Law and Society Commons^™

Back To Bakke: Defining The Strict Scrutiny Test For Affirmative Action Policies Aimed At Achieving Diversity In The Classroom, Leslie Yalof Garfield

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article will identify the new strict scrutiny test, and will consider the reason for creating a separate definition of strict scrutiny for evaluating affirmative action policies that achieve diversity in the classroom. Part II of the Article will review constitutional challenges to affirmative action policies prior to Grutter and Gratz, and will discuss the split in the circuits that resulted from the Court's failure to endorse Justice Powell's definition of a compelling governmental interest in Bakke. Part III will provide an analysis of the Grutter and Gratz decisions, with a particular focus on each Court's discussion of the strict …

Attorney Disciplinary Procedure In Texas: Competing Interests And Philosophies 1988-2004 The Fourth Annual Symposium On Legal Malpractice And Professional Responsibility: Essay., Dawn Miller, Daniel A. Naranjo

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

Disguising Empire: Racialized Masculinity And The Civilizing Of Iraq, Nancy Ehrenreich

Cleveland State Law Review

I will argue here that the rhetoric used by the Bush administration (and the media) to sell U.S. military aggression to the American public has played upon the gender insecurities and racial biases of the population. To be more specific, it has reinforced a racialized national sense of masculinity by playing on the association of maleness with violent domination of people of color - domination seen as laudable because it is undertaken "for their own good." In so doing, it has also reinforced the message that the way for people of color in this country to become true "Americans" is …

Mapping A Materialist Latcrit Discourse On Racism , Reginald C. Oh

Cleveland State Law Review

This Essay will analyze the call for a return to a discourse on the material reality of racism, and offer two ways to develop a materialist LatCrit and Critical Race critique of dominant, inequality reinforcing legal narratives: by (1) critically analyzing the narrative structure of dominant legal narratives, and by (2) incorporating a critical geographical consciousness into LatCrit and Critical Race critique and discourse. This Essay contends that any critical discourse must explicitly recognize the multi-dimensional, multi-faceted, multi-causal reality of racism and racial subordination, and it must expose dominant legal narratives for obscuring and obfuscating that reality.

When Literature Becomes Law: An Example From Ancient Greece, Mark J. Sundahl

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The subject of this paper is the peculiar Athenian law, generally referred to as the Testamentary Law, which permitted a will to be invalidated if a jury determined that the testator composed the will while "under the influence of a woman" (in the original Greek, gunaiki peithomenos). While scholars have long argued that the progressive ideas of the archaic poets of ancient Greece inspired political change - such as the emergence of democracy in Athens - this paper makes an even stronger claim regarding the connection between law and literature in ancient Greece. This paper proposes that Solon, the famous …

Statutes Of Limitations: A Policy Analysis In The Context Of Reparations Litigation, Suzette M. Malveaux

Publications

This article discusses the underlying policy rationales for statutes of limitations and their exceptions, as demonstrated by Supreme Court precedents. This article explores limitations law in the context of a case brought by African-American survivors of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 who sought restitution from the local government for its participation in one of the worst race riots in American history, in violation of their constitutional and federal civil rights. Using the Tulsa case as an exemplar, this article analyzes the propriety of the case’s dismissal as time-barred, and contends that this outcome was unwarranted under precedents and failed …

Gideon In White/Gideon In Black: Race And Identity In Lawyering, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

Afterword - Outsider Citizenships And Multidimensional Borders: The Power And Danger Of Not Belonging, Pedro A. Malavet

UF Law Faculty Publications

In this closing for the LatCrit VIII symposium, I adopt a collective view of the articles, and attempt to develop how the themes discussed in them fit within LatCrit scholarship. I will then interrogate the future of our enterprise by discussing the danger of succumbing to the seduction of the real or perceived need "to reinvent the wheel," or at least to clothe ideas in overly-developed language. Last, the Conclusion discusses how LatCrit scholarship is both promoted and challenged by the articles published here. I further include some suggested institutional responses to the opportunities for mentoring and nurturing that I …

Race, Nation-Building And Legal Transculturation During The Haitian Unification Period (1822-1844): Towards A Dominican Perspective, Charles R. Venator Santiago

Cleveland State Law Review

This paper offers some preliminary reflections on the relationship between law, race, and nation building during the Haitian unification period. My contention is that, while the Haitian occupation can be described as a domination of Santo Domingo, it is also possible to discern some important ways in which Dominicans benefited from this relationship. More importantly, I suggest that there are some important moments where Dominicans participate in the Haitian nation building process. This paper also draws on a critical reading of Fernando Ortiz's notion of legal transculturation as articulated in his book, Cuban Counterpoint, to reflect on the multiple clashes …

Love And Architecture: Race, Nation, And Gender Performances Inside And Outside The State, Angela P. Harris

Cleveland State Law Review

In this essay, I will use the metaphor of "performance" to describe the complicated interplay of power and identity. Each of the essays in this Cluster, I suggest, is concerned with some facet of identity performance within the power fields of gender, race, and nation. Perry calls our attention to how skin color, though typically subsumed by "race" in legal discourse, is a resource for performing identity that in fact complicates our understanding of racial subordination. Nancy Ehrenreich and Nicholas Espiritu are concerned with how states mobilize individual and collective race and gender performances as a way of inciting and …

