Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

Fielding A Team For The Fans: The Societal Consequences And Title Vii Implications Of Race-Considered Roster Construction In Professional Sport, N. Jeremi Duru

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Professional sports organizations' relationships with their players are, like other employer-employee relationships, subject to scrutiny under the antidiscrimination mandates embedded in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Professional sports organizations are, however, unique among employers in many respects. Most notably, unlike other employers, professional sports organizations attract avid supporters who identify deeply with the teams and their players. To the extent an organization racially discriminates, therefore, such discrimination creates the risk that fans will identify with the homogenous or racially disproportionate roster that results. The consequences of such race-based team identification are wide-reaching and potentially tragic. Through …

Reconsidering The Scope And Consequences Of Appellate Review In The Certification Decision Of Dukes V. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , Nicole Hitch

Cleveland State Law Review

This article will explore the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and their application in the granting or denial of certification in an employment discrimination class action. In doing so, this article will examine how the district court applied these rules in the Wal-Mart action, which resulted in the certification of the largest private class action suit in American history. Additionally, this article will consider the consequences of the Ninth Circuit's utilization of permissive and liberal standards and, alternatively, the consequences of incorporation of stricter standards from various other circuit courts and the possible result of denial of certification.

Transforming Discriminatory Corporate Cultures: This Is Not Just Women's Work, Cheryl L. Wade

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The Symposium on Women and the "New" Corporate Governance began with an opening address by Sheila Wellington, the President of Catalyst. "Don't change women," she said, "change corporations." I agree with Ms. Wellington, but I would go one step further by observing that companies will change only if men change. The overwhelming majority of the directors and officers who manage and govern large public companies in the United States are white men. Public companies will enjoy healthy relationships with their women employees only to the extent encouraged and facilitated by the men who control these corporations. But how does …

Against "Academic Deference": How Recent Developments In Employment Discrimination Law Undercut An Already Dubious Doctrine, Scott A. Moss

Publications

When the defendant in an employment case is a college or other institution of higher education, the plaintiff usually will face an "academic deference" argument. Citing the importance of their "academic freedom," defendants and sympathetic courts have asserted that federal courts should decline to "invade" higher education with "federal court supervision." Whether or not courts cite the "academic deference" doctrine expressly, they certainly have proven hostile to professors' claims of discrimination, dismissing as a matter of law claims that seemed quite strong, or at least solid enough to allow a factfinder to rule either way. Indeed, empirical evidence shows that …

Advanced Employment Retaliation Issues, William A. Herbert

Publications and Research

This paper presented at the American Bar Association 2005 Equal Employment Opportunity Committee Midwinter Meeting discusses three issues relating to retaliation claims in the private and public sectors: the use of union information demands with regard to potential retaliation claims; the anti-retaliation provisions contained in certain federal environmental laws and regulations; and the standards for establishing causation regarding an adverse personnel action in First Amendment retaliation claims by public employees.

The Limits Of Multiple Rights And Remedies: A Call For Revisiting The Law Of The Workplace, Ann C. Hodges

Law Faculty Publications

The IBM decision illustrates two major problems with current workplace regulation. First, there are two distinct but overlapping systems - the individual and the collective - which often collide. The result is, at best, an imperfect realization of rights under both systems, and perhaps more often, the sacrifice of rights under one to rights under the other. Second, the multitude of forums available for litigation results in multiple claims arising out of the same action, as well as tribunals deciding issues outside their expertise. After analyzing the IBM decision, I will consider the costs and benefits of the current regulatory …

The Doctrine Of Good Faith In Contract Law: A (Nearly) Empty Vessel?, Emily Houh

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Empty Vessel explores both the positive and normative questions of what the contractually implied obligation of good faith does and should require of contracting parties. The Article attempts to assess and evaluate the ways in which courts are currently employing the good faith doctrine in contract disputes, as part of a larger project whose goal is to re-conceive and reinvigorate the private law doctrine of good faith as one that might assist in effecting the public law norm of equality. Empty Vessel identifies two dominant theoretical approaches to how to define good faith, which I refer to as the fairness …

"Has The Millennium Yet Dawned?": A History Of Attitudes Toward Pregnant Workers In America, Courtni E. Molnar

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article will focus on what might be considered the "prehistory" of the PDA in an attempt to shed new light on the equality/difference debate. Beginning as early as the nineteenth century, pregnant workers have been forced into either the equality approach or the difference approach depending mostly on race and class. This Article will show that, at times, both approaches restrained the autonomy of women and even caused harm to individual women and society by contributing to the development of the stereotypes and social attitudes that continue to permit pregnancy discrimination today.

