Law and Race Commons^™

Child Abuse And Cannabis Use: How A Prima Facie Standard Mischaracterizes Parental Cannabis Consumption As Child Neglect, Jasmine Harris

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Eighth Amendment Power To Discriminate, Kathryn E. Miller

Articles

For the last half-century, Supreme Court doctrine has required that capital jurors consider facts and characteristics particular to individual defendants when determining their sentences. While liberal justices have long touted this individualized sentencing requirement as a safeguard against unfair death sentences, in practice the results have been disappointing. The expansive discretion that the requirement confers on overwhelmingly White juries has resulted in outcomes that are just as arbitrary and racially discriminatory as those that existed in the years before the temporary abolition of the death penalty in Furman v. Georgia.' After decades of attempting to eliminate the requirement, conservative justices …

State Intent Under International Law, Stephen Townley

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The question of legislative intent has long been a topic of intense scholarly focus in the United States. There has also been a recent uptick in discussion of executive branch intent with the filing of highprofile lawsuits predicated upon allegations of improper motives. However, there has been no corollary effort to unpack the concept of state intent at the international level, where it arises with respect to such varied questions as how to understand the scope of a state's consent, whether a state should be deemed to be negotiating in good faith, and whether a state has engaged in genocide. …

Addressing The Supreme Court’S ‘Constitutional Orphan’: Determining The Scope Of The Second Amendment In Public, Along With Its Need To Be Regulated, Eli Zlotowitz

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Nyc V. Airbnb: New York City's Attempt To Regulate Home-Sharing Platforms And Airbnb's Attempt To Fight Back, Moshe Goldblatt

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The note examines the legal battle between New York City (NYC) and Airbnb over the Homesharing Surveillance Ordinance, arguing that the ordinance violates constitutional rights and federal laws. It suggests that while NYC aims to regulate short-term rentals to address housing issues, the ordinance oversteps by compelling platforms to disclose private information without warrants, infringing on Fourth and First Amendment rights, and violating the Stored Communications Act. The note proposes a balanced approach allowing individuals to rent their homes while curbing commercial exploitation.

Children's Equality Rights: Every Child's Right To Develop To Their Full Capacity, Nancy E. Dowd

Cardozo Law Review

Children are born equal. Yet as early as eighteen months, hierarchies emerge among children. These hierarchies are not random butfall into patterns by race, gender, and class. They are not caused nor voluntarily chosen by children or their parents. The hierarchies grow, persist, and are made worse by systems and policies created by the state, perpetuating the position of the privileged and continuing the disadvantage of the subordinated. Children's equal right to develop to their capacity is severely undermined by policies and structures that hamper and block the development of some by creating barriers and challenges or failing to support …

Constitutional Diversity In New York's Specialized High Schools: The Shsat, The Discovery Program, And The Fourteenth Amendment, Corey Hirsch

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The New York Prosecutorial Conduct Commission And The Dawn Of A New Era Of Reform For Prosecutors, Clyde Rastetter

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

This Note discusses the history of the national dialogue regarding prosecutorial misconduct, analyzes recent state reforms, and proposes that New York's standing Brady orders and prosecutorial conduct commission provide the blueprint for ushering in a new era of prosecutorial accountability.

Where's The Beef: The Use Of Mediation To Resolve Disputes Between Rappers, Craig Epstein

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

The issues posed by rap feuds persist and remain prominent in the music industry and the news. In fact, rap feuds have received major media coverage in recent months, prompting major public confrontations between some of music's biggest stars. Therefore, this Note will endeavor to better understand the history and evolution of the genre of rap, and the movements and specific events that shaped its current adversarial character. The Note will also examine certain aspects of rap feuds and the ways in which they are waged that would indicate a potential to use mediation as a means to bring about …

Arguing The Algorithm: Pretrial Risk Assessment And The Zealous Defender, Julian Adler, Sarah Picard, Caitlin Flood

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This article examines the growing use of algorithmic pretrial risk assessment tools in the United States as a response to the systemic inequities of cash bail and mass incarceration. While proponents argue that these tools offer objective, data-driven alternatives to judicial discretion, critics highlight their potential to reinforce racial and economic disparities. Amid this contentious debate, the authors call attention to the underexplored role of public defenders in mitigating the harms—and maximizing the decarcerative potential—of risk assessment algorithms. Drawing on examples from New York and New Jersey, the article outlines four key strategies for defenders: demanding transparency in algorithm design, …

A Tangled Web: Can Arbitration Be The Answer To Resolving Manufactured Credit Event Disputes?, Adam Eisenbud

