Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Getting Away With Marginalization: Rejecting A Formalistic Standing Analysis And Remedying Lgbtq+ Discrimination Through Congressional Legislation, Jared Ham

Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

On Race, Teacher Activism, And The Right To Work: Historicizing The "Red For Ed" Movement In The American South, Jon N. Hale

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Being Taught By Phillis Wheatley During The Kavanaugh Hearings, Emily Field

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Opioid Policing, Barbara Fedders

Indiana Law Journal

This Article identifies and explores a new, local law enforcement approach to alleged drug offenders. Initially limited to a few police departments, but now expanding rapidly across the country, this innovation takes one of two primary forms. The first is a diversion program through which officers refer alleged offenders to community-based social services rather than initiate criminal proceedings. The second form offers legal amnesty as well as priority access to drug detoxification programs to users who voluntarily relinquish illicit drugs. Because the upsurge in addiction to —and death from—opioids has spurred this innovation, I refer to it as “opioid policing.” …

Creative Lawyering For Social Change, Raymond H. Brescia

Georgia State University Law Review

Lawyers have long played an integral part in efforts to bring about social change. With an increasing desire to see change in the world, regardless of one’s political perspective, there is a growing interest in understanding the role that lawyers can play in bringing about such change. This type of lawyering is complex, however, and faces far more challenges than those the traditional lawyer faces in his or her work. Although all lawyers solve problems on behalf of their clients, the role of the social-change lawyer is more complex because the problems she seeks to address are more complex, mostly …

Panel 4: Criminal Procedure And Affirmative Action

Georgia State University Law Review

Moderator: Lauren Sudeall

Panelists: Dan Epps, Gail Heriot, and Corinna Lain

Back To The Drawing Board! Legislating Hollywood, Christina Shu Jien Chong

Georgia State University Law Review

The United States Department of Justice “contended that equal employment opportunity in the broadcast industry could ‘contribute significantly toward reducing . . . discrimination in other industries’ because of the ‘enormous impact . . . television . . . [has] upon American life.’” Courts have also recognized that “communities . . . ’[must] take an active interest in the . . . quality of [television programming because television] has a vast impact on their lives and the lives of their children.’” Unfortunately, Hollywood continues to promote an insular culture that excludes minorities from influential behind-the-camera and on-screen positions.

Although the …

Respect The Hustle: Necessity Entrepreneurship, Returning Citizens, And Social Enterprise Strategies, Priya Baskaran

Maryland Law Review

This Article will address a pervasive and growing problem for returning citizens—high rates of economic insecurity—and, as a novel solution, propose the creation of Economic Justice Incubators (“EJIs”) as a new, municipally-led social enterprise strategy. Mass incarceration is a national problem and requires comprehensive criminal justice reform. In contrast, the reentry process is locally focused due to a complex web of collateral consequences arising from state and local laws. An estimated 641,000 people return home from prison each year, many to economically distressed communities. Once released, the terms of their parole and the collateral consequences associated with their conviction restrict …

Dignity And Social Meaning: Obergefell, Windsor, And Lawrence As Constitutional Dialogue, Steve Sanders

Fordham Law Review

The U.S. Supreme Court’s three most important gay and lesbian rights decisions—Obergefell v. Hodges, United States v. Windsor, and Lawrence v. Texas—are united by the principle that gays and lesbians are entitled to dignity. Beyond their tangible consequences, the common constitutional evil of state bans on same-sex marriage, the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and sodomy laws was that they imposed dignitary harm. This Article explores how the gay and lesbian dignity cases exemplify the process by which constitutional law emerges from a social and cultural dialogue in which the Supreme Court actively participates. In doing …

Title 2.0: Discrimination Law In A Data-Driven Society, Bryan Casey

Journal of Law and Mobility

More than a quarter century after civil rights activists pioneered America’s first ridesharing network, the connections between transportation, innovation, and discrimination are again on full display. Industry leaders such as Uber, Amazon, and Waze have garnered widespread acclaim for successfully combatting stubbornly persistent barriers to transportation. But alongside this well-deserved praise has come a new set of concerns. Indeed, a growing number of studies have uncovered troubling racial disparities in wait times, ride cancellation rates, and service availability in companies including Uber, Lyft, Task Rabbit, Grubhub, and Amazon Delivery.

