Law and Race Commons^™

From Downes To Dobbs: Why Stare Decisis Should Not Stop The Court From Overturning The Territorial Incorporation Doctrine, Gino Piccinini

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

An Argument For A Right To Education For Undocumented Youth In Light Of Daca’S Uncertain Future, Minnie Blackman

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

Undocumented youth are facing increasingly difficult circumstances in which to integrate into U.S. society both socially and economically. A primary reason for this phenomenon is the current antagonistic sentiments surrounding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. These sentiments have created a lack of trust in this program, with fewer undocumented youth applying for DACA status, which would allow many of them to apply to public colleges and universities at in-state tuition rates. Previous research has implied that state laws have the potential to create a property interest in education, and, as such, it must be protected from arbitrary …

Admissions Essays After Sffa, Sonja Starr

Indiana Law Journal

The Supreme Court concluded its 2023 decision barring affirmative action in university admissions with a qualification: Although they may not give weight to “race qua race,” universities may consider individual applicants’ discussion of race-related life experience that bears on their strengths and potential. This “essay carveout” provides a potential path forward for universities (and other entities to which the affirmative action ban may eventually apply). But the Court also warned against using it to enact “indirect” affirmative action, and legal advocates of colorblindness stand poised to challenge any use of essays that appears to stray over this line. So where …

Seeking Safety And Losing The Self: Affirmative Action Bans And The Whitening Of Mexican American Identity, Bella Bennett

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Rectifying The Rome Statute And Draft Articles On Prevention And Punishment Of Crimes Against Humanity To Include The Slave Trade, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

Articles

The slave trade is commonly misperceived as a historical crime. Yet, the scourge of the slave trade is present throughout the world today. Combatting these ongoing atrocity crimes is essential to ensure that human rights are upheld by the international community. The crime of the slave trade fills an impunity gap, especially in light of recentharms perpetuated by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) against the Yazidi in Iraq. Revitalization of the conceptualization of the slave trade as a crime under international law might ensure greater enforcement of one of the oldest core international crimes. Critical proposed amendments …

Healing Communities With Police Divestment: Seeking Abolition Through Transformative Reform And Community-Government Collaboration, Jessica E. Gillson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Concerns about the efficacy and sustainability of the U.S. carceral system have persisted throughout the country’s history, recently fueling renewed activism and bipartisan calls for reform. However, proposed solutions remain divisive. This thesis first defines the current status of our prison systems, then explores collaborative alternatives to incarceration and policing that support communities and break cycles of incarceration.

Focusing on partnerships among local governments, community organizations, justice-involved individuals, and law enforcement, this study examines holistic approaches to crime prevention, reentry, and reintegration. Using an interdisciplinary framework incorporating restorative justice, community resilience, and systems theory, it investigates how community-based strategies can …

From Likes To Legislation: How The Internet Has Facilitated Hate Speech, Anti-Dei Discourse And Policy, And Threatens Our Democracy, Carmen Lynn Benavides-Garb

Undergraduate Scholarship

I argue that the way hate speech, and Anti-DEI rhetoric spreads online, through social media and algorithms, has impacted real-world Anti-DEI policies, attitudes, and overall backlash. In this essay I will begin by discussing the four themes found in my literature review, 1) Online Hate Speech, 2) Social Media and Algorithms, 3) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and 4) Anti-DEI Movements. From there, I will discuss the historical background of DEI movements in America to provide context about what makes this moment in history unique. I will then discuss the role of the Trump Presidency in relation to Anti-DEI work. …

Limits On Traffic Stops: Saving Lives By Constraining Police Authority, Jeannine Bell, Stephen Rushin

Faculty Publications & Other Works

This Article considers how policymakers can more effectively constrain police authority during traffic stops to reduce racial disparities and prevent unnecessary violence.

