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Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons™
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Articles 241 - 270 of 333
Full-Text Articles in Civil Rights and Discrimination
The Thirteenth Amendment At The Intersection Of Class And Gender: Robertson V. Baldwin’S Exclusion Of Infants, Lunatics, Women, And Seamen, James Gray Pope
The Thirteenth Amendment At The Intersection Of Class And Gender: Robertson V. Baldwin’S Exclusion Of Infants, Lunatics, Women, And Seamen, James Gray Pope
Seattle University Law Review
In Robertson v. Baldwin, the Supreme Court held that merchant seamen under contract could be legally compelled to work notwithstanding the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition on slavery and involuntary servitude. According to the Court, seamen were “deficient in that full and intelligent responsibility for their acts which is accredited to ordinary adults,” and therefore could—along with children and wards—be deprived of liberty. Over the past few years, however, several courts have applied statutory bans on “involuntary servitude” and “forced labor” (a “species of involuntary servitude”) to protect women and children in domestic settings. These cases suggest that Robertson’s categorical exclusion is …
A New Peonage?: Pay, Work, Or Go To Jail In Contemporary Child Support Enforcement And Beyond, Noah D. Zatz
A New Peonage?: Pay, Work, Or Go To Jail In Contemporary Child Support Enforcement And Beyond, Noah D. Zatz
Seattle University Law Review
Child support enforcement is one of several contemporary contexts in which the state threatens to incarcerate people if they fail to work. This symposium essay explores whether this practice violates the Thirteenth Amendment’s ban on involuntary servitude. At first glance, such threats fall squarely within the ambit of the early 20th century peonage cases. There, the Supreme Court struck down criminal enforcement of legal obligations to work off a debt. Several modern courts have declined to reach a similar conclusion when child support enforcement puts obligors to a choice between paying, working, and going to jail. To do so, these …
The Paradox Of The Right To Contract: Noncompete Agreements As Thirteenth Amendment Violations, Ayesha Bell Hardaway
The Paradox Of The Right To Contract: Noncompete Agreements As Thirteenth Amendment Violations, Ayesha Bell Hardaway
Seattle University Law Review
Employers in a variety of fields are increasingly imposing noncompete agreements on their workers as a condition of the workers’ at-will employment. These employees are working at or near minimum wage, in positions that require little or no advanced technical skills. Major news sources have highlighted this issue while covering recent employment litigation between Jimmy Johns and a pair of its former employees. In this litigation, two plaintiffs filed suit in federal court seeking injunctive relief and declaratory judgment invalidating the noncompete and confidentiality agreements that they signed with the sandwich maker. Granting defendant’s motion to dismiss, the Illinois District …
An Overture To Equality: Preventing Subconscious Sex And Gender Biases From Influencing Hiring Decisions, Christy Krawietz
An Overture To Equality: Preventing Subconscious Sex And Gender Biases From Influencing Hiring Decisions, Christy Krawietz
Seattle University Law Review
In many industries, women are less likely than men to be hired, and research suggests that this is due to subconscious gender bias rather than meritorious difference. To combat this bias, some orchestras use gender-blind auditions to hire their musicians. Orchestral hopefuls sit behind a screen to play their pieces, and directors listen to determine whom they want to hire. Some orchestras require applicants to remove their shoes before walking onstage, as even the perceived sound of high heels can affect a director’s decision. Before instituting gender-blind auditions, the top five American orchestras had fewer than five percent women players. …
The Constitution And Slavery Overseas, George Rutherglen
The Constitution And Slavery Overseas, George Rutherglen
Seattle University Law Review
This Article examines the resources available under American law to address the issues raised by extraterritorial enforcement of one of the most widely recognized human rights—to be free from physical coercion and the loss of liberty. Part I reviews the history of adoption, interpretation, and enforcement of the Thirteenth Amendment. The scope of the Amendment gradually expanded through the joint efforts of Congress and the Supreme Court, resulting in a prohibition that now goes beyond involuntary servitude to all forms of peonage, whether supported by state or private action. Part II then looks to other sources of congressional power—the Commerce …
Slave Contracts And The Thirteenth Amendment, John C. Williams
Slave Contracts And The Thirteenth Amendment, John C. Williams
Seattle University Law Review
The Thirteenth Amendment—the commandment that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude . . . shall exist within the United States”— did not truly eradicate incidents of slavery. This is hardly a controversial point. The postwar emergence of the Black Codes—laws meant to confine African Americans’ ability to rent, travel, and live as free humans would expect to—ensured that slavery’s conditions continued unabated. The Amendment itself permits slavery to exist “as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” Still, did the Thirteenth Amendment not abolish the most fundamental characteristic of chattel slavery—the ability to trade in and …
