Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

The First (Black) Lady, Verna L. Williams

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Part I examines the role of First Lady, which has been undertheorized in legal scholarship, and how it promotes privileged white femininity, and in so doing, upholds patriarchy. Part II builds upon that discussion, explaining that the gender and racial norms that contribute to the traditional First Lady trope exemplify the intertwined nature of racism and sexism, which have been used to justify Black subordination. This section also examines how African Americans have embraced gender conformance as a way of attaining acceptance and status within the existing social order, specifically through the "Black lady" construct, which the campaign invoked to …

The Inter-American Human Rights System: A Primer, Caroline Bettinger-López

Articles

No abstract provided.

Is Acquisition Everything? Protecting The Rights Of Occupants Under The Fair Housing Act, Rigel C. Oliveri

Faculty Publications

This article addresses a recent trend among the federal courts to deny housing discrimination claims under the Fair Housing Act in cases where the plaintiff was an occupant of the housing at the time the discrimination occurred. Put another way, the courts have begun to read the FHA as protecting only the right to obtain housing, not the right to occupy that housing free of discrimination.The trend began with a 2004 Seventh Circuit opinion authored by Judge Richard Posner in the case of Halprin v. The Prairie Single Family Homes. Halprin dismissed most of the claims of a Jewish couple …

Exploring The Limits Of Executive Civil Rights Policymaking, Stephen Plass

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Civil Rights And Related Decisions, Eileen Kaufman

Scholarly Works

This article analyzes two cases from the October 2006 Supreme Court Term, Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Gonzales v. Carhart. The cases have much in common, even though Ledbetter concerns pay disparity claims based on gender and Gonzales concerns second trimester abortions. Both are five-four decisions which demonstrate how profoundly the appointment of Justice Samuel Alito to occupy Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat has affected the balance of power on the Court. The net result of this shift has been a devastating setback for women's rights. Both decisions prompted Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to uncharacteristically read aloud …

Equal By Law, Unequal By Caste: The "Untouchable" Condition In Critical Race Perspective, Smita Narula

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Caste-based oppression in India lives today in an environment seemingly hostile to its presence: a nation-state that has long been labeled the “world's largest democracy;” a progressive and protective constitution; a system of laws designed to proscribe and punish acts of discrimination on the basis of caste; broad-based programs of affirmative action that include constitutionally mandated reservations or quotas for Dalits, or so-called “untouchables;” a plethora of caste-conscious measures designed to ensure the economic “upliftment” of Dalits; and an aggressive economic liberalization campaign to fuel India's economic growth.

This Article seeks to answer the question of how and why this …

Undercover Power: Examining The Role Of The Executive Branch In Determining The Meaning And Scope Of School Integration Jurisprudence, Lia Epperson

Faculty Publications

This paper focuses on the interaction of the federal judicial and executive branches of government in one key area of civil rights, determining the scope and direction of school integration. Specifically, this paper examines the extremely powerful role of the United States Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights ("OCR") in shaping the application of the Supreme Court's decisions with respect to racial inclusion in public education in the wake of two watershed rulings, Brown v. Board of Education  and Grutter v. Bollinger. In addition, this paper discusses the possible consequences of executive and judicial interplay in the aftermath of …

The Truth Is Out There: Revamping Federal Antidiscrimination Enforcement For The Twenty-First Century, Marcia L. Mccormick

All Faculty Scholarship

Employment discrimination laws in the United States have not created full equality in the workplace, although that was their goal. Real change requires greater accountability for those who make employment decisions and greater transparency to bolster that accountability. To provide that transparency and accountability, we need greater federal involvement in enforcement and a mechanism to publicize the state of the nation's workplaces. To accomplish this, I propose taking private sector employment discrimination disputes away from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission entirely, and starting with a new agency. The current model, with the EEOC writing compliance guidelines, encouraging mediation, and acting …

Section 1983 Civil Rights Litigation From The October 2006 Term, Martin Schwartz

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Civil Rights Act Of 1964, Henry L. Chambers, Jr.

Law Faculty Publications

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S. C.A.) (the 19 Act) likely has had the greatest transformative effect on American society of any single law. By prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, a national origin in places of public accommodation, in federally assisted programs, in employment, in schools and with respect to voting rights, this massive law has had profound effects on almost every facet of American society.

