses And Abuses Of Informal Procedures In Federal Civil Rights Enforcement, Marjorie A. Silver

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No abstract provided.

Mutable Characteristics And The Definition Of Discrimination Under Title Vii, Peter Brandon Bayer

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Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits racial, religious, gender, ethnic, and color discrimination in employment. In most instances the courts interpret the statute very broadly. However, a line of cases holds that discrimination predicated on a forbidden criterion coupled with a ‘mutable’—easily altered—characteristic does not constitute a violation of Title VII. This Article attempts to debunk the ‘mutable’ characteristic doctrine by discerning a general definition of discrimination under Title VII and applying that definition to demonstrate that mutability analysis contradicts the letter and spirit of the law.

A Race By Any Other Name: The Interplay Between Ethnicity, National Origin And Race For Purposes Of Section 1981, Eileen R. Kaufman

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No abstract provided.

Book Review, Elaine W. Shoben

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The Burden of Brown by Raymond Wolters is a long book with a very short message: integration is bad, but desegregation is not. The distinction between the two is crucial to Wolters's analysis. Desegregation is the prohibition of officially sanctioned separation of the races. Integration, on the other hand, is the compelled mixing of the races for the sake of mixing. The "burden" of Brown v. Board of Education, according to Wolters, is that the Supreme Court has blurred this distinction and erroneously requires integration instead of merely prohibiting segregation. Wolters's thesis is that Brown had two prongs: one …

Substantive Due Process And The Scope Of Constitutional Torts, Michael L. Wells, Thomas A. Eaton

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The thesis of this Article is that both the Supreme Court and its critics have failed to identify and confront the central issue presented by these due process constitutional tort cases. That issue is neither procedural fairness nor the choice between state and federal courts. It is deciding whether a government-inflicted injury to life, liberty, or property violates the substantive protections of the due process clauses and thereby warrants a constitutionally derived tort remedy. In Part II of this Article we examine the Supreme Court's decisions in this area, focusing primarily on Parratt v. Taylor. We demonstrate that neither Parratt …

Proof Of Disparate Treatment Under The Age Discrimination In Employment Act: Variations On A Title Vii Theme, Mack A. Player

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The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) was enacted in 1967 and substantially amended in 1974 and 1978. Generally stated, the ADEA prohibits employer discrimination by public and private "employers" (persons having twenty or more employees), labor unions, and employment agencies. Protection against age discrimination is granted, however, only to employees and applicants between the ages of forty and seventy. It is illegal to discriminate on the basis of age against persons within the forty-to-seventy age group regardless of whether the person favored by the discrimination is within or without the protected age group or is younger or older than …

Civil Rights--Federal Jurisdiction--Exhaustion Of Adequate And Appropriate State Administrative Remedies Is A Prerequisite For Judicial Review Under Section 1983, Camilla E. Watson

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Georgia Patsy, a white female secretary, brought a civil rights action under section 1983 of title 42 of the United States Code against Florida International University in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, alleging employment discrimination in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United States. The district court dismissed the action for failure to exhaust state administrative remedies. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed on the ground that failure to allege exhaustion of state remedies did not preclude a section 1983 cause of action. On rehearing en banc, the court …

Defense Under The Age Of Discrimination In Employment Act: Misinterpretation, Misdirection, And The 1978 Amendments, Mack A. Player

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The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 prohibits employers, labor organizations, and employment agencies from discriminating because of age, but it does not protect all age groups against employment discrimination. As enacted, the 1967 Act protected persons between the ages of forty and sixty-five; the amendments in April 1978 extended that protection five years to age seventy. Thus it is not illegal to discriminate against people before their fortieth or after their seventieth birthday. The Act, in its original and amended versions, contains five exceptions or "defenses" to age discrimination in employment. Only the "bona fide occupational qualification" (BFOQ), …

Bakke Revisited - What The Court's Decision Means - And Doesn't Mean, Douglas D. Scherer

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No abstract provided.

School Desegregation -- Failure To Revamp Segregated School District Attenuates The Milliken V. Bradley Barrier To Federal Interdistrict Remedies United States V. Missouri, 515 F.2d 1365 (8th Cir.), Cert. Denied, 96 S. Ct. 374 (1975), James C. Smith

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Kinloch School District, small and all-black, adjoins the predominantly white Berkeley and Ferguson-Florissant School Districts in St. Louis County, Missouri. Kinloch and Berkeley had comprised one district until 1937, when they split along racial lines. In 1971 the United States, pursuant to Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the fourteenth amendment, commenced a school desegregation action against the State of Missouri, the State and county boards of education, the three school districts, and several public officials. The district court concluded that all the defendants had unlawfully maintained Kinloch as a racially segregated school district. After reviewing …

Book Review: The Case For Reparations (1973), Ira B. Shepard

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Book Review of THE CASE FOR REPARATIONS, by Boris I. Bittker (NY: Random House, 1973).

Racial Discrimination In Employment: Rights And Remedies, J. Ralph Beaird

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Professor Beaird believes that the current multiplicity of forums available to an employee who alleges discrimination against him should be merged into one. Ideally he would like to see an administrative agency given primary jurisdiction with authority similar to that possessed by the NLRB. Until an agency is given such power, Professor Beaird suggests that the forums themselves apply collateral estoppel principles to alleviate the inequities inherent in repetitious litigation.

Hawkins V. Town Of Shaw: The Court As City Manager, C. Ronald Ellington, Lawrence F. Jones

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For over one hundred years Congress and the federal courts have pursued the goal of racial equality in the United States. In areas such as voting rights, public accommodations, and housing, Congress and the courts have interacted closely, with broad judicial interpretations upholding major remedial legislation. Moreover, when confronted by official state sources of racial discrimination, courts have traditionally responded to the clear command of the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment without awaiting congressional action. Brown v. Board of Education stands as perhaps the best known instance in which a court has, on its own, ordered the elimination …