Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Constructing Recidivism Risk, Jessica Eaglin

AI-DR Collection

Courts increasingly use actuarial—meaning statistically derived—information about a defendant’s likelihood of engaging in criminal behavior in the future at sentencing. This Article examines how developers construct the tools that predict recidivism risk. It exposes the numerous choices that developers make during tool construction with serious consequences to sentencing law and policy. These design decisions require normative judgments concerning accuracy, equality, and the purpose of punishment. Whether and how to address these concerns reflects societal values about the administration of criminal justice more broadly. Currently, developers make these choices in the absence of law, even as they face distinct interests that …

Algorithmic Jim Crow, Margaret Hu

Fordham Law Review

This Article contends that current immigration- and security-related vetting protocols risk promulgating an algorithmically driven form of Jim Crow. Under the “separate but equal” discrimination of a historic Jim Crow regime, state laws required mandatory separation and discrimination on the front end, while purportedly establishing equality on the back end. In contrast, an Algorithmic Jim Crow regime allows for “equal but separate” discrimination. Under Algorithmic Jim Crow, equal vetting and database screening of all citizens and noncitizens will make it appear that fairness and equality principles are preserved on the front end. Algorithmic Jim Crow, however, will enable discrimination on …

An Unacknowledged Constitutional Crisis: United States V. Shipp Ii (1909), Leslie F. Goldstein

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Are My Cornrows Unprofessional?: Title Vii's Narrow Application Of Grooming Policies, And Its Effect On Black Women's Natural Hair In The Workplace, Renee Henson

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

Employer grooming policies are ubiquitous and apply to all in the workplace, however, the hair standards within these policies do not permit women to wear a myriad of ethnic hairstyles at work. Banning ethnic hairstyles like braids, cornrows, and dreadlocks adversely and disproportionally affects black women. Banning ethnic styles because they are deemed unprofessional forces many black women to spend inordinate amounts of money and time to ensure their hair is “professional looking enough” to attain gainful employment and climb the corporate ladder. This article examines Title VII’s role in allowing this practice where black women are not permitted to …

Defense Counsel And Public Defence, Eve Brensike Primus

Book Chapters

Public-defense delivery systems nationwide are grossly inadequate. Public defenders are forced to handle caseloads that no one could effectively manage. They often have no funding for investigation or expert assistance. They aren’t adequately trained, and there is little to no oversight of their work. In many jurisdictions, the public-defense function is not sufficiently independent of the judiciary or the elected branches to allow for zealous representation. The result is an assembly line into prison, mostly for poor people of color, with little check on the reliability or fairness of the process. Innocent people are convicted, precious resources are wasted, and …

Addressing Utah’S School To Prison Pipeline, Tyler B. Bugden

Utah Law Review

Utah’s STTP problem needs to be resolved. Zero tolerance policies, the limited constitutional rights of students, the police power of school administrators, the injection of SROs into our schools without clear job responsibilities and training, and the imbalance of power between students and state actors all contribute to Utah’s biased STPP. To address the STPP, researchers encourage: the expansion of legal protections for juveniles; the re-training of SROs and employment contracts that clearly define SROs’ responsibilities; the use of restorative justice practices and other evidence-based alternatives to the juvenile justice system; and reforming the discretionary power of state actors to …

Law Library Blog (November 2017): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. V. Colorado Civil Rights Commission: Brief Of Amici Curiae Public Accommodation Law Scholars In Support Of Respondents, Samuel Bagenstos

Appellate Briefs

Amici are legal scholars with expertise in the historical and contemporary applications of the public accommodation laws. This brief argues that the First Amendment exemption Masterpiece claims would subvert the historic purpose of these laws: to promote equal dignity in the marketplace.

For more than half a century, state public accommodation laws across the country have protected against denials of dignity and equal treatment in the public marketplace. Throughout that period, this Court has consistently rejected arguments that businesses open to the general public have a constitutional right to provide less than the full and equal services required by such …

Culture And Custom In Nation-Building: Law In Afghanistan, Thomas Barfield

Maine Law Review

Afghanistan’s restoration of the rule of law has set in motion a renewed debate about fundamental legal principles that has not been seen in the West since the time of the Enlightenment: Who is justice for? Who has the right to seek compensation or justice? Does the state or the individual have priority in seeking justice and delivering punishment? Is law a human creation or is it rooted in divine authority? But it is a debate without an audience in the international community that is assisting the Afghan government in restoring its judicial system because the answer appears so self-evident. …

Human Rights And Nation-Building In Cross-Cultural Settings, Burns H. Weston

Maine Law Review

Values are preferred events, “goods” we cherish; and the value of respect, “conceived as the reciprocal honoring of freedom of choice about participation in value processes,” is “the core value of human rights.” In a world of diverse cultural traditions that is simultaneously distinguished by the widespread universalist claim that “human rights extend in theory to every person on earth without discriminations irrelevant to merit,” the question thus unavoidably arises: when, in human rights decision-making, are cultural differences to be respected and when are they not? The question arises early in the nation-building enterprise where demands to preserve cultural traditions …

Analyzing Sexual Harassment In The Workplace, Herbert G. Keene, Jr.

