Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Facing The Challenge: A Lawyer's Response To Anti-Gay Initiatives, Suzanne B. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

We are living in an extraordinary period of gay and lesbian history. As lesbian and gay civil rights gain increasing recognition throughout the country – through small but growing numbers of laws prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination, court rulings protecting lesbian and gay parents' custody of their children, and a historically unprecedented level of positive media coverage – our struggles also have escalated enormously. Not only must we litigate and negotiate for equal opportunity in employment, housing, and parenting rights as always, but also we face a nationally organized and terrifically well-funded assault on our fundamental rights as citizens.

This nationwide …

Bray V. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic: Women Under Siege, Dianne Olivia Fischer

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bifurcation Of Civil Rights Defendants: Undermining Monell In Police Brutality Cases, Douglas L. Colbert

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Civil Rights Act Of 1991: A “Quota Bill,” A Codification Of Griggs, A Partial Return To Wards Cove, Or All Of The Above?, Kingsley R. Browne

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Internal Dispute Resolution: The Transformation Of Civil Rights In The Workplace, John M. Lande, Lauren B. Edelman, Howard S. Erlanger

Faculty Publications

Many employers create internal procedures for the resolution of discrimination complaints. We examine internal complaint handlers' conceptions of civil rights law and the implications of those conceptions for their approach to dispute resolution. Drawing on interview data, we find that complaint handlers tend to subsume legal rights under managerial interests. They construct civil rights law as a diffuse standard of fairness, consistent with general norms of good management. Although they seek to resolve complaints to restore smooth employment relations, they tend to recast discrimination claims as typical managerial problems. While the assimilation of law into the management realm may extend …

America's Counterrevolution - Unlearned Lessons, Nathaniel R. Jones

Cleveland State Law Review

"America's Counterrevolution - Unlearned Lessons" is about America's social revolution -which saw this nation change from a state that constitutionally sanctioned human degradation in the form of slavery and segregation, into one that enshrined in its basic charter human rights and guarantees of equality before the law for all persons. The revolution, in what Justice Marshall calls our "system of constitutional government", made our legal system the wonder of the world, which others constantly seek to emulate. In order to understand what is required of Americans as they find themselves in this counterrevolutionary period with respect to civil rights, there …

Fairness And Finality: Third-Party Challenges To Employment Discrimination Consent Decrees After The 1991 Civil Rights Act, Marjorie A. Silver

Scholarly Works

In this Article, Professor Silver examines Section 108 of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which limits challenges to employment practices taken pursuant to employment discrimination consent decreea The Article traces the development of the impermissible collateral attack doctrine, that doctrine's demise in Martin v. Wilks, and Congress' response to Martin as embodied in Section 108. Professor Silver also suggests ways in which Section 108 should be administered to comply with the Due Process Clause and argues for specific additional federal legislation to protect non-litigants or potential third-party challengers as well as to foster the utility and finality of legitimate …

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.

Credulous Courts And The Tortured Trilogy: The Improper Use Of Summary Judgment In Title Vii And Adea Cases, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

Civil rights are under siege. In mid-1989, the United States Supreme Court decided several cases that severely limit the civil rights claims and remedies available to a plaintiff claiming employment discrimination. This Article examines the gradual and continuing erosion of the factfinder's role in federal employment discrimination cases and its replacement by an increasing use of summary judgment through which the courts make pretrial determinations formerly reserved for the factfinder at trial. This trend not only represents a major shift in court procedure and, in the case of age discrimination claims, a transfer of power from juries to judges, but …

Shaw V. Reno: On The Borderline, Emily Calhoun

Publications

No abstract provided.

Did The Slaves Author The Thirteenth Amendment? An Essay In Redemptive History, Guyora Binder

Journal Articles

American constitutional interpretation is deeply traditionalist, and privileges original intent. The difficulty with thus authorizing the past in interpreting the Thirteenth Amendment is that it purports to abolish custom and tradition as unjust. This essay argues that, given the Amendment’s denunciation of the polity that enacted it as illegitimate, its questionable formal pedigree, and the agency of the slaves in precipitating, defining, and resolving the crisis that enabled it, the slaves have a moral claim to status as its authors. It follows that the original intent guiding interpretation should be that of the slaves themselves.

The Supreme Court's Narrow View On Civil Rights, Jack M. Beermann

Faculty Scholarship

The right to choose abortion, although recently significantly curtailed from its original scope,' is a federally protected liberty interest of women, and is at least protected against the imposition of "undue burdens" by state and local government.² Some of the most serious threats to women's ability to choose abortion have come not from government regulation, but from private, national, organized efforts to prevent abortions. In addition to seeking change through the political system, some of these organizations, most notably Operation Rescue, have focused on the providers of abortion, and have attempted to prevent abortions by forcibly closing abortion clinics …

A Tribute To Thurgood Marshall, Peter N. Simon

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Australian Reluctance About Rights, Hilary Charlesworth

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article examines the way in which the Australian legal system protects human rights. It discusses the paucity of constitutionally protected rights and the failure of various attempts made to amend the Constitution in this respect. The paper looks at the inadequacy of the Australian common law and legislation in the protection of rights. It argues that the politics of both federalism and legalism have produced a culture wary of rights discourse. The paper concludes by considering how the Australian protection of rights can be improved and suggests that one way ahead would be to introduce an Australian charter of …

Police Implementation Of Supreme Court Of Canada Charter Decisions: An Empirical Study, Kathryn Moore

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Little empirical research has been done on the Charter's impact on the public policy process. This paper presents the results of an empirical research study designed to fill that gap. The study examined the manner in which a municipal police force and the RCMP implemented changes to procedures following two Supreme Court of Canada Charter decisions. The paper concludes that, while steps have been taken to develop a process by which Supreme Court decisions are implemented, the process would be improved if one body were allocated responsibility for the provision of interim information to the police.