The Allure And Danger Of Practicing Law As Taxonomy, Marcia L. Mccormick

All Faculty Scholarship

In this article, I hope to contribute to the ongoing debate on how our society treats the problem of discrimination. Many scholars have criticized the types of antidiscrimination statutes we have enacted as well as the ways in which the courts have interpreted those laws. While I agree with many of these critiques, rather than tackle those very large issues at the outset, I focus on the test the courts currently use to evaluate the evidence to determine whether an inference can be made that discrimination has occurred. I argue that lawyers and courts have become so caught up in …

Discrimination In Our Midst: Law School's Potential Liability For Employment Practices, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

Studies and articles examining tenured, tenure-track and contract faculty in law schools have exposed the inequalities that women face when compared with their male counterparts. This article asks the legal academic community to consider these conditions in light of established Title VII doctrine which forbids discrimination because of sex. This article offers a hypothetical about the fictitious National Law School, whose labor relationships mimic those of many real law schools in a number of ways. Based on the facts in this hypothetical, the article explores different possible causes of action, either systemic or individual, that employees could reasonably win against …

Subjective Decisionmaking And Unconscious Discrimination, Melissa Hart

Publications

Unconscious bias is widely recognized as the most pervasive barrier to equal employment opportunity for minorities and women in the workplace today and yet many argue that federal laws prohibiting discrimination do not prohibit unconscious discrimination. This article argues that the law does in fact provide some redress for unconscious discrimination. Title VII may not be a perfect method for attacking unconscious bias, but it is a mistake to assume that it is without potential. The article challenges the assumption commonly held by judges that a finding of discrimination must be preceded by the belief that an employer is lying …

Introduction: The Enduring Power Of Collective Rights, In Labor Law Stories, Catherine L. Fisk, Laura J. Cooper

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law—State Employees Have Private Cause Of Action Against Employers Under Family And Medical Leave Act—Nevada Department Of Human Resources V. Hibbs, 538 U.S. 721 (2003)., Gabriel H. Teninbaum

ExpressO

The Eleventh Amendment of the United States Constitution provides that non-consenting states are not subject to suit in federal court. Congress may, however, abrogate the states’ sovereign immunity by enacting legislation to enforce the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment. In Nevada Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs, the Supreme Court of the United States considered whether Congress acted within its constitutional authority by abrogating sovereign immunity under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which allows private causes of action against state employers to enforce the FMLA’s family-leave provision. The Court held abrogation was proper under the FMLA and state …

Bilingualism And Equality: Title Vii Claims For Language Discrimination In The Workplace, James Leonard

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Linguistic diversity is a fact of contemporary American life. Nearly one in five Americans speak a language other than English in the home, and influxes of immigrants have been a constant feature of American history. The multiplicity of languages in American society has touched nearly all aspects of American culture, and specifically has added new and important challenges to the American workplace. Chief among these new concerns are the growing number of legal claims centered around language discrimination in the workplace. The common vehicle for these claims has been Title VII, and there is considerable support in the academic literature …

Making Up Women: Casinos, Cosmetics, And Title Vii, David B. Cruz

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other: Analogizing Ageism To Racism In Employment Discrimination Cases, Rhonda M. Reaves

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Intentional Job Discrimination-New Tools For Our Oldest Problem, Alfred W. Blumrosen, Ruth G. Blumrosen

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The roots of employment discrimination lie deep in our history. By the 18th century, race slavery was the underpinning of wealth in the southern colonies. Black slaves were considered property - subhumans who had no rights in themselves or their offspring. In 1765, the British imposed "stamp taxes" on the colonies; the colonies resisted. In 1766, Parliament claimed the power to govern the colonies in all matters, but by 1770 it had repealed almost all the taxes that offended the colonists. "Business as usual" returned to the relations between the colonies and Britain.

A New Image In The Looking Glass: Faculty Mentoring, Invitational Rhetoric, And The Second-Class Status Of Women In U.S. Academia, Carlo A. Pedrioli

Faculty Scholarship

This article maintains that because Title VII alone does not have the ability to further the progress women have made in academic hiring, retention, and promotion, looking to remedies in addition to Title VII will be advantageous in helping to improve the status of women in U.S. academia. The article suggests as an additional remedy the implementation of faculty mentoring opportunities for junior female faculty members. A key way of initiating and furthering such mentoring opportunities is a type of discourse called invitational rhetoric, which is “an invitation to understanding as a means to create...relationship[s] rooted in equality, immanent value, …

Exceeding Our Boundaries: Transnational Employment Law Practice And The Export Of American Lawyering Styles To The Global Worksite, Susan Bisom-Rapp