Framework For The Next Civil Rights Act: What Tort Concepts Reveal About Goals, Results, And Standards, Derek W. Black

Faculty Publications

This article anticipates that the next president and the current Congress will likely pursue civil rights legislation for the first time since 1991. Their most significant and difficult task will be determining whether to retain the Supreme Court’s intentional discrimination standard. Because this issue has so often led to polemic debates and court decisions in the past, this article attempts to provide a neutral framework for that discussion. Relying on tort concepts and their longstanding connection to constitutional torts, it demonstrates that the attempt to create a standard to prohibit immoral or “wrongful” conduct is both misguided and will prove …

Beyond Analogy: Perez V. Sharp, Antimiscegenation Law, And The Fight For Same-Sex Marriage, Robin A. Lenhardt

Faculty Scholarship

Conversations about the constitutionality of prohibitions on marriage for same-sex couples invariably reduce to the question of whether a meaningful analogy can be drawn between restrictions on same-sex marriage and antimiscegenation laws. In an effort to refocus this debate, this article considers the California Supreme Court's 1948 decision in Perez v. Sharp and its use by advocates in recent litigation to secure marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples. Opponents of marriage rights for members of the LGBT *840 community frequently assert that dispatching Perez in these cases distorts the meaning of that decision and other similar precedents by drawing …

A Different Departure: A Reply To Shany's "Redrawing Maps, Manipulating Demographics: On Exchange Of Populated Territories And Self-Determination", Timothy W. Waters

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Anyone reading Yuval Shany's response to my article, "The Blessing of Departure -- Exchange of Populated Territories: The Lieberman Plan as an Abstract Exercise in Demographic Transformation," would hardly characterize it as "agreement." In part this is because Shany builds his case by assuming I am saying something about self-determination that misses -- at least misplaces -- my real point. This is unfortunate, both as it masks the fact that Shany and I actually agree transfers can be legal, and it distracts attention from the points of real, substantive disagreement. The misreading is not an accident, rather the product of …

The 'High Crime Area' Question: Requiring Verifiable And Quantifiable Evidence For Fourth Amendment Reasonable Suspicion Analysis, Andrew Ferguson, Damien Bernache

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article proposes a legal framework to analyze the "high crime area" concept in Fourth Amendment reasonable suspicion challenges.Under existing Supreme Court precedent, reviewing courts are allowed to consider that an area is a "high crime area" as a factor to evaluate the reasonableness of a Fourth Amendment stop. See Illinois v. Wardlow, 528 U.S. 119 (2000). However, the Supreme Court has never defined a "high crime area" and lower courts have not reached consensus on a definition. There is no agreement on what a "high-crime area" is, whether it has geographic boundaries, whether it changes over time, whether it …

Instead Of Enda, A Course Correction For Title Vii, Jennifer S. Hendricks

Publications

In September 2008, the D.C. federal court issued a landmark decision holding that discrimination against a transgender person was sex discrimination under Title VII. This decision throws into sharp relief the ongoing debates among supporters of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act about whether the compromise on including protection for gender identity claims. Consideration of ENDA in some form will likely be early on the agenda of the next Congress, especially under a Democratic administration likely to support the bill. This essay proposes an alternative to ENDA that would embrace the theoretical connections between sex, gender, and sexual orientation, with important practical …

Government Workers And Government Speech, Helen Norton

Publications

This essay, to be published in the First Amendment Law Review's forthcoming symposium issue on Public Citizens, Public Servants: Free Speech in the Post-Garcetti Workplace, critiques the Supreme Court's decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos as reflecting a distorted understanding of government speech that overstates government's own expressive interests while undermining the public's interest in transparent government.

In Garcetti, the Court held that the First Amendment does not protect public employees' speech made "pursuant to their official duties," concluding that a government employer should remain free to exercise "employer control over what the employer itself has commissioned or created." …

A Vote Delayed Is A Vote Denied: A Proactive Approach To Eliminating Election Administration Legislation That Disenfranchises Unwanted Voters, Gilda R. Daniels

All Faculty Scholarship

In an effort to determine voter eligibility and access to the voting booth, our democratic system has allowed political forces, to develop laws that would meet their aims of either granting or denying access to the franchise. Caught in this web of regulations, practices and procedures is the "unwanted voter" - the disabled, elderly, poor, and minority voter. New millennium models of exclusion, such as overly restrictive identification requirements, unwarranted voter purges, restrictive voter registration rules, increasing costs for underlying documents to support citizenship and eligibility for voting, are creating a caste system in the electoral process. The practice of …