“They Outlawed Solidarity!”, Richard Blum
“They Outlawed Solidarity!”, Richard Blum
Seattle University Law Review
In attacking § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B)’s ban on secondary labor picketing in support of a consumer boycott as a violation of the First Amendment, critics have repeatedly condemned the Supreme Court’s reliance on a supposed distinction between “pure speech” and “speech plus conduct,” such as a picket. The Court’s invocation of an “unlawful objectives” doctrine to defend banning speech contrary to public policy has also been repeatedly criticized. After all, picketing has been recognized as protected expressive activity and it is entirely lawful for consumers to choose to boycott the target of a picket. However, commentators have not sought to argue that …
The Thirteenth Amendment, Human Trafficking, And Hate Crimes, Jennifer Mason Mcaward
The Thirteenth Amendment, Human Trafficking, And Hate Crimes, Jennifer Mason Mcaward
Seattle University Law Review
The two most recent federal statutes passed pursuant to Congress’s Thirteenth Amendment enforcement power are the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) and the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Act of 2009. While the Thirteenth Amendment basis of the TVPA has never been questioned in court, the constitutionality of the Shepard-Byrd Act has been challenged (albeit unsuccessfully) in a series of recent cases. This Essay will consider this disparity and suggest that it tells us something about the parameters of the Thirteenth Amendment enforcement power. In particular, it suggests that congressional power is at its apex when the conduct regulated—like human …
Introduction: The Thirteenth Amendment Through The Lens Of Class And Labor, Maria L. Ontiveros
Introduction: The Thirteenth Amendment Through The Lens Of Class And Labor, Maria L. Ontiveros
Seattle University Law Review
The articles in this Symposium are arranged in three clusters. One cluster focuses on the definition of slavery and involuntary servitude and the reach of the Thirteenth Amendment in prohibiting oppressive labor relationships. Another cluster analyzes several positive class-based rights that emanate from the Thirteenth Amendment. The final cluster examines contemporary examples of oppressive labor that could violate the Thirteenth Amendment’s proscription against slavery and involuntary servitude.
Class As Caste: The Thirteenth Amendment’S Applicability To Class-Based Subordination, William M. Carter Jr.
Class As Caste: The Thirteenth Amendment’S Applicability To Class-Based Subordination, William M. Carter Jr.
Seattle University Law Review
The Thirteenth Amendment currently enjoys a robust renaissance among legal scholars who contend that it provides a judicial remedy for and congressional authority to proscribe the “badges and incidents of slavery.” As discussed below, this interpretation, although not self- evident from the Amendment’s bare text, is well supported by the Amendment’s history and context, the Framers’ explicit intentions, the legislative debates in Congress leading to the Amendment’s adoption, and the contemporaneous legal understanding of the ways in which the Slave Power that had come to dominate and distort American society. This Article briefly explores whether the Thirteenth Amendment applies to …
A Positive Right To Free Labor, Rebecca E. Zietlow
A Positive Right To Free Labor, Rebecca E. Zietlow
Seattle University Law Review
This Article seeks to resurrect a lost thread in our civil rights tradition: the idea that workers have a positive right to free labor. A positive right to free labor includes the right to work for a living wage free of undue coercion and free from discrimination based on immutable characteristics. Not merely the negative guarantee against the state’s infringement on individual equality and liberty, a positive right to free labor is immediately enforceable against state and private parties. A positive right to free labor is rooted in the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude …
Three Out Of Four Economists Recommend Raising The Minimum Wage! A Closer Look At The Debate Surrounding Seattle's Minimum Wage Ordinance, Erica Bergmann
Three Out Of Four Economists Recommend Raising The Minimum Wage! A Closer Look At The Debate Surrounding Seattle's Minimum Wage Ordinance, Erica Bergmann
Seattle University Law Review
This Note will discuss the implications of a high minimum wage by examining the debate around the Seattle Ordinance with a particular focus on the IFA lawsuit. To analyze the possible impacts of the Seattle Ordinance, current and historical arguments both in support of and in opposition to minimum wage laws are considered. This Note ultimately concludes that the U.S. District Court rightly denied the IFA’s motion for a preliminary injunction, which would have frustrated Seattle’s experiment before it began. Seattle’s plan to implement a $15 minimum wage, and similar experiments, should be permitted to proceed because the problem of …
Evading Miller, Robert S. Chang, David A. Perez, Luke M. Rona, Christopher M. Schafbuch
