Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Affirmative Action As A Women's Issue, Helen Norton

Publications

No abstract provided.

Social Justice And The Myth Of Fairness: A Communal Defense Of Affirmative Action, Phillip J. Closius

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article shall examine the characteristics of the current analytical framework by first examining some harmful effects resulting from the prioritization of fairness: excessive generalization, formalism and superficiality, and materialism. The Article will then examine in detail the Supreme Court's resolution of modern affirmative action issues. The Court has generated confusion and discord by applying simplistic concepts to complex problems and by adhering to the primacy of fairness in a context in which all interested parties claim that fairness favors their result. Finally, this Article will critique the Court's inability to provide a consistent doctrinal basis for discussing affirmative action …

Voting Rights Debate, Charles Stephen Ralston, Michael A. Carvin

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Liberty Vs. Equality: In Defense Of Privileged White Males, Nancy E. Dowd

UF Law Faculty Publications

In this book review, Professor Dowd reviews Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws, by Richard A. Epstein (1992). First, Professor Dowd sets forth the thesis and arguments of Epstein’s book and explores her general criticisms in more detail. Next, she explores Epstein’s core argument pitting liberty against equality from two perspectives: that of the privileged white male and that of minorities and women. Finally, Professor Dowd argues that Epstein’s position cannot be viewed as an argument that most minorities or women would make, as it fails to take account of their stories.

The Quest For Justice, James S. Fishkin

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Affirmative Action and Justice: A Philosophical and Constitutional Inquiry by Michel Rosenfeld

Employment Equality, Affirmative Action, And The Constitutional Political Consensus, Robert A. Sedler

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Equality Transformed: A Quarter-Century of Affirmative Action by Herman Belz and A Conflict of Rights: The Supreme Court and Affirmative Action by Melvin I. Urofsky

Affirmative Action At Work: Law Politics, And Ethics, Michael K. Ross

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Affirmative Action at Work: Law Politics, and Ethics by Bron Raymond Taylor

Supreme Court Philosophy On Labor And Employment Issues, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Other Publications

It would not take a confirmed cynic to suggest that the title of this paper amounts to an oxymoron. That soft-hearted but tough-minded commentator, Florian Bartosic, and his collaborator, Gary Minda, came close to putting it in so many words: " [T]he Supreme Court lacks a consistent and coherent theory of labor law" (1982). My own view is somewhat different. First, lack of a consistent judicial philosophy is not all bad; at least it is better than a consistently wrong philosophy. Second, the vacillating theories of the Supreme Court tend to reflect the divergent attitudes of American society toward labor …

The Economics Of Discrimination: The Three Fallacies Of Croson, Martin J. Katz

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

In Part I, this Note examines the effects of discrimination in the marketplace to suggest a connection between current racial disparities" and past "no-fault" discrimination. Part II demonstrates why race-neutral policies are likely to prove ineffective for reducing these disparities. Finally, Part III argues that competitive, race-conscious affirmative action is unlikely to create a "moral hazard" and that the burden placed on nonminorities by such a program is justifiable.

Affirmative Action, Douglas Scherer, John Dunne

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Remarks Made At The Second Circuit Judicial Conference, September 8, 1989, Thurgood Marshall

Trotter Review

For many years, no institution of American government has been as close a friend to civil rights as the United States Supreme Court. Make no mistake: I do not mean for a moment to denigrate the quite considerable contributions to the enhancement of civil rights by presidents, the Congress, other federal courts, and the legislatures and judiciaries of many states. It is now 1989, however, and we must recognize that the Court's approach to civil rights cases has changed markedly. The most recent Supreme Court opinions vividly illustrate this changed judicial attitude. In Richmond v. Croson, the Court took …

Innocence And Affirmative Action, Thomas Ross

Vanderbilt Law Review

When we create arguments, when we act as rhetoricians, we reveal ourselves by the words and ideas we choose to employ. Verbal structures that are used widely and persistently are especially worth examination. Arguments made with repeated, almost formulaic, sets of words suggest a second argument flowing beneath the apparent argument. Beneath the apparently abstract language and the syllogistic form of these arguments, we may discover the deeper currents that explain, at least in part, why we seem so attached to these verbal structures.

