Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Gender And Intercollegiate Athletics: Data And Myths, Julia Lamber

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article explores what nondiscrimination means in the context of intercollegiate athletics. After reviewing the Department of Education's controversial Title IX Policy Interpretation, it critically examines the analytical framework used in Title IX athletic cases and concludes that commonly made analogies to litigation under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act are inapt. A major part of the Article is an empirical study, looking first at gender equity plans written by institutions of higher education for the National Collegiate Athletic Association and then at data collected from more than 325 institutions pursuant to the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act. …

The Struggle For Sex Equality In Sport And The Theory Behind Title Ix, Deborah Brake

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Title IX's three-part test for measuring discrimination in the provision of athletic opportunities to male and female students has generated heated controversy in recent years. In this Article, Professor Brake discusses the theoretical underpinnings behind the three-part test and offers a comprehensive justification of this theory as applied to the context of sport. She begins with an analysis of the test's relationship to other areas of sex discrimination law, concluding that, unlike most contexts, Title IX rejects formal equality as its guiding theory, adopting instead an approach that focuses on the institutional structures that subordinate girls and women in sport. …

The Mixed Messages Of Title Ix, Sherman J. Clark

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Introduction to a University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Symposium entitled Competing in the 21st Century: Title IX, Gender Equity, and Athletics.

Defining Recipients Of Federal Financial Assistance Under The Nondiscrimination Statutes, Heidi A. Reamer

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Case Against Private Disparate Impact Suits, Thom Lambert

Faculty Publications

This article argues that the Third Circuit, and the courts that have implicitly approved private disparate impact suits, have erred in construing Title VI to permit private plaintiffs to sue federally funded entities for discrimination based on disparate impact alone. From a policy standpoint, permitting private disparate impact suits is a bad idea, for the threat of such suits will lead to deterrence of actions and decisions that have incidental disparate effects but are, on the whole, good.

When The Classroom Speaks: A Public University's First Amendment Right To A Race-Conscious Admissions Policy, Alfred B. Gordon

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

A. Leon Higginbotham Jr.: Who Will Carry The Baton?, F. Michael Higginbotham, José F. Anderson

All Faculty Scholarship

It was a rainy November day during Thanksgiving weekend of 1997. The scene was the Washington, D.C., childhood home of Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, A. Leon Higginbotham Jr.'s beloved wife. Our assignment was to assist in the removal, packing, and transport of a few prized family heirlooms that were to be taken to their home in Newton, Massachusetts.

On the early morning drive into Washington, D.C., our conversation was mostly idle chit-chat. Little did we know that the circumstances of the day would lead to an amazing set of discussions, the importance of which we could never have imagined at …

Colorism: A Darker Shade Of Pale, Taunya Lovell Banks

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, Professor Banks argues that colorism, skin tone discrimination against dark-skinned but not light-skinned blacks, constitutes a form of race-based discrimination. Skin tone discrimination coexists with more traditional forms of race discrimination that impact all blacks without regard to skin tone and phenotype, yet courts seem unwilling to recognize this point. Professor Banks uses employment discrimination cases to illustrate some courts' willingness to acknowledge subtler forms of race-based discrimination, like skin tone discrimination, for white ethnic and Latina/o plaintiffs, but not for black plaintiffs. The inability of courts to fashion coherent approaches to colorism claims involving black claimants …

Protection Of Domestic Violence Victims Under The New York City Human Rights Law's Provisions Prohibiting Discrimination On The Basis Of Disability, Marta B. Varela

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article analyzes the need to create a new protected class of domestic violence victims to shield them from discrimination in employment. The Article examines arguments for and against proposed legislation to revise the human rights law governing disability, section 8-107 of the New York City Administration Code. The Article concludes that this legislation is unnecessary because the law already provides sufficient protection to domestic violence victims without requiring that victims disclose their domestic violence status to their employers.

