Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Breaking The Dress Code: Protecting Transgender Students, Their Identities, And Their Rights., Zenobia V. Harris

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract Forthcoming.

From ‘Baggage’ To Not ‘Non-Persons’: Levy V. Louisiana And The Struggle For Equal Rights For ‘Illegitimate’ Children, Sherrie Anne Bakelar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study focuses on "illegitimate" children, who are more visible
than other children within the historical record because of the many laws
related to their existence. By examining this group of children, it is
possible to improve upon the framework that shapes our understanding
of childhood and provide a starting point for future studies that will
continue to illuminate children's history. Although illegitimacy laws are
as ancient as Western civilization, the key moment for the United States'
laws related to nonmarital children came in the spring of 1968 and the
pivotal decision of Levy v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 68 (1968). …

Reply Brief For Petitioner. Thompson V. North American Stainless, Lp, 562 U.S. 170 (2011) (No. 09-291), 2010 U.S. S. Ct. Briefs Lexis 2135, Eric Schnapper, David O'Brien Suetholz, Lisa S. Blatt, Anthony Franze

Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

A Furious Kinship: Critical Race Theory And The Hip Hop Nation, André Douglas Pond Cummings

Law Faculty Scholarship

Two explosive movements were born in the United States in the 1970s. While the founding of both movements was humble and lightly noticed, both grew to become global phenomena that have profoundly changed the world. Founded by prescient agitators, these two movements were borne of disaffect, disappointment, and near desperation - a desperate need to give voice to oppressed and dispossessed peoples. America in the 1970s bore witness to the founding of two furious movements: Critical Race Theory and Hip Hop.

Critical Race Theory was founded as a response to what had been deemed a sputtering civil rights agenda in …

Torch (November/December 2010), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Redemption And Resistance: Lessons In Non-Violent Action From Early Aotearoa/New Zealand, Ian Macduff

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article provides a brief account of the non-violent resistance of two Maori chiefs, Te Whiti and Tohu, in 19th century New Zealand. Each example of such non-violent or passive resistance is unique to its historical and cultural context; but at the same time there is a tangible common ground between this example and those found elsewhere, such as Martin Luther King and Gandhi. This article will also draw a link between the politics of acts of resistance – in this case, resistance to the forceful acquisition of Maori land – and faith-based justifications. In conclusion, it will be suggested …

Admitting Guilt By Professing Innocence: When Sentence Enhancements Bases On "Alford" Pleas Are Unconstitutional, Anne D. Gooch

Vanderbilt Law Review

A few days before Christmas in 1994, in Vineland, New Jersey, Charles Apprendi, Jr. was drunk. At 2:04 a.m., he fired several shots from a .22 caliber gun into the home of an African-American family in his neighborhood. By 3:05 a.m., he had been arrested and had admitted that he was the shooter. Apprendi was interrogated for several hours after these events. At 6:04 a.m., he apparently stated that he committed the crime because the victims were black, but he later retracted this statement. Apprendi was indicted on twenty-three counts in connection with the shooting, and eventually pleaded guilty to …

Ricci's "Color-Blind" Standard In A Race Conscious Society: A Case Of Unintended Consequences?, Michael J. Zimmer

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Amicus Curiae Brief In Support Of Plaintiff-Appellees By Asian American Justice Center, Asian Law Caucus, Asian American Institute, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Asian Pacific American Women Lawyers Alliance, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, Api Equality, California Conference Of The Naacp, Chinese For Affirmative Action, Coalition For Humane Immigrant Rights Of Los Angeles, Korematsu Center At Seattle University, Mexican American Legal Defense And Education Fund, And The Zuna Institute, Fred T. Korematsu Center For Law And Equality, Attorneys For Amicus Curiae

Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality

Perry v. Hollingsworth

Brief For Amici Curiae National Immigration Project Of The National Lawyers Guild, National Police Accountability Project, And Legal Services For Children In Support Of Petitioner, Betsy Ginsberg

Amicus Briefs

Amici have a substantial interest in the outcome of this case. The Federal Tort Claims Act ("FTCA" or the "Act") provides compensation for victims of government negligence and abuse. All too often, those cases arise in the immigration and law enforcement contexts, like the case at issue here. They arise when American citizens are unlawfully detained or deported. They arise when people in immigration detention are mistreated or denied proper medical care. And they arise when immigration officials engage in unlawful home raids.

