Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Amicus Curiae Brief Of Now Legal Defense And Education Fund And Equal Rights Advocates In Support Of Plaintiff-Appellant And In Support Of Reversal In The United States Court Of Appeals For The First Curcuit Lucas Rosa V. Park West Bank And Trust Company On Appeal From The United States District Court For The District Of Massachusetts, Katherine M. Franke

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

By dismissing the plaintiffs complaint under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act ("ECOA") on the ground that "the issue in this case is not [Rosa's] sex, but rather how he chose to dress when applying for a loan" (Bench Order at 1), the lower court erroneously established that there are no set of facts in which clothing-based sex stereotyping can form the basis of a legitimate claim of sex discrimination in access to credit. This view of the meaning and scope of the ECOA runs contrary to well-established Supreme Court precedent which prohibits, inter alia, the adverse treatment of a …

Expressive Association And Anti-Discrimination Law After Dale: A Tripartite Approach, Dale Carpenter

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This essay attempts to reclaim the freedom of expressive association from both its harshest critics and its most ardent libertarian cheerleaders, arguing that The Boy Scouts of America v. Dale will not have the revolutionary consequences either camp predicts.

Part I sketches the significance of the freedom of association to the protection of dissenting opinion, with an emphasis on gay experience.

Part II notes the increasing conflict between the freedom of expressive association and the expanding reach of antidiscrimination law. The challenge is to draw a line between them that will preserve a large realm for group expression and organization …

Sexual Orientation And International Law: A Study In The Manufacture Of Cross-Cultural "Sensitivity", Eric Heinze

Michigan Journal of International Law

Interest groups advocating rights of sexual minorities have been lobbying international organizations for years without success. A standard explanation for that failure is that human sexuality is something complex, even mysterious, which requires that international organizations proceed with special caution. In this essay, it will be argued that such an explanation amounts to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sexual orientation is neither more nor less complex than many other issues, such as race, ethnicity, religion or gender, which have nevertheless found wide recognition within leading intergovernmental organizations. It is not because sexual orientation is uniquely complex or mysterious that it is barred …

Rights Of Sexual Minorities In Ireland And Europe: Rhetoric Versus Reality, Bruce Carolan

Articles

Superficially, Irish and European Community law proclaim the rights of sexual minorities - particularly in web sites and printed information designed for public consumption. The reality is different. This article identifies a gap between the public pronouncements on the rights of sexual minorities under Irish and EC law. It employs a hypothetical fact situation to suggest that existing legal protections are anemic, and argues that the potential failure of affected groups to identify these deficiencies (due to contradictory claims in public information campaigns) could endanger efforts to effect progressive change.

Legislation And Genetic Discrimination, Sharona Hoffman

Journal of Law and Health

State legislation addresses genetic discrimination in both employment and health insurance. Thirty-one states have passed laws that address genetic discrimination in employment. Approximately thirteen states prohibit employers from requiring applicants to undergo genetic testing as a condition of employment. Some states have more limited restrictions. Florida prohibits only the screening of applicants for the sickle-cell trait. Wisconsin requires employers to obtain written and informed consent from applicants prior to administering genetic tests, but does not preclude their utilization altogether. Some states establish exceptions that permit genetic testing that is job-related or that is conducted, with the employee's written and informed …

Unequal Protection: Disenfranchisement In The 2000 United States Presidential Election , Erin Chlopak

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Asian American Voting Rights And Representation: A Perspective From The Northeast, Glenn D. Magpantay

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article presents a strategy for advancing Asian American voting rights and for ensuring that Asian Americans have a full and fair opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice, as guaranteed by the Voting Rights Act, through an exploration of legal issues in the census, redistricting, and alternative voting systems. First, it discusses the importance of an accurate count of Asian Americans in the decennial census. Second, it explores legal strategies to achieve meaningful representation of Asian Americans through the redrawing of federal, state, and local voting district boundaries. Third, it reviews the merits and limitations of alternative voting …

Brief For The Plaintiff-Appellant Lucas Rosa In The United States Court Of Appeals For The First Circuit Lucas Rosa V. Park West Bank And Trust Company On Appeal From The United States District Court For The District Of Massachusetts, Jennifer L. Levi, Mary L. Bonauto

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

The District Court fundamentally misconceived the law as applicable to the Plaintiffs claim by concluding that there may be no relationship, as a matter of law, between telling a bank customer what to wear and sex discrimination. It also misapplied Rule 12(b)(6) to the extent that it resolved any factual questions beyond the allegations of the Complaint regarding the basis of the Bank's different treatment of the Plaintiff. Finally, because the District Court incorrectly dismissed the single federal claim in Plaintiffs Complaint, it improperly dismissed Plaintiffs pendant state claims for want of federal court jurisdiction.