We begin by chronicling the power granted to police officers during traffic enforcement and the harms generated by this discretionary power. Under existing criminal procedure, police officers have considerable authority to stop motorists for any technical violation of the traffic code, even if the stated justification is a pretext for investigating an unrelated hunch or suspicion. After stopping a motorist, existing doctrine gives police the ability to question them, search their vehicles under numerous circumstances, arrest drivers for …

The Color Of Carbon: Racial Capitalism, Climate Change, And Law, Sumudu Atapattu, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Climate change is a direct consequence of capitalism’s drive to maximize profits through the unbridled extraction of wealth from humans and nature, aided and abetted at every turn by law. In its voracious demand for cheap labor, cheap raw materials, and cheap waste disposal, capitalism has created a treadmill of fossil fuel–dependent production and consumption that has triggered a planetary emergency. It has also produced extreme economic inequality—a racialized division of wealth grounded in colonialism that enables the ultrarich to capture the spoils of the capitalist global economy while billions of people continue to live in extreme poverty. The articles …

Beyond A Boundary Of Systemic Anti-Black Racism In The Workplace In Canada, Adelle Blackett

Dalhousie Law Journal

In this lecture, I will, however, focus on one of the legacies of slavery, that is, the largely untold story of racial segregation in the world of work in Canada. We have come so effectively, and rightly, to focus on the effects of discrimination, that we may have inadvertently walked past the history. Reclaiming this history will comprise the first part of my talk.

The second part of my talk will reference the emergence of the duty of fair representation. I will seek to illustrate the weight of the erasure of anti-Black racism through this duty. In other words, far …

War Courts: Fdr, National Security, And The War On Terrorism, Harvey Gee

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

Enforced Colorblindness, Goldburn P. Maynard Jr.

Washington and Lee Law Review

The time for race consciousness is over, and the era of enforced colorblindness is upon us. The dawn of this new age is troubling because it closes the door on effective strategies to achieve racial justice, including efforts to grant federal reparations. This Article analyzes the areas in which courts have invalidated race-conscious measures, with a particular focus on recent racial equity efforts by the Biden Administration. Rather than treating the loss of race consciousness exclusively as a loss to the movement for equality, this Article argues for a silver-lining approach. While court-led efforts to remedy the effects of slavery …

Booze, Bars, And Bias: Anti-Blackness In Liquor Licensing Enforcement, Angela E. Addae

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Article explores the disharmonious and disturbing influence of race in the enforcement of liquor licenses. Across the length and breadth of this nation, attentive Black revelers bear witness to an all-too-familiar trend signified by the disproportionately frequent closures of Black entertainment businesses. This Article argues that the punitive disposition toward Black entertainment businesses is not just a contemporary phenomenon; rather, it is a set of practices rooted in centuries of exclusion and regulatory abuse.

Over the past two centuries, state liquor licensing agencies have emerged as contentious battlegrounds where legal, social, and economic factors converge—often to the detriment of …

The Resurgence Of Massive Resistance, Danielle Wingfield

Washington and Lee Law Review

“Massive Resistance” to equal access to good quality public education is resurging across the nation. First employed by segregationists in Virginia, Massive Resistance spread across the South to oppose school desegregation. This extreme push to suppress equitable education occurred most notably post-Brown. Although 2024 marked Brown’s seventieth anniversary, Massive Resistance is again surging. In fact, the last few years have witnessed increasing resistance to publicly funded education. Some areas where anti-public education resistance strategies have manifested include political rhetoric around Critical Race Theory, library censorship, and renewed parental rights debates.

To devise the most effective response to …

Sacrifice Zone: Conciliating Racial Discrimination In Louisiana's "Cancer Alley" Under The International Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Racial Discrimination, Ellen Buerk

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

In June 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) abandoned its civil rights investigation into racially discriminatory practices by Louisiana state agencies in Cancer Alley. It did so after issuing initial findings which indicated those agencies had operated in a racially discriminatory manner, subjecting predominately Black communities to adverse health outcomes resulting from air pollution. This action is one in a long line of violations by the United States of its obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) in Cancer Alley. In light of U.S. inaction in Cancer Alley, other parties to ICERD …

Operationalizing A Pedagogy Of Antiracism In Legal Education, Doron Samuel-Siegel

Law Faculty Publications

To reckon with structural racism in legal education, legal educators collectively must do much more than we have done thus far. A true reckoning will occur only once we provide an education that ensures racially minoritized students can learn free of the harms of traditional legal education, and that all students are equipped to contribute to the dismantlement of structural racism in the law and legal profession. A pedagogy that centers these two goals counteracts the effects of structural racism while also creating conditions for its dismantlement, making it a pedagogy of antiracism.

