Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Legitimacy And Protection Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination Under Title Vii, Matt Snodgrass

Indiana Law Journal

Until relatively recently federal courts have held that claims of discrimination based in sexual orientation fall beyond the purview of Title VII protection. Even after the landmark holding in Price Waterhouse that recognized discrimination based in sex stereotypes and subsequent amendment to Title VII, courts resisted “bootstrapping” sexual orientation claims with sex discrimination claims. The result has been a number of puzzling outcomes—for example, extending Title VII protection to gay men who received adverse employment treatment due to stereotypically “effeminate” mannerism but not to gay men who meet cultural standards of masculinity— rigidly applying the structure of protected categories in …

Reflections On The Future Of Global Legal Studies, Mark Fathi Massoud

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This Article proposes a set of theoretical ideas and practical innovations for the future of global legal studies in the three areas that make up the academic profession: research, teaching, and service. The future directions of global legal studies will involve building intellectual bridges that connect law with global politics, society, history, religion, and human behavior. Constructing these bridges preserves global legal studies as both an interdisciplinary enterprise and a movement for justice. This twin commitment to rigorous inquiry and social justice involves sustaining a welcoming community for graduate students and early career scholars, and prioritizing the experiences of those …

287(G) Agreements In The Trump Era, Huyen Pham

Faculty Scholarship

Articulated as a priority in President Trump’s executive orders, his administration has forcefully pushed to sign more 287(g) agreements (and more aggressive forms of those agreements) with local law enforcement agencies (LEAs). In the summer of 2017, the administration signed eighteen new agreements in the state of Texas alone. At the end of 2017, there were at least thirty-eight other LEAs interested in joining the program. Once these agreements come online, the result will be more local law enforcement officers deputized to enforce immigration laws than have ever existed in the history of the 287(g) program.

What are the implications …

Restoring Fairness To Campus Sex Tribunals, Cynthia Ward

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Sexual Harassment Of Low-Income Women In Housing: Pilot Study Results, Rigel C. Oliveri

Faculty Publications

In recent months, high-profile and influential figures in media, government, and entertainment have been brought down by credible allegations that they have engaged in sexual misconduct. These revelations have sparked an important national discussion about the prevalence of sexual harassment in American society and the ways in which powerful people can use their positions both to exploit their vulnerable targets and to escape the consequences of their actions.

The conversation is a necessary starting point, but the focus on high-status workplaces overlooks other contexts in which sexual harassment occurs. This Article focuses on one overlooked, significant national problem: the sexual …

A Political Companion To Frederick Douglass, Neil Roberts

Civil Rights

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) was a prolific writer and public speaker whose impact on American literature and history has been long studied by historians and literary critics. Yet as political theorists have focused on the legacies of such notables as W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, Douglass's profound influence on Afro-modern and American political thought has often been undervalued. In an effort to fill this gap in the scholarship on Douglass, editor Neil Roberts and an exciting group of established and rising scholars examine the author's autobiographies, essays, speeches, and novella. Together, they illuminate his genius for analyzing …

No Prior Experience Desired: Villarreal V. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. And The Scope Of Disparate Impact Claims Under The Adea, Nicholas Placente

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Note argues that § 4(a)(2) of the ADEA permits disparate impact claims for job applicants, despite the revised holding of the Eleventh Circuit. First, the plain meaning of § 4(a)(2) strongly suggests that disparate impact protections lie for job seekers, in contrast to the Eleventh Circuit’s ultimate finding. This argument draws on a close textual and structural analysis of the ADEA, supplemented with a comparative analysis to Title VII. Furthermore, this Note unpacks the legal arguments surrounding the 1972 amendment to Title VII, demonstrating that the absence of the “applicants for employment” language from § 4(a)(2) does not …

Does It Pay To Be A Manager? The Significance Of The Manager Rule In Analyzing Retaliation Claims Under Title Vii, Cristina Giappone