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

The Crossroads Of A Legal Fiction And The Reality Of Families, Andrew L. Weinstein

Maine Law Review

In Adoption of M.A., the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, held that an unmarried, same-sex couple could file a joint petition for adoption of two foster children in their care. This recent decision is only a fraction of a story that originated a long time ago when same-sex couples began raising children. This Comment begins by examining the role of the state courts and the United States Supreme Court in their exposition of family law relating to adoption by same-sex couples. The United States Supreme Court has periodically weighed in on family law and parenting in …

The Role Of The State Attorney General In Preventing And Punishing Hate Crimes Through Civil Prosecution: Positive Experiences And Possible First Amendment Potholes, Amy Dieterich

Maine Law Review

On July 3, 2006, Lewiston, Maine resident Brent Matthews threw a pig's head as "a joke" into the town's only mosque, frequented primarily by Somali refugees, during evening services. Because of Matthews' "joke," members of the mosque were required by Islamic law to clean the desecrated area seven times, attendance at the mosque decreased, and some members said they feared physical harm. Unfortunately for Matthews, Maine is one of eight states that has given its Attorney General the authority to seek a civil remedy for a violation of a citizen's civil rights, which can be pursued concurrently or exclusively of …

Recollections Of My Time In The Civil Rights Movement, Melvyn H. Zarr

Maine Law Review

A while back, in November 2007, some students came down after class and asked me why I never told any personal stories during class. I gave them my standard reply that class time was too valuable for the telling of "war stories." "Well," they countered, "would you be willing to tell your 'back story' after class?" I had no objection to that, as long as they would set it up. I half-expected nothing further to come of it, but the students did set it up, publicizing it to the whole law school community. On the appointed day, an overflow crowd …

Racism, Juries, And Justice: Addressing Post-Verdict Juror Testimony Of Racial Prejudice During Deliberations, Andrew C. Helman

Maine Law Review

From the beginning, race played a role in the prosecution of Christopher McCowen for the rape and murder of well-known fashion writer Christa Worthington. To some, the trial was even a spectacle and treated as “one of the most spectacular homicide cases in [Massachusetts'] history.” It quickly became a “made-for-cable-news tale of the heiress fashion writer and her lowly Portuguese fisherman lover, illicit sex, and an out-of-wedlock child,” all set in a seaside village. McCowen, an African-American garbage man, was right in the middle of it; police and prosecutors did not believe his assertions that he had consensual sex with …

Renewing Human Rights Law In Canada, Dominique Clément

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Human rights law was one of the great legal innovations of the twentieth century. And yet human rights agencies and practitioners face a backlash that has resulted in regressive legislative reforms in recent years. These reforms have only succeeded in undermining some of the key pillars of the Canadian model for human rights law. The following article places the current backlash within historical context. The author argues that many recent reforms have replicated the deficiencies of past anti-discrimination laws. Commissions and policy-makers must respond by building on the strengths of the original Canadian model by improving public education, engaging with …

Reflections On Forty Years Of Private Practice And Sustained Pro Bono Advocacy, Stephen H. Oleskey

Maine Law Review

I am going to address two topics. The first is the one Judge Coffin asked me to address in October 2009, when I was invited to give the 2010 Coffin Lecture: how to combine the private practice of law with an active pro bono practice. The second topic is the one Dean Peter Pitegoff and I agreed to add: a brief discussion of legal developments in national security law since 9/11. My pro bono involvement in Guantanamo Habeas litigation began in 2004 and led directly to my interest in national security law and to my recognition of how difficult it …

Rowan Clerk In Romania To Discuss Same-Sex Marriage, The Morehead News

Media Collection

No abstract provided.

Newsroom: Is Wall Between Church And State Crumbling? 10-10-2017, Diana Hassel

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Rwu First Amendment Blog: Diana Hassel's Blog: Is The Wall Between Church And State Crumbling? 10-07-2017, Diana Hassel

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.