Evading Miller, Robert S. Chang, David A. Perez, Luke M. Rona, Christopher M. Schafbuch
Seattle University Law Review
Miller v. Alabama appeared to strengthen constitutional protections for juvenile sentencing that the United States Supreme Court recognized in Roper v. Simmons and Graham v. Florida. In Roper, the Court held that executing a person for a crime committed as a juvenile is unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. In Graham, the Court held that sentencing a person to life without parole for a nonhomicide offense committed as a juvenile is unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. In Miller, the Court held that a mandatory sentence of life without parole for a homicide offense committed by a juvenile is also unconstitutional under …
Intestacy Concerns For Same-Sex Couples: How Variations In State Law And Policy Affect Testamentary Wishes, Megan Moser
Intestacy Concerns For Same-Sex Couples: How Variations In State Law And Policy Affect Testamentary Wishes, Megan Moser
Seattle University Law Review
As the number of same-sex couples increases in the United States, concerns regarding the evolution of federal and state law, with respect to rights for same-sex couples, also continue to rise. As marriage is not always available to same-sex couples, they often face very different legal issues than couples in a traditional marriage. Because marriage is typically not a legal cause of action, the question of a marriage’s validity often arises incidentally to another legal question, such as the disposition of a decedent’s estate.
The 2014 Farm Bill: Farm Subsidies And Food Oppression, Andrea Freeman
The 2014 Farm Bill: Farm Subsidies And Food Oppression, Andrea Freeman
Seattle University Law Review
The 2014 Farm Bill ushered in some significant and surprising changes. One of these was that it rendered the identity of all the recipients of farm subsidies secret. Representative Larry Combest, who is now a lobbyist for agribusiness, first introduced a secrecy provision into the bill in 2000. The provision, however, only applied to subsidies made in the form of crop insurance. Until 2014, the majority of subsidies were direct payments and the identity of the people who received them was public information. In fact, the Environmental Working Group’s release of the list of recipients led to a series of …
Cross-Racial Misidentification: A Call To Action In Washington State And Beyond, Taki V, Flevaris, Ellie F. Chapman
Cross-Racial Misidentification: A Call To Action In Washington State And Beyond, Taki V, Flevaris, Ellie F. Chapman
Seattle University Law Review
Research indicates eyewitness identifications are incorrect approximately one-third of the time in criminal investigations. For years, this phenomenon has significantly contributed to wrongful convictions all over the country, including in Washington State. But jurors, attorneys, and police remain unaware of the nature and extent of the problem and continue to give undue weight to eyewitness evidence. Experts have estimated that approximately 5,000–10,000 felony convictions in the United States each year are wrongful, and research suggests that approximately 75% of wrongful convictions involve eyewitness misidentification. The phenomenon of eyewitness misidentification is also amplified and most troublesome in the context of cross-racial …
A Presumption Of Disclosure: Towards Greater Transparency In Asylum Proceedings, Rose Linton
A Presumption Of Disclosure: Towards Greater Transparency In Asylum Proceedings, Rose Linton
Seattle University Law Review
Every day, Asylum Officers (AOs) and Immigration Judges (IJs) hear cases to determine if the asylum seeker has a genuine claim to protection under the Refugee Act, which prohibits returning a refugee to a country where her life or freedom is threatened due to race, religion, political opinion, nationality, or membership in a particular social group. AOs and IJs are aware that their decision may mean life or death for an asylum seeker. They are also aware that false claims are “distressingly common,” that unscrupulous attorneys and unauthorized practitioners of immigration law have perpetrated fraudulent asylum schemes, and that granting …
Conceptualizing Climate Justice In Kivalina, Marissa Knodel
Conceptualizing Climate Justice In Kivalina, Marissa Knodel
Seattle University Law Review
Due to climate change, indigenous communities in Alaska are forced to develop in ways that adversely affect their livelihoods and culture. For example, decreases in sea ice, increases in the frequency of sea storms, and melting permafrost have so accelerated the erosion of one barrier island that an entire village faces relocation. These indigenous communities, which have contributed little to causing climate change, are limited in their ability to adapt. After examining three broad questions about the effects of climate change on indigenous communities, this Article reaches four preliminary conclusion about relocation as a climate adaptation strategy and its relations …
Fisheries Governance And How It Fits Within The Broader Arctic Governance, Adam Soliman
Fisheries Governance And How It Fits Within The Broader Arctic Governance, Adam Soliman
Seattle University Law Review