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Note argues that the manager rule should be applied to Title VII cases but in a new and very specific and detailed context involving a case-by-case analysis, similar to that of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s reasoning in Rosenfield v. GlobalTranz Enterprises, Inc. This Note is comprised of three parts. Part I provides the history of Title VII generally, and discusses the emergence of the manager rule in the FLSA context. Part II addresses how different federal circuit courts have either recognized or rejected the manager rule as it applies to retaliation …

The Story Of Parenthood, Courtney Cahill

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Rwu First Amendment Blog: Jared Goldstein's Blog: Masterpiece Cakeshop Ruling: No Constitutional Right To Discriminate (For Now) 06-05-2018, Jared A. Goldstein

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

The Torch (June 2018), Crtp

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

Civic and Community Engagement | Civil Rights and Discrimination | Education | Gender and Sexuality | Inequality and Stratification | Politics and Social Change | Public Policy | Race and Ethnicity

Recommended Citation

Baldwin, Brandon and Civil Rights Team Project, "Torch (August 2013)" (2013). Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter. 58. http://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/torch/58

Employees Beware: How Sb 43 Takes Missouri Anti-Discrimination Law Too Far, Emily Crane

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

SB 43 passed through the Missouri Legislature and was signed into law by Governor Eric Greitens on June 30, 2017. Ostensibly intended to bring Missouri’s anti-discrimination law in line with analogous federal law, SB 43 amended the Missouri Human Rights Act and thereby improperly increased the legal burden on employment discrimination plaintiffs. This article examines the causation standards under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act and contrasts those with the newly-amended Missouri Human Rights Act to demonstrate just how far Missouri law has gone. In so doing, this article ultimately concludes …

Equal Protection Under The Carceral State, Aya Gruber

Northwestern University Law Review

McCleskey v. Kemp, the case that upheld the death penalty despite undeniable evidence of its racially disparate impact, is indelibly marked by Justice William Brennan’s phrase, “a fear of too much justice.” The popular interpretation of this phrase is that the Supreme Court harbored what I call a “disparity-claim fear,” dreading a future docket of racial discrimination claims and erecting an impossibly high bar for proving an equal protection violation. A related interpretation is that the majority had a “color-consciousness fear” of remedying discrimination through race-remedial policies. In contrast to these conventional views, I argue that the primary anxiety …

"Playing It Safe" With Empirical Evidence: Selective Use Of Social Science In Supreme Court Cases About Racial Justice And Marriage Equality, Russell K. Robinson, David M. Frost

Northwestern University Law Review

This Essay seeks to draw connections between race, sexual orientation, and social science in Supreme Court litigation. In some respects, advocates for racial minorities and sexual minorities face divergent trajectories. Among those asserting civil rights claims, LGBT rights claimants have been uniquely successful at the Court ever since Romer v. Evans in the mid-1990s. During this period, advocates for racial minorities have fought to preserve earlier victories in cases such as Regents of the University of California v. Bakke and have failed to overturn precedents that strictly limit equal protection possibilities, such as McCleskey v. Kemp. Nonetheless, we argue …

State Court Litigation: The New Front In The War Against Partisan Gerrymandering, Charlie Stewart

Michigan Law Review Online

Partisan gerrymandering is the process of drafting state and congressional districts in a manner that gives one political party an advantage over another. The end goal is simple: help your party win more seats or protect existing ones. The tactic is as old as the United States. In 1788, Patrick Henry convinced the Virginia state legislature to draw the 5th Congressional District to pit his rival James Madison against James Monroe. The term “gerrymander” itself is a hybrid: in 1810, democratic Governor Gerry signed a partisan redistricting plan into law—one that contained a district that infamously looked like a salamander. …

Equal Protection And The Social Sciences Thirty Years After Mccleskey V. Kemp, Destiny Peery, Osagie K. Obasogie

Northwestern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Blind Justice: Why The Court Refused To Accept Statistical Evidence Of Discriminatory Purpose In Mccleskey V. Kemp—And Some Pathways For Change, Reva B. Siegel

Northwestern University Law Review

In McCleskey v. Kemp, the Supreme Court refused to accept statistical evidence of race discrimination in an equal protection challenge to the death penalty. This lecture, on the decision’s thirtieth anniversary, locates McCleskey in cases of the Burger and Rehnquist Courts that restrict proof of discriminatory purpose in terms that make it exceedingly difficult for minority plaintiffs successfully to assert equal protection claims.