Changes In Gender Ideology Among Professional Women And Men In Cuba Today, Marta Nunez Sarmiento

Cleveland State Law Review

This presentation summarizes the reflections of what it means to be women and men in Cuba today, among a group of Havana professionals. I asked them to emphasize the influence in this process of women's employment and decision making among women, two citizen rights which have been strongly promoted in Cuba in the last forty years. I also asked them to think about the socialization processes, which took place in Cuba and which contributed to these changes. Therefore, this paper is divided into two main topics: First, changes in gender ideology among Cuban professional men and women under the influence …

Cities In (White) Flight: Space, Difference And Complexity In Latcrit Theory, Keith Aoki

Cleveland State Law Review

This essay introduces three articles by Reggie Oh, Aaron Monty and Julian Webb that share themes related to the idea of decentralization and decentering. This essay obliquely approached the three LatCrit pieces by first evoking James Blish's science fictional vision of "Cities in Flight" - cities enabled by anti-aging and antigravitation technology to depart from the face of the Earth and roam interstellar space, a picture of radical physical decentralization. The essay then moved on to consider three justifications and visions of decentralization from Robert Nozick, Frank Michelman and Iris Young articulating libertarian, deliberative communitarian and arguably, postmodern approaches to …

Empirical And Theoretical Perspectives From Social Science On Gay Marriage And Child Custody Issues, Walter R. Schumm

St. Thomas Law Review

Research on lesbigay parenting issues is reviewed with an in-depth focus on a few examples of past research and a review of the merits of social science research cited recently by the American Civil Liberties Union in support of gay parenting rights. Those who have reviewed the literature have come to startling different conclusions. Neither side has fully grasped some of the limitations of certain key research studies. Some errors are such that one might wonder if peer review procedures had somehow failed. An analysis of a recent paper on same-gender sexual abuse reveals mixed findings. It appears that a …

Lawrence, Lofton, And Reasoned Judgment: On Who Can Adopt And Why, Mark Strasser

St. Thomas Law Review

Recently, in Lofton v. Security of Department of Children & Family Services, the Eleventh Circuit upheld Florida's gay adoption ban. The opinion is important for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that it was issued after the United States Supreme Court had decided Lawrence v. Texas. The Lofton court's reading of Lawrence was so implausible that it would have been easy for the Supreme Court to have reversed Lofton, while nonetheless offering an analysis significantly narrower than Lawrence. Regrettably, the Supreme Court denied certiorari when the decision was appealed, so we will simply have to wait and …

Crawford V. Washington: The End Of Victimless Prosecution?, Andrew King-Ries

Seattle University Law Review

The article explores the Crawford decision in the context of victimless prosecutions. Part II discusses current trends in victimless domestic violence prosecution and the power and control dynamics of domestic violence relationships, including how these dynamics relate to, and create the need for, victimless prosecutions. Part III discusses the Crawford decision. Part IV explores possible interpretations of Crawford within the context of victimless domestic violence prosecutions. Part V explains why courts should interpret Crawford in a way that allows prosecutors to continue to prosecute batterers without a participating victim.

Voting Rights At A Crossroads: Return To The Past Or An Opportunity For The Future, Barbara Arnwine

Seattle University Law Review

This keynote address for the 2005 Symposium: Where's My Vote? Lessons Learned from Washington State's Gubernatorial Election was presented by Barbara Arnwine. The focus of the presentation was on "Voting Rights at a Crossroad: Return to the Past or an Opportunity for the Future?" To students who are on the career path to becoming practitioners of law, and to attorneys and law professors, no role is more important than enhancing democracy. Ms. Arnwine's speech addresses the topics of voting rights from a national perspective highlighting the most pressing challenges. In addressing this theme, four areas of voting rights are covered …

Note: Capping Noneconomic Damages In Medical Malpractice Suits Is Not The Panacea Of The “Medical Liability Crisis”, Melissa C. Gregory

William Mitchell Law Review

This note explores the history behind the rising costs of medical malpractice insurance rates and the responsive state legislative proposals to limit noneconomic damages. The current state of health care liability and the recent federal proposals that include caps on noneconomic damages are then discussed. This note analyzes the reasons why the federal government should not cap noneconomic damages, primarily because: (1) states are better able to regulate health care, (2) noneconomic damages are not the determinate cause of rising medical malpractice insurance rates, and (3) caps infringe on equal protection guarantees by limiting compensation of medical malpractice victims. This …

Note: The Legislature Should Clean Up Its Act—The Minnesota Citizens’ Personal Protection Act, A Dnr Technical Bill, And The Single-Subject And Title Clause Of The Minnesota Constitution, Melissa M. Milbert