Epilogue, Jennifer L. Levi

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

The First Circuit reversed the district court's order dismissing Lucas Rosa's claim against Park West Bank. The appeals court's reversal seems to be part of an emerging nationwide rejection of cases from the 1970s and 1980s in which courts summarily dismissed sex discrimination claims brought by transgender plaintiffs, no matter how squarely the facts appeared to present a clear-cut case of discrimination based on sex. Creating what appeared to be a "transgender" exception to sex discrimination law, those earlier courts ignored what the First Circuit recognized here-that a bank officer who tells an applicant to go home, change, and return …

Foreword: Politics, Pragmatism And The Courts, Anthony E. Varona

Articles

No abstract provided.

Anchoring Justice: The Constitutionality Of The Local Law Enforcement Act In United States V. Morrison'S Shifting Seas, Anthony E. Varona, Kevin Layton

Articles

No abstract provided.

Public Health Versus Civil Liberties: Washington State Imposes Hiv Surveillance And Strikes The Proper Balance, Robin Sheridan

Seattle University Law Review

The article examines the controversy surrounding the Washington HIV surveillance system in light of a long-standing conflict between public health concerns and civil liberties. 7 Part I of the article briefly describes the inception of the AIDS epidemic. Part II focuses on AIDS legislation and the justifications for surveillance. Part III discusses the tension between public health and civil liberties. Part IV describes AIDS’s social stigmatization and deterrence. Part V addresses the nature of medical information and the potential for government misuse. Part VI describes the types of HIV surveillance available and the benefits and burdens which accompany both tracking …

Challenges To Racial Redistricting In The New Millennium: Hunt V. Cromartie As A Case Study, Guy-Uriel Charles, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Lawyers, Jails, And The Law’S Fake Bargains, Michael E. Tigar

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Piercing The Veil: William J. Brennan's Account Of Regents Of The University Of California V. Bakke, Lee Epstein, Jack Knight

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Attorney General Taney & The South Carolina Police Bill, H. Jefferson Powell

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Foreign Affairs And Domestic Reform (Book Review), Curtis A. Bradley

Faculty Scholarship

Reviewing, Mary L. Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy (2000).

Lena Olive Smith: A Minnesota Civil Rights Pioneer, Ann Juergens

Faculty Scholarship

Lena Olive Smith and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) created a spirited partnership in the public interest during the 1920s and 1930s. Throughout their long collaboration, this woman lawyer, her clients, and the Minneapolis branch of a national grassroots organization faced similar challenges: to stay solvent, to end segregation and increase equality, and to live with dignity. This article is divided into four sections. The first three roughly correspond with stages in Smith’s life and work. Part II briefly chronicles Smith’s first thirty six years, 1885 to 1921, as a single African-American woman in the …

Procedural Rules Or Procedural Pretexts?: A Case Study Of Procedural Hurdles In Constitutional Challenges To The Texas Sodomy Law, Christopher R. Leslie

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Punishing Thought: A Narrative Deconstructing The Interpretive Dance Of Hate Crime Legislation, 35 J. Marshall L. Rev. 123 (2001), Anne B. Ryan

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Self-Determination And The American Indian: A Case Study, Milo Colton

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

The United States has repeatedly victimized indigenous populations by stripping away tribal sovereignty and self-determination. One such example is Indian tribal reservations historical absence of jurisdictional autonomy. Prior to 1953, Indian tribal reservations shared jurisdiction with the federal government, allowing some semblance of autonomy. However, passage of Congress’s Public Law 280 erased this form of self-determination. This law enabled states to assume all civil and criminal jurisdiction over Indian tribal reservations. More recently, however, reservations have slowly begun to regain jurisdictional autonomy through the process of retrocession: the act of returning something taken. The achievements of the Winnebago Tribe of …

Keeping Feminism In Its Place: Sex Segregation And The Domestication Of Female Academics, Nancy Levit

Faculty Works

The thesis of Keeping Feminism in Its Place is that women are being "domesticated" in the legal academy. This occurs in two ways, one theoretical and one very practical: denigration of feminism on the theoretical level and sex segregation of men and women on the experiential level intertwine to disadvantage women in academia in complex and subtle ways.