Argument about affirmative action in the context of racial discrimination is particularly wrenching and divisive, especially …

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

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Minority Set-Aside Programs After City Of Richmond, Judy Kerczewski Kranjc

Cleveland State Law Review

One type of controversial affirmative action plan is the minority set-aside program. This Note will focus on the future of these plans in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision, City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co. First, an examination of the background of affirmative action leading up to set-asides is in order. Second, this Note will analyze City of Richmond and the constitutional and social issues at stake, balancing whether minority set-asides are needed with the recognition that discrimination and lack of economic opportunity for minorities still exists in our society. Finally, the Note will examine several lower …

Compensatory Discrimination Under The Perspective Of The Equality Clauses Of The Constitutions Of The United States And India, Sujatha Ganesan

LLM Theses and Essays

This thesis undertakes a comparative study of the Constitutional limits on affirmative action programs (or the compensatory discrimination policies) in the United States and India. The discussion is restricted to comparison of compensatory discrimination on the basis of race in the United States with that of caste in India. With respect to matters of compensatory discrimination, the purpose of the thesis is to show that while the United States and India have adopted similar policies to rectify the inequalities that exist in the respective societies, the constitutional treatment of these policies by both countries is very different resulting from the …

Decoding Richmond: Affirmative Action And The Elusive Meaning Of Constitutional Equality, Michel Rosenfeld

Michigan Law Review

This Article first briefly considers the conceptual and constitutional framework out of which the controversy in Croson emerges. Next, the Article turns to Croson itself, and focuses on the Court's adoption of the strict scrutiny test, on the disagreement among the Justices concerning the test's meaning and implications, and on the Court's use of decontextualization to manipulate the key conceptual and factual issues at stake. Finally, drawing upon the principle of equality of opportunity, the Article endeavors to demonstrate how the adoption of particular principles of substantive equality can lead to a comprehensive and coherent constitutional resolution of the affirmative …

Finding A "Manifest Imbalance": The Case For A Unified Statistical Test For Voluntary Affirmative Action Under Title Vii, David D. Meyer

Michigan Law Review

This Note analyzes the "manifest imbalance" standard developed in Weber and Johnson and the various approaches the lower courts have taken in trying to apply the test. Part I examines the Weber and Johnson opinions in some detail, and argues that the Court intended to permit affirmative action aimed at remedying the evident effects of past discrimination, regardless of whether the employer or society at large is to blame. Section I.A describes the diverging constitutional and statutory standards for evaluating voluntary affirmative action programs, and the policies behind the divergence. Sections I.B and I.C take a closer look at the …

The Reagan Administration's Civil Rights Policy: The Challenge For The Future, William B. Reynolds

Vanderbilt Law Review

The almost twenty years that followed Brown showed real progress toward a color-blind society. That progress, however, lost momentum in the 1970s as many civil rights leaders advanced well-intended, but poorly conceived, policies with the all-too-familiar consequence of dividing people along color lines. In that decade, the bright future of race relations began to dim as discriminatory techniques--mislabelled as"benign" or "affirmative"-reemerged to work their destruction on the hopes of a public anxious to find harmonious, goodwilled solutions to the problems of the past.Today, the struggle continues for a national heritage blind to skin color or ethnic background. The challenge for …

The Fair Housing Amendments Act Of 1988: The Second Generation Of Fair Housing, James A. Kushner

Vanderbilt Law Review

A generation has passed since the legislative victories of the 1960s extending civil rights protection: twenty-five years since the passage of the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964,1 twenty-four years since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, and twenty-one years since the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. As we enter the second generation of civil rights enforcement under new Presidential leadership it is important to assess the state of civil rights, to examine the experience of first generation enforcement and the promises of the second generation.