This article is about moving toward the …

The Hidden Verdict: Measuring Implicit Bias In Juror Decision-Making, Gina Dudley

Psychology | Senior Theses

This experiment examines the influence of implicit bias awareness on juror decision-making in cases involving Hispanic defendants. Explicitly, it tests three hypotheses: (1) bias-educated jurors will demonstrate lower conviction rates for Hispanic defendants, (2) these jurors will report higher confidence in their verdicts, and (3) they will show greater awareness of how their previous experiences influence their decision-making. This experiment uses a mock jury paradigm to investigate whether bias awareness interventions affect verdict decisions and juror confidence levels in cases with Hispanic defendants. Ninety participants were randomly assigned to receive or not receive implicit bias education before reviewing a case …

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Lecture January 24, 2025, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Addressing Perceived Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Attorney Discipline, Susan Saab Fortney, Heather Zirke

Faculty Scholarship

Perceived racial and ethnic disparities in attorney discipline threaten public confidence in the legal profession’s fairness and equity. This Article explores whether lawyers of color are subject to a disproportionate number of disciplinary actions. It draws on studies that reveal patterns of disparate outcomes tied to factors such as practice setting, representation during proceedings, and decision-maker bias. The authors assess how systemic issues may contribute to these disparities and highlights gaps in research and transparency. To address these challenges, the Article recommends a multi-faceted approach. This includes better collection and analysis of demographic data, procedural reforms to ensure equitable treatment, …

From Race-Conscious To Race-Neutral: The Next Generation Of Litigation Over Selective Admissions, Rachel F. Moran

Faculty Scholarship

In the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, there have been fierce debates over the meaning of colorblindness in the higher education admissions process. Setting the stage for these controversies are recent lawsuits challenging changes to admissions policies at selective public high schools. In these cases, the plaintiffs allege that although school officials relied on facially race-neutral criteria, their actions were motivated by a desire to improve the representation of Black and Latino students. According to the complaints, these revised policies are an impermissible form …

"Arbitration In Name Only": A Race Claims Mismatch, Michael Z. Green

Faculty Scholarship

With arbitration's meteoric rise as a tool in resolving statutory employment discrimination matters beginning in the 1990s, concerns about lack of employee bargaining power received little consideration when raised in court challenges to the enforcement of employer-mandated agreements to arbitrate those claims. Only in rare circumstances, when an employer appeared to go to extremes in using its overwhelming bargaining power to implement an arbitration process so clearly unfair would a court find the agreement created an unfair "arbitration in name only" that should not be enforced. 

Employers have become savvier in how they require employees to agree to resolve discrimination …

The Kincare Craze In Child Protection: Romanticism, Subterfuge, And Racial Separatism, James G. Dwyer

FIU Law Review

A deluge of federal and state legislation in recent years aims to channel maltreated children removed from parents’ custody into kin placements, responding to advocates for parents who claim this is categorically better for children than entering or remaining in foster care with biologically unrelated caregivers. The claim has romantic appeal, sufficient to beguile legislators. But the research on outcomes for children in different post-removal placements does not support it. In reality, motivations other than child welfare underlie the advocacy for this legislation. The core aim is to evade federal child-welfare mandates adopted in the 1990s and long condemned by …

Just Research And Citation, Amanda Levendowski

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Contemporary research and citation practices are often unjust. Data cartels like Westlaw and Lexis have parent companies that prioritize profits in ways that threaten immigrants. Even before the Dobbs decision, search engines could be deployed to weaponize data against pregnant people seeking reproductive care. Women and people of color have been legal scholars for more than a century but, as many scholars have observed, colleagues consistently under-cite, mis-cite or appropriate those scholars’ work with minimal recourse. Citation materials are often inaccessible to disabled people, poor people, or the public due to poor design, paywalls, or unpreserved content that falls prey …