Interpreting The Fourteenth Amendment: Two Don'ts And Three Dos, Garrett Epps

All Faculty Scholarship

A sophisticated reading of the legislative record of the framing of the Fourteenth Amendment can provide courts and scholars with some general interpretive principles to guide their application of the Amendment to current legal problems. The author argues that two common legal conceptions about the Amendment are, in fact, misconceptions. The first is that the Amendment was chiefly concerned with the immediate situation of freed slaves in the former slave states. Instead, he argues, the legislative record suggests that the framers were broadly concerned with the rights not only of freed slaves but also of foreign-born immigrants in the North …

Restoring Congressional Intent And Protections Under The Americans With Disabilities Act: Hearing Before The S. Comm. On Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions, 110th Cong., Nov. 15, 2007 (Statement Of Chai R. Feldblum, Geo. U. L. Center), Chai R. Feldblum

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

Rodrigo's Corrido: Race, Postcolonial Theory, And U.S. Civil Rights, Richard Delgado

Vanderbilt Law Review

Richard Delgado enlists his alter ego, Rodrigo, to analyze Latino legal history and civil rights. Encountering "the Professor" after testifying at a hearing on an immigration bill, Rodrigo excitedly tells his old friend and mentor about a new body of writing he has come across. Postcolonial theory, which deals with issues such as cultural survival, resistance, and collaboration, can help move American civil rights scholarship beyond its current impasse. Over dinner, Rodrigo demonstrates how insights from these writers can enrich U.S. civil rights theory and practice. He also posits a new theory of Latinos' sociolegal construction, based on a triple …

Rendition To Torture: The Case Of Maher Arar: Hearing Before The H. Comm. On Foreign Affairs,, 110th Cong., Oct. 18, 2007 (Statement Of David D. Cole, Geo. U. L. Center), David Cole

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

The Ada Restoration Act Of 2007: Hearing Before The H. Subcomm. On Constitution, Civil Rights, And Civil Liberties Of The H. Comm. On The Judiciary, 110th Cong., Oct. 4, 2007 (Statement Of Statement Of Chai R. Feldblum, Prof. Of Law, Geo. U. L. Center), Chai R. Feldblum

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

Social Justice And The Law, Elaine R. Jones

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Majority Politics And Race Based Remedies, Darren Lenard Hutchinson

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Essay applies the principles of social movement theory and analyzes the legal status of race-based remedies. Many scholars have debated the constitutionality and efficacy of affirmative action, the appropriateness of race-consciousness (from legal and social perspectives) and the legitimacy of structural judicial remedies for various types of discrimination. This paper will add to this literature by demonstrating the influence of conservative race politics and ideology on Court doctrine concerning affirmative action and other race-based remedies. In particular, this Essay will demonstrate that, consistent with broader political trends, the Court disfavors governmental usage of race as a remedy for discrimination …

Defining Our Freedom, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Civil Rights

Bibliography and photographs of a display of government documents from Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Toward A New Civil Rights Framework, Guy-Uriel Charles

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Civil Rights And Related Decisions, Eileen Kaufman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Other Civil Rights Decisions In The October 2005 Term: Title Vii, Idea, And Section 1981(Eighteenth Annual Supreme Court Review), Eileen Kaufman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Against Citizenship As A Predicate For Basic Rights, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The subject of my remarks will be citizenship, or more precisely the lack thereof, as a wedge issue on matters of rights, the rule of law, and the war on terror. I will argue that we ought to be careful about relying on citizenship as a rallying call for rights and protections precisely because the distinction between citizenship and its lack has proven to be such a tempting avenue for illegitimate trade-offs between liberty and security.

The Title Vii Tug-Of-War: Application Of U.S. Employment Discrimination Law Extraterritorially, Latoya S. Brown

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Companies around the world increasingly are engaging in cross-border business transactions. Globalization is a must if companies want to continue to be competitive in the marketplace--indeed it is an inevitable reality. However, in the midst of this reality is another reality: the legal implications of establishing operations abroad. Transnational expansion introduces companies to an interesting game of tug-of-war in which companies may find themselves torn between compliance with U.S. law and compliance with the laws of the host country. This Note discusses this tug-of-war in the context of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Over 15 years …