The Ninth Circuit's "Hybrid Rights" Error: Three Losers Do Not Make A Winner In Thomas V. Anchorage Equal Rights Commission, Eric J. Neal

Seattle University Law Review

Because the Ninth Circuit, in reaching its Thomas decision, relied on Smith's hybrid rights language, this Note will focus on the court's analysis of that subject. By applying the hybrid rights' dicta instead of following the actual holding in Smith, the Ninth Circuit reached a conclusion that is illogical and does not comport with current Supreme Court free exercise jurisprudence. This Note will discuss the Thomas court's analysis and will propose a logical interpretation of Smith that more closely reflects the Supreme Court's actual position regarding the Free Exercise Clause.

Comparing Race And Sex Discrimination In Custody Cases, Katharine T. Bartlett

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Discrimination After Death, Mark E. Wojcik

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Blood Will Tell: Scientific Racism And The Legal Prohibitions Against Miscegenation, Keith E. Sealing

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This article first examines the miscegenation paradigm in terms of a seven-point conceptual framework that not merely allowed but practically demanded anti-miscegenation laws, then looks at the legal arguments state courts used to justify the constitutionality of such laws through 1967. Next, it analyzes the Biblical argument, which in its own right justified miscegenation, but also had a major influence on the development of the three major strands of scientific racism: monogenism, polygenism and Darwinian theory. It then probes the concept upon which the entire edifice is constructed-race--and discusses the continuing vitality of this construct. Next, this article turns to …

Lowering The Preclearance Hurdle Reno V. Bossier Parish School Board, 120 S. Ct. 866 (2000), Alaina C. Beverly

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Case Note examines a recent Supreme Court decision that collapses the purpose and effect prongs of Section 5, effectively lowering the barrier to preclearance for covered jurisdictions. In Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board II the Court determined that Section 5 disallows only voting plans that are enacted with a retrogressive purpose (i.e., with the purpose to "worsen" the position of minority voters). The Court held that Section 5 does not prohibit preclearance of a plan enacted with a discriminatory purpose but without a retrogressive effect. Evidence of a Section 2 violation alone will not be enough to prove …

Racial Profiling: "Driving While Mexican" And Affirmative Action, Victor C. Romero

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Essay will focus on "racial profiling" not just in the way many people think about the term-that is, with respect to stopping motorists for traffic violations based solely on their race, so-called "Driving While Mexican" or "Driving While Black"-but also in the context of "affirmative action"-namely, using race as a factor in employment and educational decisions. More broadly, then, the author wants us to think of "racial profiling" as simply "the use of race to develop an understanding of an individual," which moves us slightly away from more pejorative notions of the phrase that have seeped into the national …

Discrimination Cases In The Supreme Court’S 1998 Term, Eileen Kaufman

Scholarly Works

In the Supreme Court's 1997 Term, the Supreme Court had decided a record number of statutory discrimination cases. However, that record was exceeded in the Supreme Court's 1998 Term with the Court addressing issues arising under Title VII, which covers discrimination in employment; Title IX, which covers discrimination in schools; and most significantly, the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability. Overall, the term scored significant victories for employers who were given considerable latitude to set their own physical characteristic standards and who were, to a large extent, immunized from liability for punitive damages. There was an …

Discrimination And Business Regulation (The Supreme Court And Local Government Law: The 1999-2000 Term), Eileen Kaufman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Agency, Equality, And Antidiscrimination Law, Tracy E. Higgins, Laura A. Rosenbury

UF Law Faculty Publications

Some commentators, perhaps a minority, have argued that the Equal Protection Clause should be read to require the use of race-conscious policies when necessary to eradicate or remedy the most serious consequences of racial inequality. Others have argued that such policies, though not required, should be permitted when duly adopted by the majority of the populace to promote the interests of an historically oppressed minority. Still others, including now a majority of the Supreme Court, take the view that the Constitution forbids virtually all explicit uses of race by the state.

