Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

The Notsogolden Years Why Hate Crime Legislation Is Failing A Vulnerable Aging Population, Helia Garrido Hull

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Preparing For Disaster: Protecting The Most Vulnerable In Emergencies, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

Many federal, state, local and private entities are investing significant resources in disaster readiness initiatives. Often disregarded, however, are the special needs of vulnerable populations during disasters. In the context of emergencies, vulnerable groups may include individuals with disabilities, pregnant women, children, the elderly, prisoners, members of ethnic minorities, people with language barriers, and the impoverished. The fate of the disadvantaged during disasters has received little attention in the legal literature, and this article begins to fill that gap. It examines ethical theories of distributive justice and existing federal and state civil rights and emergency response laws and argues that …

Human Rights Hero - President Barack Obama, Stephen Wermiel

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Debunking The Myth Of Civil Rights Liberalism: Visions Of Racial Justice In The Thought Of T. Thomas Fortune, 1880-1890 Symposium: The Lawyer's Role In A Contemporary Democracy: Promoting Social Change And Political Values, Susan Carle

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This essay addresses the development of American understandings of the various roles of lawyers in building democracy by focusing on legal reform efforts in the American civil rights movement. In recent years, the supposed achievements of that movement have come under attack as part of a critique of the ideology of legal liberalism. That critique argues that civil rights lawyers and other activists too greatly emphasized court-focused strategies aimed at achieving what would turn out to be Pyrrhic "civil" rights victories-i.e., gains solely in "formal" equality through requirements enshrined in law as to how the state must treat its citizens.

Brown And The Colorblind Constitution, Christopher W. Schmidt

All Faculty Scholarship

This Essay offers the first in-depth examination of the role of colorblind constitutionalism in the history of Brown v. Board of Education. In light of the recent Supreme Court ruling in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School Dist. No. 1 (2007), such an examination is needed today more than ever. In this case, Chief Justice John Roberts drew on the history of Brown to support his conclusion that racial classifications in school assignment policies are unconstitutional. Particularly controversial was the Chief Justice's use of the words of the NAACP lawyers who argued Brown as evidence for his colorblind …

Writings: Syrian American Women’S Club December 4, 2008, Edna Louise Saffy

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Speeches: Presented to the Syrian American Women’s Club December 4, 2008 by Dr. Edna Saffy.

Torch (December 2008), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Torch (November 2008), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Activism And Terrorism, Timothy Zick

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

The Sanctity Of Polling Places, Timothy Zick

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Torch (October 2008), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Pleading Civil Rights Claims In The Post-Conley Era, A. Benjamin Spencer

Faculty Publications

Much has been made of the Supreme Court's recent pronouncements on federal civil pleading standards during the latter half of the 2006-2007 Term. Specifically, what will be the fallout from the Court's decision in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, a case that abrogated Conley v. Gibson's famous "no set of facts" formulation and supplanted it with a new plausibility pleading standard? This Article attempts to examine and distill the impact of Twombly on the pleading standards that lower federal courts are applying when scrutinizing civil rights claims. Two main approaches emerge: that of courts choosing to continue to apply a …

Section 5: Civil Rights, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

Supreme Court Preview

No abstract provided.

Torch (September 2008), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Summary Judgment Rates Over Time, Across Case Categories, And Across Districts: An Empirical Study Of Three Large Federal Districts, Theodore Eisenberg, Charlotte Lanvers

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Prior research on summary judgment hypothesizes a substantial increase in summary judgment rates after a trilogy of Supreme Court cases in 1986 and a disproportionate adverse effect of summary judgment on civil rights cases. This article analyzes summary judgment rates in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (EDPA) and the Northern District of Georgia (NDGA), for two time periods, 1980-81 and 2001-02. It also analyzes summary judgment rates for the Central District of California (CDCA) for 1980-81 and for other civil rights cases in the CDCA in 1975-76. The combined sample consists of over 5,000 cases. The three-district sample for 1980-81 …

Torch (June 2008), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Public Employee Speech, Categorical Balancing And Section 1983: A Critique Of Garcetti V. Ceballos, Sheldon Nahmod