The article examines occupational sex segregation and role differentiation between male and female law professors, demonstrating statistically that in legal academia, women are congregated in lower-ranking, lower-paying, lower-prestige positions. It also traces how segregation by sex persists in substantive course teaching assignments. …

Accommodating The Learning Disabled Student On Campus, Oren R. Griffin

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

Each year nearly 19 million persons matriculate at American colleges and universities as undergraduate or graduate students. A substantial segment of these students are disabled. For disabled students matriculating through American higher education institutions, a tremendous battle is being waged as to the educational experience afforded those students with learning disabilities." Lawyers, educators and students are embroiled in a complex tug-of war that will have a lasting impact on higher education. This article examines some of the legal issues that will undoubtedly challenge those seeking to strike a balance between hard-line advocates for disabled students and educational professionals required to …

Reinforcing The Myth Of The Crazed Rapist: A Feminist Critique Of Recent Rape Legislation, Christina E. Wells, Erin Elliott

Faculty Publications

Part I of this article reviews these new legislative provisions, discussing their requirements as well as the general impetus behind their enactment. Part II discusses both the history of rape prosecution and feminist efforts in the 1970s and 1980s to eliminate barriers to successful rape prosecutions. This part also elaborates upon the myth of the crazed rapist and its relationship to feminist reform efforts. Part III explains how the current legislation is rooted in and reinforces that myth by encouraging unsupportable distinctions among rape defendants. Finally, Part IV discusses the feminist response to such laws and argues for a more …

The Reasonable Girl: A New Reasonableness Standard To Determine Sexual Harassment In Schools, Carrie L. Hoon

Washington Law Review

The U.S. Supreme Court held in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education that schools may be liable under Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments for student-to-student hostile-environment sexual harassment. Although the Court required that conduct be severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive to qualify as sexual harassment under the statute, it did not establish an objective reasonableness standard to evaluate allegedly harassing conduct. In the context of Title VII employment-discrimination jurisprudence, some courts apply a reasonable-woman standard to determine what conduct is objectively hostile or abusive such that it constitutes actionable hostile-environment sexual harassment in the workplace. This Comment …

A Conservative Defense Of Romer V. Evans, Dale Carpenter

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In his argument for an alternative conservative response to Romer v. Evans, the author outlines the majority and dissenting opinions in Evans to identify what he takes to be the decision's import. Next, he outlines some of the main themes of conservative political and legal thought, concentrating especially on Edmund Burke. He then argues the common conception of Burke as an intransigent defender of the status quo and of present traditions and practices is a misreading of him. Finally, he discusses the conservative underpinnings for Evans in light of this intellectual history, with an emphasis on the profoundly conservative instincts …

South Camden And Environmental Justice: Substance, Procedure, And Politics, Jeffrey M. Gaba

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

A Better Analogy: "Jews," "Homosexuals," And The Inclusion Of Sexual Orientation As A Forbidden Characteristic In Antidiscrimination Laws, Marc A. Fajer

Articles

No abstract provided.

"But You're Not A Dirty Mexican": Internalized Oppression, Latinos & Law, Laura M. Padilla

Faculty Scholarship

This article will describe internalized oppression and racism and expose the harms they cause. It will also dissect the reasons we engage in internalized oppression and racism and explain that once the reasons are exposed, it will be easier to engage in a conscious effort to reduce and ultimately eradicate internalized oppression and racism. Part II of this article defines internalized oppression and internalized racism and elaborates on ways that they are generally expressed in the Latino community. Part III explains how Latinos' internalized racism is reflected in some areas of the law by detailing both Latinos' support for a …

Foreword, Thomas A. Eaton

Georgia Law Review

It has long been accepted that deterrence and vindication are two of the primary purposes of the body of law we know as "constitutional torts." Justices of every ideological stripe have acknowledged deterrence and vindication as the legitimate objectives of suits against governments and government officials who violate a person's constitutional rights. Justices with philosophies as divergent as Brennan's and Scalia's agree that civil rights actions serve an essential vindicatory function.' Justices Breyer, O'Connor, Blackmun, White, Marshall, and Powell have authored opinions that embrace the deterrent effect of such actions. The acceptance of deterrence and vindication as the twin goals …