William Mitchell Law Review

This note explores the Ramsey County District Court’s decision in Unity Church v. Minnesota recently affirmed by the Minnesota Court of Appeals. This note does not, however, debate the merits of Minnesota’s conceal-and-carry law. Part II traces the legislative path taken by both the natural resource and conceal-and-carry bills. Part II surveys the history of the single-subject and title clause of the Minnesota Constitution and the evolution of the Minnesota Supreme Court’s interpretation of the clause since its enactment. Part III summarizes the factual and procedural posture of the Unity Church decision. Part IV then contends that the legislature’s enactment …

Religious Lawyering's Second Wave, Russell G. Pearce, Amelia J. Uelmen

Faculty Scholarship

Since the mid-1990s, the "religious lawyering movement" has expanded dramatically, receiving greater attention within the academy and the bar. As the movement enters what we term its "second wave" of development, this essay begins with a look back to its "first wave" of path-breaking scholarship and its gradual shift toward more institutionalized structures and programs. It argues that the predominant characteristic of first-wave religious lawyering scholarship was to claim a space within the professional conversation for lawyers to bring religious values to bear on their work. The essay then predicts that in the second wave religious lawyering conversations and scholarship …

Why Lawyers Are Unhappy, Martin E.P. Seligman, Paul R. Verkuil, Terry H. Kang

Articles

[According to the authors of this article, the growing unhappiness of lawyers, particularly young lawyers, stems from three causes: (1) Lawyers are selected for their pessimism (or "prudence") and this generalizes to the rest of their lives; (2) Young associates hold jobs that are characterized by high pressure and low decision latitude, exactly the conditions that promote poor health and poor morale; and (3) American law is to some extent a zero-sum game, and negative emotions flow from zero-sum games....

This article has been shared with practitioners as well as academics. It grows out of faculty seminars held at the …

Is Hindsight 20-20? Reconsidering The Importance Of Pre-Constitutional Documents, Kirsten Matoy Carlson

Law Faculty Research Publications

Many constitutional orders, including the United States, have yet to determine the legal and political status of pre-constitutional documents written prior to the enactment of a final constitution. This article argues that pre constitutional documents should be critically analyzed by their respective constitutional communities. It maintains that pre-constitutional documents play a key role in constitutional orders by identifying conflicts that remain over time and contends that critical analysis of these documents facilitates deeper understandings of constitutional politics. It demonstrates how pre constitutional documents can be used as diagnostic tools for identifying and better understanding persistent constitutional tensions through a case …

Medical Code Blue Or Clue Light Special: Where Is The Market For Indigent Care, Peter J. Hammer

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

The Social Foundations Of Law, Martha Albertson Fineman

Faculty Articles

There are several important questions to ask both our politicians and ourselves as we seek to refine and further define an otherwise abstract commitment to substantive equality with which to replace our current formal version. As with many concepts of historic magnitude, some of the most significant questions to pose about equality have to do with how we should respond to evolutions in understanding and changes in aspiration for the term: ls a mere commitment to formal equality sufficient for a humane and modem state? How should the state respond to the fact that our society is increasingly one in …

For The Sake Of All Children: Opponents And Supporters Of Same-Sex Marriage Both Miss The Mark, Nancy Polikoff

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Brown V. Board Of Education, Footnote 11, And Multidisciplinarity, Michael Heise

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Death Sentence Rates And County Demographics: An Empirical Study, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The number of murders in a state largely determines the size of a state's death row. The more murders, the larger the death row. This fundamental relation yields surprising results, including the newsworthy finding that Texas's death sentencing rate is not unusually high. Recent state-level research also underscores the importance of race in the demography of death row. Death penalty research has long emphasized race's role, and with good reason--a racial hierarchy exists in death sentence rates. Black defendants who murder white victims receive death sentences at the highest rate; white defendants who murder white victims receive death sentences at …

National Culture In Post-National Societies, Ángel Oquendo

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Dispensing With The Public Interest Requirement In Private Causes Of Action Under The Washington Consumer Protection Act, Jonathan A. Mark

Seattle University Law Review

It has been more than eighteen years since the Washington Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in Hangman Ridge Training Stables v. Safeco Title Insurance Company. This was the final decision in a string of cases in which the court attempted to resolve problems arising from the application and interpretation of the right to a private cause of action under Washington's Consumer Protection Act ("CPA"). This Article explores the application of the public interest requirement since the decision in Hangman Ridge and considers whether the tests devised by the Hangman Ridge court to determine public interest are still …

Revenge Of Mullaney V. Wilbur: United States V. Booker And The Reassertion Of Judicial Limits On Legislative Power To Define Crimes, The, Ian Weinstein

Faculty Scholarship

This article offers a historically grounded account of the twists and turns in the Supreme Court's sentencing jurisprudence from the end of World War II to the Court's stunning rejection of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. The doctrinal shifts that have roiled this area of the law can best be understood as the Court's effort to respond to the changing political and social landscape of crime in America. In the mid 1970's, legislative activity in the criminal law was largely focused on Model Penal Code influenced recodification. In that era, the Supreme Court took power from an ascendant judiciary and gave …

Report Card: Grading The Country's Response To Columbine, Scott R. Simpson

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.