Justice For Rodney King, Scott C. Burrell, Alan R. Dial, Thomas W. Mitchell

Faculty Scholarship

May 1992 letter from three Howard University School of Law students to President George H.W. Bush advocating that the United States Department of Justice invoke the Petite Policy to initiate a criminal action against the Los Angeles Police Department police officers responsible for brutally beating Rodney King despite the fact that these offers had been acquitted in a California state court. The letter, which was read in front of the White House by Thomas Mitchell to hundreds of people who had gathered to urge the federal government to take action, sets forth a clear legal basis to permit the Justice …

Bray V. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic: The Supreme Court's Next Opportunity To Unsettle Civil Rights Law, Randolph M. Mclaughlin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The legislative history of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 is scrutinized to determine the factual predicate that led to the enactment of 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3) and the classes Congress sought to protect under its provisions. The legislative history is also analyzed to determine which rights Congress sought to protect in § 1985(3). Part III discusses the Supreme Court's misinterpretation of the statute and attempts to provide guidance as to the proper outcome in Bray.

The Question Of Family: Lesbians And Gay Men Reflecting A Redefined Society, Libby Post

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The cutting edge issue in the gay community is now the fight for domestic partnership rights. The absence of domestic partnership rights have resulted in the unequal treatment of an entire class of citizens, with gays and lesbians routinely denied jobs, housing, economic benefits such as health care, insurance, public accommodations, and may even result in these individuals being fired or facing eviction solely because of their sexual orientation. The author argues that to rectify these injustices, we must redefine the definition of family to be more in line with that used in New York's Braschi v. Stahl Assocs. Co., …

Civil Rights Plaintiffs And The Proposed Revision Of Rule 11, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The 1983 amendment of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 has been the most controversial revision of the Federal Rules in their fifty-five-year history, and Rule l l's implementation has been most controversial in civil rights cases. Rule ll's application has disadvantaged civil rights plaintiffs more than any other category of civil litigant. Courts have found civil rights plaintiffs in violation of Rule 11 at a higher rate than other types of plaintiffs and have imposed substantial sanctions on them. Civil rights plaintiffs have been required to participate in expensive, unnecessary satellite litigation involving this provision. Indeed, a new study …

Quotas, Politics, And Judicial Statesmanship: The Civil Rights Act Of 1991 And Powell's Bakke, Mark H. Grunewald

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Operation Rescue: Was The Justice Dept. Right To Intervene In Wichita?, Gary S. Lawson, Celeste Lacy Davis, Eve W. Paul

Faculty Scholarship

Discussion of Operation Rescue attempt to shut down abortion clinic in Wichita, KS in August 1991, and ensuing decision of U.S. District Judge Patrick Kelly, as well as intervention of Justice Department. A debate-style article with "pro" side written by Gary Lawson and "con" side written by C.L. Davis & E.W. Paul.

Introduction: Civil Rights In The Workplace Of The 1990s, Sandi R. Murphy

Vanderbilt Law Review

Throughout history courts and legislatures alternatively have enlarged and diminished civil rights protections." Today, employment discrimination claims are the most commonly litigated civil rights cases. A succession of cases decided by a new conservative majority of Justices during the 1988 Supreme Court Term has altered radically the delicate balance of civil rights in the workplace. The then prevailing economic, political, and legal environment seemed to be impervious to any advances in employment discrimination protections.

Since that Term, courts and legislatures at the state and federal levels have promulgated a confusing combination of advances and re- treats in employment discrimination law. …

The Jurisprudence Of Wringing Hands: A Brief Response To Professor Soifer, Allan Ides

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

On Being Overly Discrete And Insular: Involuntary Groups And The Angloamerican Judicial Tradition, Aviam Soifer

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Soifer's Vision And Three Questions About Images, Milner S. Ball

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Groups In Perspectives, Carol Weisbrod

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Another Way Of Skinning The Rabbit, Geoffrey Palmer Sir

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Faith In Secular Religion: A Brief Reply, Aviam Soifer

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Brewer's Plea: Critical Thoughts On Common Cause, Richard Delgado

Vanderbilt Law Review

As most legal readers know, members of the Critical Race Studies (CRS) school" and mainstream civil rights scholars have been carrying on a rather spectacular and highly public debate. First, Randall Kennedy, a mainstream scholar, took the newcomers to task in his Racial Critiques article, charging us with making unfounded accusations and grandiose claims,' with finding racial exclusion where none exists, and with various other sins of omission and commission. The controversy moved next to the pages of the popular press. Then, in the June 1990 issue of Harvard Law Review, three members of CRS and a white sympathizer were …

Battered Spouses' Section 1983 Damage Actions Against The Unreponsive Police After Deshaney, James T.R. Jones

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.