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Torch (April/May 2008), Amy Homans, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

A Welfare State Of Civil Rights: The Triumph Of The Therapeutic In American Constitutional Law, Daniel F. Piar

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Article examines the influence of the therapeutic culture on the modem constitutional law of civil rights. The therapeutic culture is defined as one in which the central moral question is individual fulfillment. That culture has sprung up to replace older cultures such as Protestantism and classical republicanism, which are no longer capable of appealing to a nation as diverse as the United States. Instead of asking whether individuals or the nation conform to some external moral system, the therapeutic culture asks whether individuals are happy or fulfilled. This Article demonstrates that the therapeutic culture has had a significant effect …

Torch (February/March 2008), Amy Homans, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Academic Freedom And The Post-Garcetti Blues, Sheldon Nahmod

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Pleading Civil Rights Claims In The Post-Conley Era, A. Benjamin Spencer

Scholarly Articles

Much has been made of the Supreme Court's recent pronouncements on federal civil pleading standards during the latter half of the 2006-2007 Term. Specifically, what will be the fallout from the Court's decision in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, a case that abrogated Conley v. Gibson's famous no set of facts formulation and supplanted it with a new plausibility pleading standard? This Article attempts to examine and distill the impact of Twombly on the pleading standards that lower federal courts are applying when scrutinizing civil rights claims. Two main approaches emerge: that of courts that choose to continue to apply …

Torch (January 2008), Amy Homans, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Video Evidence And Summary Judgment: The Procedure Of Scott V. Harris, Howard Wasserman

Faculty Publications

In Scott v. Harris (2007), the Supreme Court granted summary judgment on a Fourth Amendment excessive-force claim brought by a motorist injured when a pursuing law-enforcement officer terminated a high-speed pursuit by bumping the plaintiff's car. The Court relied almost exclusively on a video of the chase captured from the officer's dash-mounted camera and disregarded witness testimony that contradicted the video. In granting summary judgment in this circumstance, the Court fell sway to the myth of video evidence as able to speak for itself, as an objective, unambiguous, and singularly accurate depiction of real-world events, not subject to any interpretation …

International Travel And The Constitution, Jeffrey D. Kahn

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article makes the case for the fundamental right of U.S. citizens to leave their country and return home again. Surprisingly, Americans do not enjoy such a right. Under current Supreme Court precedents, the right to travel abroad is merely an aspect of liberty that may be restricted within the bounds of due process. The controversial No Fly List is one result. Another is a new rule that went into effect in February 2008, under which all travelers now require the express prior permission of the U.S. Government to board any aircraft or maritime vessel that will enter or leave …

Restoring The Ada And Beyond: Disability In The 21st Century, Robert L. Burgdorf

Journal Articles

Perhaps it was imprudent for me to agree, in response to the request of the symposium organizers, to address the future of disability law. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Neils Bohr supposedly once said that "[p]rediction is very difficult, especially about the future."' Columnist and author Jim Bishop wrote, "The future is an opaque mirror. Anyone who tries to look into it sees nothing but the dim outlines of an old and worried face." 2 Prognosticating is a very tricky and uncertain undertaking. I cannot pretend to have any particular gift for crystal ball gazing in disability matters. When I joined the …

Faculty Emeritus Nomination Of Professor Edna Saffy, Ph.D., Edna Louise Saffy

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Contents of nomination include nomination letters, letters from students, letters from Florida Community College Jacksonville President Steven Wallace, and a description of Dr. Saffy’s achievements and service to the College.

Torch (December 2007), Amy Homans, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Suspension And The Extrajudicial Constitution, Trevor W. Morrison

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

What happens when Congress suspends the writ of habeas corpus? Everyone agrees that suspending habeas makes that particular - and particularly important - judicial remedy unavailable for those detained by the government. But does suspension also affect the underlying legality of the detention? That is, in addition to making the habeas remedy unavailable, does suspension convert an otherwise unlawful detention into a lawful one? Some, including Justice Scalia in the 2004 case Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and Professor David Shapiro in an important recent article, answer yes.

This Article answers no. I previously offered that same answer in a symposium essay; …

Torch (November 2007), Amy Homans, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.