The lecture’s aims are both critical and constructive. The historical reading I offer shows that portions of the opinion justify restrictions on evidence to protect prosecutorial discretion, while others limit proof of discrimination in ways that …

What Can Brown Do For You?: Addressing Mccleskey V. Kemp As A Flawed Standard For Measuring The Constitutionally Significant Risk Of Race Bias, Mario L. Barnes, Erwin Chemerinsky

Northwestern University Law Review

This Essay asserts that in McCleskey v. Kemp, the Supreme Court created a problematic standard for the evidence of race bias necessary to uphold an equal protection claim under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. First, the Court’s opinion reinforced the cramped understanding that constitutional claims require evidence of not only disparate impact but also discriminatory purpose, producing significant negative consequences for the operation of the U.S. criminal justice system. Second, the Court rejected the Baldus study’s findings of statistically significant correlations between the races of the perpetrators and victims and the imposition of the death …

The Futile Fourth Amendment: Understanding Police Excessive Force Doctrine Through An Empirical Assessment Of Graham V. Connor, Osagie K. Obasogie, Zachary Newman

Northwestern University Law Review

Graham v. Connor established the modern constitutional landscape for police excessive force claims. The Supreme Court not only refined an objective reasonableness test to describe the constitutional standard, but also held that the Fourth Amendment is the sole avenue for courts to adjudicate claims that police violated a person’s constitutional rights in using force. In this Essay, we ask: What impact did this decision have on the nature of police excessive force claims in federal courts? To address this, we engaged in a qualitative examination of 500 federal cases (250 in the twenty-six years before Graham and 250 in the …

You Down With Mwbe? Yeah You Know Me: A Summary Of The Mbe, Wbe, And Dbe Programs In The State Of Missouri, Shomari Benton, David Lloyd

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

The State of Missouri and Missouri municipalities want to encourage minority and women owned businesses in their communities. The governments have created formalized programs to utilize these businesses. The purpose of these programs is to increase participation of women, minority, and other historically disadvantaged businesses in government related contracts. To bid upon or enter into government related contracts, minority, women, and other historically disadvantaged groups must apply for and receive program certification by different government entities. The certification application and process can be confusing, time consuming, and costly. But with guidance, can be navigated and be beneficial to minority and …

Picking Cotton For Pennies: An Exploration Into The Law’S Modern Endorsement Of A Free-Prison Workforce, Renee Elaine Henson

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

The Thirteenth Amendment made slavery unconstitutional, but also created an exception where “[n]either slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” This carve-out opened the door for prison-dependent companies to make handsome profits from large scale prison labor. Inmates must work full time in demanding conditions, and are paid nominally in return. Inmates do not receive minimum wages because they are excluded from the protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) through judicial interpretation. Low wages …

Batson For Judges, Police Officers & Teachers: Lessons In Democracy From The Jury Box, Stacy L. Hawkins

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

In our representative democracy we guarantee equal participation for all, but we fall short of this promise in so many domains of our civic life. From the schoolhouse, to the jailhouse, to the courthouse, racial minorities are underrepresented among key public decision-makers, such as judges, police officers, and teachers. This gap between our aspirations for representative democracy and the reality that our judges, police officers, and teachers are often woefully under-representative of the racially diverse communities they serve leaves many citizens of color wanting for the democratic guarantee of equal participation. This critical failure of our democracy threatens to undermine …

The Case Against Police Militarization, Eliav Lieblich, Adam Shinar

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

We usually think there is a difference between the police and the military. Recently, however, the police have become increasingly militarized – a process which is likely to intensify in coming years. Unsurprisingly, many find this process alarming and call for its reversal. However, while most of the objections to police militarization are framed as instrumental arguments, these arguments are unable to capture the core problem with militarization.