The state of civil rights in the area of housing …

Employment Discrimination, Charles Stephen Ralston, Paul Kamenar, William Bradford Reynolds, Gail Wright-Sirmans

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Section 1983, Martin A. Schwartz, Honorable George C. Pratt, Leon Friedman

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Scholars' Reply To Professor Fried, Yale Kamisar, Lee C. Bollinger, Judith C. Areen, Barbara A. Black

Articles

As Solicitor General of the United States, Charles Fried, like any good advocate, was often in the position of attempting to generate broad holdings from relatively narrow and particularistic Supreme Court decisions. This was especially true in affirmative action cases. There, the Department of Justice argued that cautious precedents actually stood for the broad proposition that measures designed to put members of disadvantaged groups on a plane of equality should, for constitutional purposes, be treated the same as measures intended to stigmatize or subordinate them. The Supreme Court, however, has consistently rejected this reading of its precedents and the broad …

Affirmative Action On Law Reviews: An Empirical Study Of Its Status And Effect, Frederick Ramos

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note discusses the issues involved in affirmative action on law reviews. Part I examines law review affirmative action admissions schemes and alternative types of affirmative action programs. Part II considers the arguments supporting and opposing the implementation of affirmative action programs by law reviews. Part III presents the results of a survey of law reviews concerning affirmative action. This Note concludes that affirmative action programs are the most effective means of increasing minority membership on law reviews, but that law reviews may increase minority membership through other methods.

Affirmative Action: Problems And Prospects, James Farmer

Trotter Review

We live in complicated times today, and one of the sparks that flies off from such complicated times involving difficult issues is that words have all kinds of meanings, and they tend to confuse. I was astonished to hear our president, Ronald Reagan, say that if Dr. King were alive he would agree with him in opposing affirmative action, because King was color-blind and so is Ronald Reagan. This was a stopper, really, a real stopper. Affirmative action has had an interesting history. I, with no attempted modesty, claim to have proposed the idea to Lyndon Johnson, in either late …

Title Vii V. Seniority: The Supreme Court Giveth And The Supreme Court Taketh Away, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

UF Law Faculty Publications

Congress intended to solve the widespread problem of nonegalitarian hiring practices by enacting title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (the Act), during the apogee of the civil rights era. The Act represented a national commitment to end discrimination and to promote equality in employment. The enactment of title VII spawned extensive commentary on the effect of facially neutral employment practices that perpetuated pre-Act discrimination. Particular controversy arose concerning the application of seniority rules to blacks in jobs or seniority units from which they previously had been excluded because of their race.

The problem of accommodating seniority systems …

Of Cultural Determinism And The Limits Of Law, Paul R. Dimond, Gene Sperling

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality? by Thomas Sowell

Book Review, Frank S. Bloch

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Competing Equalities is a book that can be read and appreciated at several different levels, as well as for several different purposes, and which demonstrates both the richness of the subject--laws affording preferential treatment to backward classes in India--and the depth of the author's understanding of the material. At the heart of this very impressive book, Professor Galanter examines India's constitutional policy of affirmative action for selected backward classes of citizens, or "compensatory discrimination"--its historical and constitutional origins; its implementation, with particular emphasis on the role of courts in establishing a doctrinal framework for this policy; and its value to …

The Self-Critical Analysis Privilege And Discovery Of Affirmative Action Plans In Title Vii Suits, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that plaintiffs should have access to affirmative action plans in discovery. Part I describes the "self-critical analysis" or "self-evaluative" privilege that employers have advanced to block discovery of such plans. Part II examines the conflicting interests of society, employers and employees in allowing or denying discovery. Part III evaluates the application of a self-critical analysis privilege in light of these conflicting interests and concludes that the privilege should not be applied to affirmative action plans.

Affirmative Action After Bakke, Cordelia A. Glenn

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note will examine Regents of the University of California v. Bakke and subsequent Supreme Court decisions dealing with affirmative action to determine what effect, if any, these decisions have had on lower court determinations of the validity of affirmative-action programs. This Note will also discuss the problems inherent in judicial review of such programs and the direction that affirmative action has taken as a result of lower court decisions. Affirmative action as it relates to women and to seniority plans is beyond the scope of this Note. However, reference to these types of cases will be made for purposes …

The Force Of Irony: On The Morality Of Affirmative Action And United Steelworkers V. Weber, Richard O. Lempert

Articles

In recent years, affirmative action has posed difficult problems not only for courts and legislatures but also for individuals who puzzle over what is just. The claims made both by the proponents of programs that establish preferences on the basis of race and by their staunch opponents have an intuitive appeal. The slave society that preceded the Civil War and the Jim Crow era that endured for a century afterward are a shameful legacy for a nation that seeks to define itself in terms of justice and freedom. The proportionate underrepresentation of black people in positions of power and privilege …