Surveying the methodologies employed by these studies reveals a subtle, but …

Now, I'M Liberal, But To A Degree: An Essay On Debating Religious Liberty And Discrimination, Francis J. Beckwith

Cleveland State Law Review

This essay is a critical analysis of the book authored by John Corvino, Sherif Girgis, and Ryan T. Anderson, Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination. The book offers two contrary views on how best to think about some of the conflicts that have arisen over religious liberty and anti-discrimination laws, e.g., Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Comm’n, 138 S. Ct. 1719 (2018). One position is defended by Corvino, and the other by Girgis and Anderson. After a brief discussion of the differing views of religious liberty throughout American history (including the American founding), this essay summarizes each …

Fool Me Once, Shame On You; Fool Me Twice, Shame On You Again: How Disparate Treatment Doctrine Perpetuates Racial Hierarchy, David Simson

Articles & Chapters

Title VII race discrimination doctrine is excessively hostile to workers of color, and many observers agree that it needs to be fixed. Yet comparatively few analyses of the doctrine weave together doctrinal and theoretical insights with systematic empirical findings from social science. This Article looks to Social Dominance Theory—a social psychology theory with a robust body of supporting empirical research—to take on this task and connect judicial interpretation of Title VII to the human tendency to create and maintain group-based hierarchies. In doing so, the Article questions the common view that Title VII race discrimination doctrine is symmetrical, protecting all …

Private School Placement For The Twice Exceptional Child Under The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, Matthew Alessandri

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

States As Civil Rights Actors, Jennifer Safstrom

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

A British politician, David Miliband, once said, "My advice is very simple: if you can win a small battle, it gives you confidence in the political process to take on bigger battles, and so it is very much a bottom-up grass-roots way of doing politics." While his perspective--of starting small and building up--is an often-used strategy used by advocates of all stripes, his quote does not give sufficient credence to the intrinsic value of these small battles. These efforts are an end unto themselves, as the smaller battles within each state are not just training to take on larger federal …

Brief Of Norman Y. Mineta, The Sakamoto Sisters, The Council On American-Islamic Relations (National And New York, Inc.), And The Fred T. Korematsu Center For Law And Equality As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondents, Robert Chang, Lorraine Bannai, Fred T. Korematsu Center For Law And Equality, Attorneys For Amicus Curiae

Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality

Department of Commerce, et al., v. State of New York, et al.

Title Ix And Title Vii: Parallel Remedies In Combating Sex Discrimination In Educational Employment, Lynn Ridgeway Zehrt

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the federal circuit split concerning whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides the exclusive remedy for employment discrimination claims in federally funded educational institutions, or whether Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 offers a parallel avenue for relief. While some circuits hold that Title VII preempts employment-based sex discrimination claims under Title IX—emphasizing Title VII’s comprehensive administrative scheme and damages limitations—others permit plaintiffs to proceed directly under Title IX, thereby avoiding administrative exhaustion requirements and statutory damages caps. Through a detailed analysis of statutory structure, Supreme Court precedent, and especially the …

Straight Actors In Lgbt Roles: Creative Casting Or Employment Discrimination?, Erica Ruff

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note examines the trend of casting straight actors in LGBT roles, termed "gay face," and explores its implications as a form of employment discrimination. It argues that this practice limits opportunities for LGBT actors and discusses the legal challenges in addressing this issue under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which does not explicitly cover sexual orientation. The note highlights the tension between anti-discrimination laws and First Amendment protections for artistic expression, noting that courts often favor the latter.

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, …

Reconceptualizing The Harms Of Discrimination: How Brown V. Board Of Education Helped To Further White Supremacy, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

For decades, literature has played a vital role in revealing weaknesses in law. The classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is no different. The long-revered work of fiction contains several key scenes that illuminate significant gaps in the analysis of one of our most celebrated decisions: Brown v. Board of Education, the case in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that state-mandated racial segregation in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. In particular, the novel opens a pathway that enables its readers to visualize the full harms of white supremacy, which include …

Responsibility In Building Rule Of Law: Kosovo Challenges, Avdullah Robaj, Sabiha Shala

International Journal on Responsibility

The principle of the rule of law is one of the most important and essential principles for any state and for democratic society. Its fullest realization in everyday life is the best guarantee for development of democracy and recognition and enforcement of citizens' fundamental rights and freedoms. To this end, the general principles of the rule of law today occupy a special place and are fixed explicitly in contemporary constitutions and democratic legislation. The well-known countries of Western democracies have long established a rich and valuable legacy in this regard. When exploring the contours and details about establishing the rule …