Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Digital Gaze And Constitutional Democracy At 250, Catherine Powell

Fordham Law Review

The panopticon of digital surveillance undermines identity formation and realization of our authentic selves. This Essay offers a new insight by conceptualizing alienation from genuine selfhood as a form of “double consciousness.” W.E.B. Du Bois formulated the notion of double consciousness—the dual awareness inherent in negotiating between a self-defined identity and an externally imposed one. Just as Du Bois speaks of “double consciousness” for African Americans, the ever-present digital gaze to which we are now all subject—regardless of our race—creates a similar duality. I call this duality “online double consciousness,” which is compounded for people of color and other historically …

Animus And Heightened Scrutiny: A Way Out Of The ‘Dead End’, Steve Sanders

Texas A&M Law Review

Laws or government actions that are grounded in animus rather than proper public purposes violate the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection. This principle arises from four canonical cases decided by the Supreme Court between 1973 and 2013. These cases remain good law. Yet in the past decade the Roberts Court has given scant attention to the animus doctrine, and lower courts appear to be in a muddle about how to use it. As a result, the animus doctrine has reached what one prominent scholar calls a “dead end.” The animus cases are often described as exhibiting a more skeptical, more …

Bending The Arc: The Long Fight For, Over, And With Justice, Jon Hanson, Lica Porcile, Dean A. Strang

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Voices Of Resistance: The People, The Press, And The Law, Robert S. Chang, Erica Lomeli Corcoran, Memo Torres, Gary Williams, Isais Benavides, Julie Morales, Astrid Hernandez

Loyola Interdisciplinary Journal of Public Interest Law

Loyola Public Interest Palooza Panel Transcription

Wednesday, March 25, 2026

Bad Hombre, Sergio Teran

Loyola Interdisciplinary Journal of Public Interest Law

In 2017, I created a piece intended to highlight the divisive rhetoric used by the then 45th U.S. President to describe people of color. The piece serves as a warning of the potential consequences of such language.

"Bad Hombre" was inspired by the dialogue and language Donald Trump used when referring to Mexican Americans and immigrants during the early stages of his 2016 presidential campaign. I took some of his actual phrasing and entered it into Google. The resulting imagery became the inspiration for the tone and composition of my piece. Some of the phrases I incorporated include: #BadHombre #ExtremeVetting …

Hollywood 2020, Jason Kartez

Loyola Interdisciplinary Journal of Public Interest Law

During the pandemic, I spent a lot of time documenting the protests in Los Angeles through drawing and writing in a diary. This image is a recreation from a news image and captures some of the protests I was in during 2020. It is relevant because we need to keep our right to free speech and to nonviolent civil dissidence. When I initially wrote this statement, it was for an art submission for Judy Baca’s nonprofit, the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), where the piece was put on the wall outside.

Back when I submitted this, I wrote …

Jimmy, Ash, Grandmother, And Monica, Bryan Ida

Loyola Interdisciplinary Journal of Public Interest Law

For the past eight years, I have been engaged in “con.Text,” a body of work that examines historic events in the context of the current social and political climate and raises awareness of past abuses and injustices by a government against a targeted minority group.

I research and reference text from government documents, declarations, and other forms of institutional communication, and use these words as my mark to render each person with the very words that affects them. Using words as building blocks in the formation of the image does not define the subject by that language; instead, the words …

I Can't Breathe, Sarah S. Bae

Loyola Interdisciplinary Journal of Public Interest Law

I took this photograph during the George Floyd protest on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall in 2020. I wanted to capture more than a historic moment and hold onto the emotional gravity that existed in the space between bodies, voices, and institutions. There was a sense of stillness to witnessing our shared humanity, in seeing what compelled people to show up despite fear, social distancing, and uncertainty.

When The Modern Public Square Goes Private: The Supreme Court's Struggle Over Social Media As The New First Amendment Frontier, Jason M. Shepard, Kathleen Bartzen Culver

Loyola Interdisciplinary Journal of Public Interest Law

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2024 decisions in Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, the meaning of free expression in the digital age is being rewritten. Our research analyzes how the Court, advocates, and amici invoked decades of First Amendment and media law precedent to define whether social media platforms act as speakers with editorial rights or as common carriers open to regulation. Relevant doctrines include First Amendment implications of medium-specific regulations, common carrier definitions, speaker autonomy, editorial discretion, expressive conduct, intermediate and strict scrutiny analysis, content-based regulations, viewpoint neutrality, and public forum analysis. Drawing on an …

Chin Music: Chilling Legal Advocacy Through Executive Orders Attacking Law Firms, Robert S. Chang

Loyola Interdisciplinary Journal of Public Interest Law

Introduction to amicus brief challenging executive orders targeting law firms.

The amicus brief itself is reproduced as filed with the Supreme Court of the United States.

Legal Scapegoating Of Transgender People, Democratic Vulnerability, And The Problem Of Judicial Blinders, Suzanne B. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past decade, lawmakers have proposed an extraordinary number of restrictions on transgender people across nearly every area of public and private life — bathrooms, health care, athletics, education, identity documents, military service, prisons, and more. This Article argues that these measures are best understood as legal scapegoating, meaning the use of law to galvanize public discomfort and hostility toward a targeted group. While demagogic rhetoric can also galvanize those reactions, the concrete restrictions of a legal scapegoating effort raise two further risks, one for democratic governance and the other for judicial review. First, legal scapegoating normalizes government’s use …

How Did We Get Here?, Michael J. Klarman

Fordham Law Review

President Donald J. Trump’s second administration has transgressed basic rules and norms of democracy and the rule of law in myriad ways. Below, I have laid out my own top ten list of transgressions, though others could surely have made out a good case for their own “favorites.” It would not be difficult to come up with a longer list, yet the purpose of my Levine Lecture is less to describe where we are than to explain how we got here. Following an enumeration of Trump administration transgressions, my lecture turns to two questions. First, why have traditional checks on …

The Alien Enemies Act Of 1798, Andrew Kent

Fordham Law Review

For the first time since World War II—and for the first time ever outside a formally declared war—an American president has invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to detain and deport noncitizens. Enacted during the Quasi-War with France, the Act’s operative language remains largely unchanged today. In March 2025, President Donald J. Trump proclaimed that members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua present in the United States are “alien enemies,” asserting that their activities, allegedly coordinated with President Nicolás Maduro’s government, constitute an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” within the meaning of the statute. Litigation challenging the invocation of …

Splitting The Baby: Determining The Causation Standard In Family And Medical Leave Act Retaliation Claims, Eliana C. Singer

Fordham Law Review

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) guarantees employees unpaid leave following certain qualifying events. The FMLA not only provides substantive rights but also prohibits retaliation against employees who exercise those rights. When employees face unlawful retaliation, they can bring retaliation claims against their employers. However, there is disagreement among courts as to how to evaluate these claims. More precisely, courts are split concerning whether employees must prove their use of leave was a but-for cause of retaliation, or merely that it was one of an employer’s mixed motives for retaliating. The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and …

Justice Lost And Found Playlist, Njaj Editorial Board

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

Oh No, Don't Let The Rain Come Down..., Mervyn Bennun

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

The Failure Of Law Reform: Housing Codes, Bans On Retaliatory Eviction, And The Implied Warranty Of Habitability, David Ray Papke

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

Unauthorized Practice Of Law Reform And Domestic Violence Advocacy: Advocate Perspectives On Legal Training, Cayley Balser, Stacy Jane

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Katherine M. Houlden

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

Volume 3, Issue 1 Masthead, Njaj Editorial Board

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.