Climate change is causing the Arctic ice to melt and fish stocks to change their migration patterns. These changes are increasing access to Arctic fisheries, as well as moving other fish stocks to the north. To prevent the depletion of fish stocks and to protect the Arctic environment, proper fisheries governance requires collaboration between nation-states and specific populations. Fisheries present unique governance and management issues. Unlike other natural resources, fish stocks do not stay in the same place. The non-stationary nature of fish stocks, along with shared sovereignty over the oceans, make coordination between stakeholders the most difficult as well …
United States Policy And Norwegian Commercial Whaling: A Cooperative Approach, Jamie Nystrom
United States Policy And Norwegian Commercial Whaling: A Cooperative Approach, Jamie Nystrom
Seattle University Law Review
Both the United States and Norway have a long history of commercial whaling, but the mantle of dominance in the whaling world passed from the United States to Norway in the mid-nineteenth century. As demand for whale-based products declined in the United States over the past century, and environmentalism and conservationism became more popular public ideologies, the United States shifted from a pro-whaling nation to, effectively, an anti-whaling nation. Norway, however, has continued to be the only nation that openly engages in commercial whaling for profit, albeit on a smaller scale in comparison to historical practices. The United States’ past …
Extracting More Than Resources: Human Security And Arctic Indigenous Women, Victoria Sweet
Extracting More Than Resources: Human Security And Arctic Indigenous Women, Victoria Sweet
Seattle University Law Review
The circumpolar Arctic region is at the forefront of rapid change, and with change come potential threats to human security. Numerous factors determine what makes a state, a community, or an individual feel secure. For example, extractive industry development can bring economic benefits to an area, but these development projects also bring security concerns, including potential human rights violations. While security concerns connected with development projects have been studied in southern hemisphere countries and countries classified as “developing,” concerns connected with extractive industry development projects in “developed” countries like the United States have received little attention. This Article will change …
Oil And Gas In America's Arctic Ocean: Past Problems Counsel Precaution, Michael Levine, Peter Van Tuyn, Layla Hughes
Oil And Gas In America's Arctic Ocean: Past Problems Counsel Precaution, Michael Levine, Peter Van Tuyn, Layla Hughes
Seattle University Law Review
This Article provides context for the controversy facing government agencies charged with making decisions about the future of America’s Arctic Ocean. It then distill themes that, if addressed, could help further a lasting solution for this region that respects its natural and human values while crafting a reasonable path forward for decisions about development. First, this Article offers background about the region, the threats facing it, and some of the challenges in managing the natural resources there. Second, it provides an overview of the legal framework through which the United States government makes decisions about whether and under what conditions …
An Unfinished Joruney: Arctic Indigenous Rights, Lands, And Jurisdiction?, Tony Penikett
An Unfinished Joruney: Arctic Indigenous Rights, Lands, And Jurisdiction?, Tony Penikett
Seattle University Law Review
The indigenous rights movement has been defined as a struggle for land and jurisdiction. Over the last forty years, American and Canadian governments made much progress on the land question in the Arctic and sub-Arctic; however, from an irrational fear of the unknown, politicians in Washington, D.C. and Ottawa have effectively blocked the pathways to aboriginal jurisdiction or self-government. During the late-twentieth century in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, as well as in Nisga’a territory, indigenous governments negotiated local government powers, but continent-wide progress on the question of indigenous jurisdiction has stalled. This Article considers the formation and implementation …
Changes In Latitudes Call For Changes In Attitudes: Towards Recognition Of A Global Imperative For Stewardship, Not Exploitation, In The Arctic, Taylor Simpson-Wood
Changes In Latitudes Call For Changes In Attitudes: Towards Recognition Of A Global Imperative For Stewardship, Not Exploitation, In The Arctic, Taylor Simpson-Wood
Seattle University Law Review
For more than two centuries, the imagination of mariners has been captured by visions of a trade route across the Arctic Sea allowing vessels to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Known as the Northwest Passage, this fabled route is a time- and money-saving sea lane running from the Atlantic Ocean Arctic Circle to the Pacific Ocean Arctic Circle. Now, the thinning of the ice in the Arctic may transform what was once only a dream into a reality. New shipping lanes linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are likely to open between 2040 and 2059. If loss …
Closing The Doors To Justice: A Critique Of Pimentel V. Dreyfus And The Application Of Legal Formalism To The Elimination Of Food Assistance Benefits For Legal Immigrants, Hannah Zommick
Seattle University Law Review