Faculty Scholarship

Until very recently, one almost never heard mention of international issues among labor and employment law practitioners in the United States. Conventional wisdom considers this practice area quintessentially local. Identifying a trend that unseats this taken-for-granted notion, the article details the birth of a new employment law sub-specialty: international labor and employment law. Some U.S. management attorneys, working with transnational legal teams comprised of lawyers from foreign firms, are beginning to coordinate multinational clients' employment law projects across multiple national jurisdictions. While the world's legal regimes that regulate labor markets are remarkably culturally specific, the formation of transnational networks of …

Employment Law: Desert Palace, Inc. V. Costa: Returning To Title Vii's Core Principles By Eliminating The Direct Evidence Requirement In Mixed-Motive Cases, Daniel P. Johnson

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is There A Place For Race As A Legal Concept, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

What does "race" mean? The word "race" is omnipresent in American social, political, and legal discourse. The concept of "race" is central to contemporary debate about affirmative action, racial profiling, hate crimes, health inequities, and many other issues. Nevertheless, the best research in genetics, medicine, and the social sciences reveals that the concept of "race" is elusive and has no reliable definition.

This article argues that "race" is an unnecessary and potentially pernicious concept. As evidenced by the history of slavery, segregation, the Holocaust, and other human tragedies, the idea of "race" can perpetuate prejudices and misconceptions and serve as …

Employment Protection For Domestic Violence Victims, Deborah A. Widiss, Wendy R. Weiser

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Functionality Or Formalism? Partners And Shareholders As "Employees" Under The Anti-Discrimination Laws, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

In Clackamas Gastroenterology Associates P.C. v. Wells, the United States Supreme Court established the standards for determining whether a shareholder in a professional corporation ("PC") is an "employee" as defined by Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ("ADA"). Characteristics the court saw as distinguishing partnerships are the profit sharing, contributions to capital, part ownership of partnership assets, and the right to share in management subject to agreement. Even if the partner's power is insufficient to avoid discrimination, courts should also consider whether the partner is more like an independent contractor in that he or she is …

Masculinities At Work, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

This article focuses on the study of masculinities, a body of theoretical and empirical work by sociologists, feminist theorists and organization management theorists. This work, much of which employment law scholars have ignored, studies the role of masculinities, which are often invisible, in creating structural barriers to the advancement of many women and some men at work. Masculinities comprise both a structure that reinforces the superiority of men over women and a series of practices, associated with masculine behavior, performed by men or women, that aid men to maintain their superior position over women. In their less visible form, masculinities …

In Search Of The Best Procedure For Enforcing Employment Discrimination Laws: A Comparative Analysis, Jean R. Sternlight

Scholarly Works

As our world effectively shrinks, many countries are beginning to reach a striking substantive consensus regarding the prohibition of employment discrimination. Yet, and in sharp contrast, nothing approaching consensus has yet emerged regarding the best procedural method with which to resolve individual claims of employment discrimination. Instead, while countries have struggled, individually, to devise processes that meet a variety of needs, none seems to be satisfied with its efforts. Litigation is slow, costly, and impersonal. Informal processes such as conciliation, mediation, arbitration, or administrative processes aim to be faster and cheaper, but may not result in adequate enforcement of discrimination …

Disparate Impact Theory In Employment Discrimination: What’S Griggs Still Good For? What Not?, Elaine W. Shoben

Scholarly Works

Is disparate impact a dead theory of employment discrimination? Definitely not. The theory itself has a more stable legal status than it did when the Supreme Court embraced it in its 1971 opinion Griggs v. Duke Power Co. But is it thriving in litigation? It appears to be neither thriving nor dead. It has become a relatively less vital tool, compared with theories of intentional discrimination. Despite the heroic effort of Congress to keep the theory from destruction by the Supreme Court through its express codification in 1991, disparate impact litigation is not making a major impact in this …

Reinstatement Claims Under The Family And Medical Leave Act Of 1993: Leaving Behind The Inter-Circuit Chaos And Instating A Suitable Proof Structure, Amy Stutzke

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The "Inexorable Zero", Bert I. Huang

Faculty Scholarship

[F]ine tuning of the statistics could not have obscured the glaring absence of minority [long-distance] drivers .... [T]he company's inability to rebut the inference of discrimination came not from a misuse of statistics but from "the inexorable zero."

The Supreme Court first uttered the phrase "inexorable zero" a quarter-century ago in International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States, a landmark Title VII case. Ever since, this enigmatic name for a rule of inference has echoed across legal argument about segregation, discrimination, and affirmative action. Justice O'Connor, for instance, cited the "inexorable zero" in a major sex discrimination decision upholding an …

The Role Of Workplace Culture Evidence In Hostile Workplace Environment Sexual Harassment Litigation: Does Title Vii Mean New Management Or Just Business As Usual?, Christopher Massaro

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Zero-Sum Game: Toward Title Vii Protection For Intergroup Solidarity, Noah D. Zatz

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.