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

Derivatives are financial contracts whose value is derived from, or reliant upon, another asset. Perhaps the most popular derivatives for retail investors are stock options, whose value is derived from the price of an underlying equity. In recent years, financial institutions have developed several innovative derivative products. These products are typically born out of an unmet need in the financial marketplace. Credit derivatives, for example, were created in order to let financial clients mitigate credit risk. A wellknown type of credit derivative is the credit default swap ("CDS"), a privately held, negotiable bilateral contract that allows a lender to transfer …

Gatekeeping The Profession, Christopher Williams

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article argues that the U.S. model of legal education functions as a racial gatekeeper, perpetuating inequality by adopting and exacerbating societal prejudices. It highlights how structural mechanisms within legal education, such as standardized testing, admission processes, and socialization, disproportionately exclude and marginalize students of color, particularly black students, mirroring the experiences of Dalits in India's legal education system. The author introduces the concept of "adoptive prejudice," where legal education systems adapt and embed societal hierarchies, leading to systemic exclusion and disparity.

Climate Of Fear: Admission Of Prior Bad Acts To Establish Coercion In Human Trafficking Cases, Masha Simonova

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article argues that evidence of a defendant's prior bad acts, such as gang membership or violent behavior, should be admissible in human trafficking cases to establish coercion. This evidence is crucial for demonstrating the "climate of fear" created by traffickers, which is central to proving coercion under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). The author contends that such evidence is not only intrinsic to the crime but also admissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b) for permissible purposes, such as proving intent, knowledge, or modus operandi.

A Judge's Attempt At Sentencing Consistency After Booker: Judge Jack B. Weinstein's Guidelines For Sentencing, Carolin E. Guentert, Ryan H. Gerber

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Are Police Obsolete? Breaking Cycles Of Violence Through Abolition Democracy, V. Noah Gimbel, Craig Muhammad

Cardozo Law Review

On February 5, 2018, Baltimore activists organized a successful "cease-fire weekend," during which no one was killed-and the cops were not to thank. Indeed, as community anti-violence organizers worked to cool hot feuds in order to prove that endless violence was not their destiny, the Baltimore Police Department was sinking ever-deeper into perhaps the most shocking police corruption scandal of the twenty-first century.

The stark contrast between ordinary city residents risking their safety to fight against violence in their community and a corrupt police force committing and propagating acts of violence in the microcosmic streets of Baltimore raises what may …

At Least Some Rights The White Man Was Bound To Respect: Bland V. Beverly And A Contract For Freedom In The Age Of Slavery, H. Robert Baker

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

By law in Maryland, slaves could not enter into legally binding contracts. Nonetheless, in 1833 Beverly Dowling struck an agreement with his owner, Sophia Bland, for his freedom in exchange for $200. Dowling paid $173 towards his end of the agreement before being arrested as a runaway and sold to a slave trader. Beverly Dowling petitioned the Baltimore city court for his freedom, and a jury found that he was free because he had, in the process of raising the money to pay his owner, traveled to the state of New York to work. I survey the law of manumission …

Pretext And Justification: Republicanism, Policing, And Race, Ekow N. Yankah

Cardozo Law Review

On April 4, 2015, Police Officer Michael Slager gunned down Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina with a cool that resembled target practice. Scott's name joined a heartbreaking list of men of color killed by unjustified police violence. The video of the incident also broadcast to the world the spectacular violence always lurking beneath the surface of daily interactions between police and men of color.

The "Black Lives Matter" movement has fiercely insisted Scott's death not be viewed as an isolated incident but understood as woven into the fabric of American policing. American policing harms individual people of color, …

Rigor And Relationships: The Positive Case For Integration In Schools And Neighborhoods, Rachel D. Godsil

Cardozo Law Review

This Essay first explores the current conditions of schools and neighborhoods and the impediments to achieving successful integration in schools- implicit bias, racial anxiety, and stereotype threat. Second, the Essay then identifies the strategies that are being employed in some schools to overcome these impediments and create quality schools that educate all students in a just and effective manner. Finally, the Essay explains how integrated neighborhoods would be the most effective long-term solution to the stereotyping and biases that underlie racial injustices across the board.

The Fair Housing Act At Fifty: Time For A Change, Elizabeth Julian

Cardozo Law Review

In order to put my views in this Article in context, I am going to briefly reference the experience upon which I base my comments. I am a civil rights lawyer. I filed my first systemic housing discrimination lawsuit in 1980 and litigated cases against HUD, cities, and local housing agencies through the 1980s up until I left private practice in 1993 to join the Clinton administration at HUD. For the next seven years, I looked at things from the inside, first as Deputy General Counsel for HUD's Civil Rights and Litigation office, and then as Assistant Secretary for its …

A Flood-Not A Ripple-Of Harm: Proximate Cause Under The Fair Housing Act, Justin P. Steil, Daniel Traficonte