A robust and uniform Federal Tort Claims Act is essential both to compensating victims and to preventing …

Protecting Indigenous Identity And Culture In The Modern Nation-State: A Case Study Of The Sami In Norway, Claire Lockerby

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The plight of indigenous peoples around the world is a serious one, and without significant international action, many valuable cultural and linguistic traditions are in grave danger of disappearing altogether. Many of these indigenous groups have experienced detrimental consequences from the history of slavery, colonialism and imperialism, and the emergence of nation-states that stripped them of their autonomy and greatly threatened their way of life. Today, there are some positive examples of international and national efforts to protect indigenous peoples, but unfortunately, most indigenous populations remain dispossessed and underrepresented. Although the international community has established principles of unalienable human rights, …

El Papel De La Educación Y Las Ong’S En Mejorar El Acceso A Derechos Para Inmigrantes: El Caso De Los Derechos Sexuales Y Reproductivos = The Role Of Education And Ngo’S In Helping Immigrants Obtain Better Access To Their Rights: The Specific Case Of Sexual And Reproductive Rights, Amy Torres

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In January of 2004, Argentina approved a new immigration law that guaranteed the protection of human rights for all immigrants in the country regardless of their legal status with the State. Among the rights explicitly guaranteed by this law were the right to migrate, the right to education and the right to health care. While this law represents a significant advance by the Argentine government in protecting the human rights of immigrants, oppressive mechanisms still remain in everyday practices that inhibit actual access to their rights.

Considering the changes in the law and the breach between the laws and everyday …

Sex And The Supremes: Towards A Legal Theory Of Sexuality, Elaine Craig

PhD Dissertations

This thesis examines how the Supreme Court of Canada, across legal contexts, has tended to conceptualize sexuality. It focuses primarily on areas of public law including sexual assault law, equality for sexual minorities, sexual harassment and obscenity and indecency laws. There were a number of trends revealed upon reviewing the jurisprudence in this area. First, the Court’s decisions across legal contexts reveal a tendency to conceptualize sexuality as innate, as a pre-social naturally occurring phenomenon and as an essential element of who we are as individuals. This is true whether one is speaking of the approach to gay and lesbian …

Torch (October 2010), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Response To "Snyder V. Louisiana: Continuing The Historical Trend Towards Increased Scrutiny Of Peremptory Challenges", Bidish J. Sarma

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

John P. Bringewatt's recent note makes several important observations about the Supreme Court's opinion in Snyder v. Louisiana. Although he provides reasonable support for the claim that Snyder represents a sea change in Batson jurisprudence, the US Supreme Court's fresh opinion in Thaler v. Haynes (rendered on February 22, 2010) reads the Snyder majority opinion narrowly and suggests the possibility that Snyder is not as potent as it should be. The Haynes per curiam's guarded reading of Snyder signals the need for courts to continue to conduct the bird's-eye cumulative analysis that the Court performed in Miller-El v. Dretke[hereinafter Miller-El …

Reinventing The Eeoc, Nancy M. Modesitt

All Faculty Scholarship

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has struggled to be a meaningful force in eradicating employment discrimination since its inception. The primary reasons for this are structural in nature. The EEOC was designed to react to discrimination complaints by investigating and conciliating all of the thousands of complaints filed annually. The EEOC has never been able to investigate all these complaints despite using the vast majority of its resources attempting to do so. The devotion of resources to managing and investigating the huge volume of complaints prevents the EEOC from taking more effective steps to eliminate discrimination. This article proposes …

Bringing War Criminals To Justice And Justice To Victims: Mass Rape In Bosnia-Herzegovina And The Efficiency Of The Icty, Meredith Loken

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper investigates if the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has been efficient in achieving its main objective of “bringing war criminals to justice [and] bringing justice to victims.” This study explores the historical context by which the ICTY was created, and therefore examines the disintegration of Yugoslavia, focusing specifically on the Bosnian War. During this conflict, rape was employed as a method of warfare; this paper presents a brief theoretical examination of rape as a war weapon and analyzes rape and sexual violence as explicit methods of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It explores the evolution of gender …

Masculinities, Post-Racialism And The Gates Controversy: The False Equivalence Between Officer And Civilian, Frank Rudy Cooper

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Free Speech And The Military Recruiter: Reaffirming The Marketplace Of Ideas, Charles G. Kels

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Guy Walks Into A Bar: Gender Discriminatory Pricing And Admission Policies In Las Vegas Establishments, Shana S. Brouwers

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Dream Of Equal Educational Opportunity Deferred, Giovanni Luciano Escobedo

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Race And Education: The Future Of Desegregation In The United States, Gregory Coleman Jr.

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Religious Exemption Or Exceptionalism? Exploring The Tension Of First Amendment Religion Protections & Civil Rights Progress Within The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, Richael Faithful

Celebrating WCL Student Authors

The District of Columbia (D.C.) marked a landmark civil rights achievement in December 2009 when the city passed the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act. The law’s enactment allowed D.C. to become the sixth jurisdiction to sanction same-sex marriage in the United States. Supporters hailed the law as a victory for lesbian and gay equality, while detractors vowed that their efforts to traditionally define marriage would continue.