This Article remedies this shortcoming by developing a novel and principled argument against police militarization. Contrary to arguments that are preoccupied with the consequences of militarization, the real problem with police militarization …

Fairness In The Exceptions: Trusting Juries On Matters Of Race, Virginia Weeks

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Implicit bias research indicates that despite our expressly endorsed values, Americans share a pervasive bias disfavoring Black Americans and favoring White Americans. This bias permeates legislative as well as judicial decision-making, leading to the possibility of verdicts against Black defendants that are tainted with racial bias. The Supreme Court’s 2017 decision in Peña-Rodriguez v. Colorado provides an ex post remedy for blatant racism that impacts jury verdicts, while jury nullification provides an ex ante remedy by empowering jurors to reject convicting Black defendants when to do so would reinforce racially biased laws. Both remedies exist alongside a trend limiting the …

A Conversation On Learning From The History Of The Civil Rights Movement, Walter F. Mondale

Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality

Introduction & Abridged Transcript, The Summit for Civil Rights, November 10, 2017

A Look At Inequality, Workers’ Rights, And Race, William E. Spriggs

Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality

No abstract provided.

Implicit Bias's Failure, Samuel Bagenstos

Articles

The 2016 presidential election was a coming-out party of sorts for the concept of implicit bias-and not necessarily in a good way. In answering a question about race relations and the police during the vice-presidential debate, Mike Pence introduced the topic. Offering his explanation for why the Fraternal Order of Police had endorsed the Trump-Pence ticket, Pence said:

The Rhetorical Allure Of Post-Racial Process Discourse And The Democratic Myth, Cedric Merlin Powell

Utah Law Review

We are witnessing the power of distorted and neutral rhetoric that rings with deceptive clarity. This post-racial process discourse is advanced on many levels: in political discourse, by a distrustful citizenry energized by hateful rhetoric that appeals to their concerns of being “left behind” on the basis of “preferences” for minorities that diminish America’s “greatness,” and a Court that seeks to constitutionalize a mythic democracy that promises participation while implicitly endorsing structural exclusion.

Voter initiatives should not determine the substantive core of the Fourteenth Amendment. While democratic participation is essential to our Republic, decisions like Schuette perpetuate a democratic myth …

Equal Protection And Scrutinizing Scrutiny: The Supreme Court’S Decision In Sessions V. Morales-Santana, Jonathan Burt

Utah Law Review

This Note attempts to synthesize the cases on 8 U.S.C. § 1409(c) and provide a workable framework for intermediate scrutiny in the equal protection realm. Intermediate scrutiny, like all levels of scrutiny, is an ends-means balancing test. Under intermediate scrutiny, the ends must be “important.” The interest cannot be “hypothetical” or “invented post hoc in response to litigation.”234 Instead, it must be the actual reason behind the statutory classification and this must be clearly demonstrated by the government. On the other side, the means must “substantially relate” to the asserted interest. The means chosen cannot result from overbroad assumptions about …

A Systematic Look At A Serial Problem: Sexual Harassment Of Students By University Faculty, Nancy Chi Cantalupo, William C. Kidder

Utah Law Review

One in ten female graduate students at major research universities report being sexually harassed by a faculty member. Many universities face intense media scrutiny regarding faculty sexual harassment, and whether women are being harassed out of academic careers in scientific disciplines is currently a subject of significant public debate. However, to date, scholarship in this area is significantly constrained. Surveys cannot entirely mesh with the legal/policy definition of sexual harassment. Policymakers want to know about serial (repeat) sexual harassers, where answers provided by student surveys are least satisfactory. Strict confidentiality restrictions block most campus sexual harassment cases from public view. …