Never Again: Zionism And The Jewess, Rona Kaufman

FIU Law Review

The State of Israel was established, in part, to ensure that Jews would never again be killed with impunity. More specifically, the State of Israel was established to ensure that never again would Jewish women and girls be systematically raped, assaulted, violated, and mutilated in a pogrom-like attack against the Jewish people. It is well known that the sweep of history connects Jews with the land of Israel from ancient times to today and serves as an important foundation for political Zionism. Less understood is that the atrocities against Jewish women and girls, committed over thousands of years and across …

How To Teach A Course On Land Use And Anti-Jewish Discrimination, Michael Lewyn

FIU Law Review

In 2022, I was asked to teach a one-week mini-course within a broader course on “Structural Barriers and the Pursuit of Equity,” a course focusing on various forms of structural discrimination The course is typically taught by over a dozen professors from various parts of Touro University, each of whom teaches for a week on a different topic. I chose to teach on issues related to land use law (because my scholarship focuses on that area) and in particular how land use law has been used by and against traditionally observant Jews (because that is the religious tradition I am …

Lessons For The Trump Administration From The Biden U.S. National Strategy To Counter Antisemitism, Lili Levi

FIU Law Review

In May 2023, the Biden Administration issued the first-ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism with a goal of hindering further normalization of antisemitism by increasing public awareness of antisemitism and highlighting positive Jewish contributions to America. Recent events, however, particularly the social and political upheaval over protests of the war in Gaza, have led to public contestation over Israel, increased instances of antisemitism, and the partisan politicization of Jewish issues. All this has raised questions about whether the National Strategy's assumptions about public attitudes, the viability of antisemitism awareness initiatives, and the possibility of whole-of-society agreement on countering antisemitism …

Dei And Antisemitism: Bred In The Bone, Suzanna Sherry

FIU Law Review

The article explains why no one should have been surprised by the antisemitism that exploded on college campuses after October 7, 2023. The article demonstrates that the worldview espoused by the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) movement -- and its cousins, antiracism and wokeness -- is inherently and inevitably antisemitic. The antisemitism "bred in the bone" of DEI was bound to come to the surface eventually, and it did.

Exploring The Intersectionality Of Antisemitism And The Law: A Case Study Of The Crown Heights Riots And Aftermath, Stephen Sussman, Carole Huberman

FIU Law Review

Antisemitism does not exist in isolation; it often intersects with other forms of discrimination and prejudice. Examining these intersections is crucial to understanding the broader dynamics of discrimination and developing effective strategies. Antisemitism and racism often intersect in complex ways. Historical examples include the portrayal of Jews as racially inferior or “other” during periods of heightened racial tension. This intersection has implications for policies related to hate crimes, racial profiling, and equal protection under the law. This research examines the complex interplay between antisemitism and the legal system, using the Crown Heights Riots of 1991 as a focal point. The …

Masthead

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

No abstract provided.

Targeted And Ticketed: Student Ticketing And The Perpetuation Of The School-To- Prison Pipeline, Jasmine Richardson-Rushin, Angelica Jimenez, Gwendolyn Walker, Hannah Benton Eidsath

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

The National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) is a non-profit organization working to end the harms of the juvenile, municipal and criminal legal systems, including by decriminalizing normal adolescent behavior, ending financial consequences, and improving children’s access to adequate developmentally appropriate treatment. Our work prioritizes eradicating the school-to-prison pipeline, and abolishing harmful fines, fees and economic sanctions through the Debt Free Justice Campaign (DFJ).

In school districts across the nation, students receive fees and fines as consequences for school-based behavior. Students are policed and ticketed for age-appropriate behaviors and disciplinary matters such as littering, truancy, and underage drinking and smoking. …