In this Essay, we do not enter this debate …

Risk Reduction In Office Workplace Encounters Between Newly-Disabled Employees And Management Of New York City Companies, Marta B. Varela

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article describes potential pitfalls for employers arising from the ADA protections afforded to employees with no prior record of disability returning to work after medical certification of a disability requiring accommodation. The Article describes Federal laws protecting disabled employees from unnecessary intrusion in their private lives (such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993, and the Occupation Health and Safety Act of 1970) and sets out the requirements imposed on employers. The Article also describes New York City disability laws enforced by the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Finally, …

Discrimination Cases In The Supreme Court’S 1998 Term, Eileen Kaufman

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Trapped" In Sing Sing: Transgendered Prisoners Caught In The Gender Binarism, Darren Rosenblum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

A transgendered woman, who has undergone extensive hormonal therapy and cosmetic surgery, is convicted and imprisoned. Because she still has a penis, albeit a nonfunctioning one, prison officials categorize her as a male, and place her in a men's prison. "You were born a boy, and you're going to stay a boy," the prison doctor says, rejecting continuation of her long-term estrogen treatment. Her body begins to regain the masculinity she had largely escaped. Bruised by the changes, her body no longer feels like her own, but one imposed on her by the criminal justice system. Her femininity stands …

The Bill Of Rights And The Constitution: Facing The Challenge Of The Future, Stephen Wermiel

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

History Unbecoming, Becoming History, Toni M. Massaro

Michigan Law Review

The last few decades have seen a torrent of legal commentary supporting gay equality and attacking the punishment, failure to protect, and refusal to affirm gay conduct and identity. William Eskridge, a prominent voice in this fin-de-siecle literature, now draws together and expands on his previous work in Gaylaw: Challenging the Apartheid of the Closet. Though far more successful in shaping the uses of the past than in showing the way to the future, the book instructs even where it fails. It augurs a century that could well witness the end of official discrimination against gay individuals, and the relegation …

Life After Adarand: What Happened To The Metro Broadcasting Diversity Rationale For Affirmative Action In Telecommunications Ownership?, Leonard M. Baynes

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The United States Supreme Court severely restricted affirmative action policies in Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena. In this opinion, a majority of the Court held that all state or federally mandated affirmative action programs are to be analyzed under strict scrutiny. This test requires affirmative action programs to meet a compelling governmental interest and be narrowly tailored.

Adarand raised issues concerning the validity of the Federal Communications Commission's affirmative action ownership policies. Previously, the Court in Metro Broadcasting, Inc. v. FCC found the FCC minority ownership policies constitutional under a lower (intermediate) standard of review. In Adarand, the Court …

Response To Professor Wax: Discrimination As Accident: Old Whine, New Bottle, Michael Selmi

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Discrimination As Accident, Amy L. Wax

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Judicial Deference And Sexual Discrimination In The University, Mark Bartholomew

Buffalo Women's Law Journal

Tenure discrimination plaintiffs confront a judiciary that regularly defers to the administrative judgments of universities. Strangely, however, student plaintiffs suing under Title IX do not confront the same deferential posture. This occurs even when the student plaintiffs are suing their professors over classroom speech and academic freedom is at stake. After presenting the evidence of an asymmetrical application of judicial deference to the university, the Article critiques the Supreme Court’s decision in Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District to weaken the remedial powers of Title IX relative to Title VII. The Article then explores the arguments for and against …

Editor's Note, Wyndall A. Ivey

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

There's Nothing Special About Sex: The Supreme Court Mainstreams Sexual Harassment, Rebecca White

Scholarly Works

In this Essay, Professor White argues that the Supreme Court finally has merged analysis of sexual harassment law with other claims of intentional discrimination. Professor White contends that the Court's decision in Meritor Savings Bank, FSB v. Vinson created confusion over the proper analysis of sexual harassment claims by seemingly embracing quid pro quo and hostile work environment theories as distinct forms of discrimination and by suggesting that at least some sexual harassment claims may warrant a revised approach to employer liability. In the wake of Meritor, sexual harassment claims increasingly were evaluated differently from other claims of disparate treatment, …

Bisexual Jurisprudence: A Tripolar Approach To Law And Society, Rachel Haynes

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Part I of this Review will briefly assess the principal arguments in Colker's book. In Part II, Colker's book will be situated within the larger currents of the discussion concerning bisexuality and the arguments for a bisexual jurisprudence. Part III critiques Colker's concept of a bisexual jurisprudence as applied to sexual hybrids from the standpoint of an identity, as well as a legal, skeptic. Part IV will sketch out some important implications for the advancement of a bisexual jurisprudence as well as question the need for a bisexual jurisprudence. This review concludes that the addition of a bisexual jurisprudence, like …