This Comment contends that the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Pimentel v. Dreyfus employed a legal formalist approach and that by applying this framework, the court prevented legal immigrants, who were caught between the strict eligibility restrictions of welfare reform, from asserting their rights through the justice system. The legal formalist approach “treats the law as a set of scientific formulae or principles that are derived from the study of case law. These principles create an internal analytical framework which, when applied to a set of facts, leads the decision maker, through logical deduction, to the correct outcome in a case.” …
License To Discriminate: How A Washington Florist Is Making The Case For Applying Intermediary Scrutiny To Sexual Orientation, Kendra Lacour
License To Discriminate: How A Washington Florist Is Making The Case For Applying Intermediary Scrutiny To Sexual Orientation, Kendra Lacour
Seattle University Law Review
Over the past few decades, the debate over sexual orientation has risen to the forefront of civil rights issues. Though the focus has generally been on the right to marriage, peripheral issues associated with the right to marriage—and with sexual orientation generally—have become more common in recent years. As the number of states permitting same-sex marriage—along with states prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation—increases, so too does the conflict between providers of public accommodations and those seeking their services. Never is this situation more problematic than when religious beliefs are cited as the basis for denying services to …
Ironic Simplicity: Why Shaken Baby Syndrome Misdiagnoses Should Result In Automatic Reimbursement For The Wrongly Accused, Jay Simmons
Seattle University Law Review
Shaken baby syndrome (SBS)’s shortcomings include the debatable science behind SBS theory and diagnosis—the questioning of which has grown more vociferous—and the arguably biased, discriminatory treatment of the accused. Professor Deborah Tuerkheimer notes that the evolving SBS skepticism and contentious debate has resulted in "chaos" in many SBS adjudications and within the medical and biomechanical fields, with the same SBS proponents and opponents continually crusading for and clashing over their beliefs. The issues surrounding the medical and biomechanical components of SBS diagnoses have been repeatedly examined and discussed, and are not the focus of this Note. This Note recounts those …
Addressing The Tension Between The Dual Identities Of The American Prostitute: Criminal And Victim; How Problem-Solving Courts Can Help, Brynn N.H. Jacobson
Addressing The Tension Between The Dual Identities Of The American Prostitute: Criminal And Victim; How Problem-Solving Courts Can Help, Brynn N.H. Jacobson
Seattle University Law Review
This Comment focuses on the sexual exploitation of both adult women and girls in the life of prostitution. The primary purpose is to explore the difficulties faced by American citizens who are exploited in prostitution (as opposed to foreign nationals who are subject to exploitation). This Comment focuses only on state and local prostitution laws, as opposed to global or federal laws on prostitution. It takes the position that prostitution is not a chosen profession for the vast majority and that prostitution is sexual exploitation. This Comment discusses the experiment of legalization and decriminalization in the Netherlands and Sweden as …
Subminimum Or Subpar? A Note In Favor Of Repealing The Fair Labor Standards Act's Subminimum Wage Program, Melia Preedy
Subminimum Or Subpar? A Note In Favor Of Repealing The Fair Labor Standards Act's Subminimum Wage Program, Melia Preedy
Seattle University Law Review
This Note argues for the repeal of Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which continues to perpetuate a system allowing employers to pay less than minimum, or “subminimum,” wage to certain employees with disabilities. The Section 14(c) program is a relic of policy leftover from the 1930s and does not help the disabled community, but rather rests on the presumption that persons with disabilities never progress. In light of recent House Resolution 3086, Congress went against the current trend of encouraging maximum independence and equal opportunities for persons with disabilities and instead upheld the subminimum wage program; …
Transgender Inpportunity And Inequality: Evaluating The Crossroads Between Immigration And Transgender Individuals, Alexandra Caggiano
Transgender Inpportunity And Inequality: Evaluating The Crossroads Between Immigration And Transgender Individuals, Alexandra Caggiano
Seattle University Law Review
Despite being married to a U.S. citizen, non-citizen transgender individuals and non-citizen spouses married to transgender U.S. citizens still face deportation today due to current immigration policies. When forced to return to their home countries, transgender individuals are likely to encounter violence from those who perpetuate hate towards transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. Instead of protecting these individuals, the United States continues to send people back to their native countries solely because those individuals do not fall within the narrowly constructed definition of marriage some states use that is legally recognized by federal courts. Transgender individuals receive disparate treatment as …