Cardozo Law Review

Over the past decade, several city governments across the country have filed suits against banks pursuant to the Fair Housing Act seeking redress for municipal damages caused by the banks' discriminatory lending practices. Following the ruling in Bank of America Corp. v. City of Miami, lower courts are now confronting the question of where to "draw the line" of proximate causation under the Fair Housing Act, and specifically whether the harms experienced by cities as a result of banks' discriminatory lending meet the requirements of proximate causation. In suggesting a direction for lower courts, the Court in City of …

A Review Of The Wrongful Convictions Reader: A Comprehensive Resource For Students, Faculty, And Practitioners, Stephanie Roberts Hartung

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

Professor Stephanie Roberts Hartung reviews The Wrongful Convictions Reader, a 2019 book by Russell D. Covey and Valena E. Beety.

Long Term Effects Of Involvement In The Criminal Justice System: Mitigating Collateral Consequences & Tackling Voter Disenfranchisement, Symposium Session 2, Sean Morales-Doyle, Anthony Posada, Sebastian Solomon

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Long Live The Death Penalty? One Progressive's State's Experience, Brendan Williams

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Prosecuting Chinese "Spies": An Empirical Analysis Of The Economic Espionage Act, Andrew Chongseh Kim

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Guantánamo To Syria: The Extraterritorial Constitution In The Age Of "Extreme Vetting", Shawn E. Fields

Cardozo Law Review

This Article examines for the first time in scholarly literature whether and to what extent the Constitution applies extraterritorially to immigrants abroad. In particular, it explores whether non-detained immigrants and refugees outside the territorial boundaries of the United States can claim constitutional protection to challenge immigration policies and orders. The Supreme Court's recent willingness to reconsider the limits of the political branches' "plenary power" over immigration law and policy, coupled with the Court's recent extension of the Constitution to certain classes of extraterritorial noncitizens, suggests that a future role may exist for extraterritorial jurisprudence to inform constitutional immigration law. Using …

Rape In Context: Lessons For The United States From The International Criminal Court, Caroline Davidson

Cardozo Law Review

The law of rape is getting a rewrite. Domestically and internationally, major efforts are underway to reform rape laws that have failed to live up to their promises of seeking justice for victims and deterring future sexual violence. The cutting edge of international criminal law on rape eschews inquiries into consent and instead embraces an examination of coercion or a coercive environment. By contrast, in the United States, rape reform discussions typically center on consent. The American Law Institute's proposed overhaul of the Model Penal Code's provision on sexual assault carves out a middle ground and introduces, in addition to …

Liberal Constitutionalism And Economic Inequality, Rosalind Dixon, Julie Suk

Articles

Economic inequality is rising in democracies across the world and poses a clear threat to both the stability and legitimacy of liberal constitutional models. Can liberal constitutionalism respond to this threat? Or are there inherent limits to the liberal model that prevent an effective response? This Essay explores these questions by surveying the range of possible structural and rights-based constitutional responses to economic inequality, as well as possible obstacles to these responsesincluding problems of definition, leveling up versus down, unintended or counterproductive consequences, and institutional path dependence.

Two Shades Of Brown: The Failure Of Desegregation In America; Why It Is Irremediable (And A Modest Proposal), James M. Mcgoldrick Jr.

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article argues that the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education has been undermined by the Supreme Court's gradualist approach and distinctions between de jure and de facto segregation, leading to persistent school segregation. The author contends that judicial remedies have proven insufficient due to legal constraints, such as the de jure requirement and strict scrutiny of race-based remedies. To address these failures, the article proposes a legislative solution, "LEAP" (Learning Equality for All Persons), a federal spending program to incentivize school integration and promote educational equality.

Biased Damages Awards: Gender And Race Discrimination In Tort Trials, Goran Dominioni

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

Current U.S. tort law incentivizes potential tortfeasors to target members of underprivileged social groups by using gender and race-based statistical tables life expectancy; work-life expectancy and average wage) to award damages. Legal scholars have long criticized this practice from the point of view of distributive justice but supported it on welfarist grounds. Recent research in law and economics has however cast doubts on the efficiency of this practice. On this basis, some propose abandoning it in favor of gender and race neutral tables. In this article, I contribute to this debate by analyzing from a behavioral law and economics perspective …

The Violence Against Women Act, Implicit Bias, And Judicial Training, Lorena Espino-Piepp

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) must be amended to include implicit bias training for Family Court judges and staff to address the systemic barriers faced by undocumented Latina immigrant women in accessing justice. These women often face compounded discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and immigration status, which undermines their ability to obtain immigration relief through VAWA protections. The author contends that without such training, the judicial system perpetuates inequities, as judges and court personnel rely on stereotypes that disproportionately harm women of color.