Among the most public opponents of the law was the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, which operates Catholic Charities, a leading service provider to low-income residents in the metropolitan area. The Catholic …

A Tale Of Prosecutorial Indiscretion: Ramsey Clark And The Selective Non-Prosecution Of Stokely Carmichael, Lonnie T. Brown

Scholarly Works

During the height of the Vietnam War and one of the most volatile periods of the civil rights movement, then-Attorney General Ramsey Clark controversially resisted intense political pressure to prosecute Black Power originator and antiwar activist Stokely Carmichael. Taken in isolation, this decision may seem courageous and praiseworthy, but when considered against the backdrop of Clark’s contemporaneous prosecution of an all-white group of similarly situated anti-draft leaders (the so-called Boston Five), his exercise of prosecutorial discretion becomes suspect. Specifically, the Boston Five were prosecuted in 1968 for conspiracy to aid and abet draft evasion, a charge for which the evidence …

Introduction: Dukes V. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Scholarly Works

This short introduction to Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. aims to explain the case and to set the table for what promises to be thought-provoking roundtable discussion hosted by Vanderbilt Law Review En Banc. Accordingly, what follows is a concise overview of the legal background and current debate over the two procedural issues that the Ninth Circuit explored in detail – how to evaluate Rule 23(a)(2)’s commonality when common questions heavily implicate the case’s merits, and when a Rule 23(b)(2) class can include relief apart from injunctive or declaratory relief without endangering due process.

The Supreme Court's Post-Racial Turn Towards A Zero-Sum Understanding Of Equality, Helen Norton

William & Mary Law Review

The Supreme Court—along with the rest of the country—has long divided over the question whether the United States has yet achieved a “post-racial” society in which race no longer matters in significant ways. How, if at all, this debate is resolved carries enormous implications for constitutional and statutory antidiscrimination law. Indeed, a post-racial discomfort with noticing and acting upon race supports a zero-sum approach to equality: if race no longer matters to the distribution of life opportunities, a decision maker’s concern for the disparities experienced by members of one racial group may be seen as inextricable from its intent to …

“For Any Reason”: Paper Promises To Protect Service Members, Tami Martin

Legislation and Policy Brief

In short, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) is the law that prohibits lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals from serving openly in the military. Despite the fact that the Obama Administration has yet to fulfill the campaign promise of ending DADT, many believe the question is more "when" than "if" it will be repealed. Much attention has focused on ending the policy, but it is also important to consider what might happen after repeal. This article briefly examines the history of DADT, major policies meant to protect service members from harassment they experience because of their actual or perceived sexual …

Help America Vote Act Enforcement, Tiana Butcher

Legislation and Policy Brief

Although the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) features extensive mandates, its enforcement provisions of are weaker than those found in previous federal election reform laws, including the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act. Activists argue this limited enforcement power is a failing of the Act. Congress may have chosen to adopt weak enforcement mechanisms due to political posturing, lack of funding, faulty technology, or lobbying by the states. Regardless of the reason behind this choice, stronger enforcement mechanisms in HAVA would, paradoxically, fail to encourage election reform or deter election reform altogether.

Electronic Communications Privacy Act And The Revolution In Cloud Computing : Hearing Before The Subcomm. On The Constitution, Civil Rights, And Civil Liberties Of The H. Comm. On The Judiciary, 111th Cong., Sept. 23, 2010 (Statement By Adjunct Professor Marc J. Zwillinger, Geo. U. L. Center), Marc J. Zwillinger

Testimony Before Congress

ECPA has functioned fairly well during its first 20 years in striking the right balance between law enforcement needs and the privacy expectation of U.S. citizens. But when it was initially passed in 1986, Congress recognized that the “law must advance with the technology to ensure the continued vitality of the fourth amendment.” Based on my experience as an ECPA practitioner for the past 13 years, I believe the time is ripe for another advancement. I hope you will consider these perspectives in crafting legislation that balances law enforcement needs and user privacy in a manner that reflects the reality …

Brief For Petitioner, Thompson V. North American Stainless, Lp, 562 U.S. 170 (2011) (No. 09-291), 2010 Wl 3501186, Eric Schnapper, David O'Brien Suetholz, Lisa S. Blatt

Court Briefs

QUESTIONS PRESENTED

Section 704(a) of Title VII forbids an employer from retaliating against an employee because he or she engaged in certain protected activity. The questions presented are:

(1) Does section 704(a) forbid an employer from retaliating for such activity by inflicting reprisals on a third party, such as a spouse, family member or fiance, who is closely associated with the employee who engaged in such protected activity?

(2) If so, may that prohibition be enforced in a civil action brought by the third party victim?