Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

The First Justice Harlan By The Numbers: Just How Great Was "The Great Dissenter?", Gabriel J. Chin

Akron Law Review

Considering these kinds of evidence together may offer an informed picture of a judge’s disposition. By these measures, Harlan cannot be regarded as a defender of Asian civil rights. Based on his voting record, he was the most ardent defender of African American civil rights. By contrast, his record in Asian cases was one of the worst. His votes in favor of African American civil rights were in critical cases. In most of the critical cases with respect to Asian litigants, he voted against them.

White Privilege And Affirmative Action, Sylvia A. Law

Akron Law Review

Since 1996, many authoritative voices challenge the legitimacy of affirmative efforts to achieve racial integration. The Supreme Court has struck down many affirmative action programs. The Court has not upheld any affirmative action program since 1989, when, by a 5-4 decision, it approved a narrowly targeted Congressional program to encourage minority ownership of broadcast licences. In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 209, broadly prohibiting any form of affirmative action on the basis of race or gender. In the same year, in the Hopwood decision, the Fifth Circuit held that the University of Texas could not give any consideration to race …

Protecting The Wolf In Sheep's Clothing: Perverse Consequences Of The Mckennon Rule, Jenny B. Wahl

Akron Law Review

What follows is, first, a description of the typical scenarios that arise in after-acquired-evidence cases and the law surrounding McKennon. Section II discusses how the economic literature on information and signaling applies to such cases; section III elaborates upon the motives behind and the perversities of McKennon; and section IV offers conclusions.

Law And The Boundaries Of Place And Race In Interracial Marriage: Interstate Comity, Racial Identity, And Miscegenation Laws In North Carolina, South Carolina, And Virginia, 1860s-1960s, Peter Wallenstein

Akron Law Review

This essay draws from case materials in three states to explore two of the main problems in enforcing—or escaping conviction under—laws in the United States against interracial marriage during the hundred years after the Civil War. Questions of interstate comity and racial identity, though not both involved in every miscegenation case, would remain issues in many such cases as long as laws against interracial marriage remained in effect. Only in 1967, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided Loving v. Virginia and declared such laws unconstitutional, would the boundaries of race and place no longer have any bearing on the law …

Jack Johnson: Reluctant Hero Of The Black Community, Denise C. Morgan

Akron Law Review

The difficulties which both White and Black Americans had with Jack Johnson, the first Black man to win the world heavyweight boxing championship, resulted from his status as a reluctant hero. Johnson was hated by White Americans for exhibiting a strong sense of individuality, for excelling in a sport that had previously been closed to men of his race, and for asserting his right to love the three White women whom he married. And although Black Americans admired his courage and felt vindicated by his success in the ring, they were troubled by the ways that Johnson’s uncompromising individuality distanced …

From Rights To Resources: The Southern Federal District Courts And The Transformation Of Civil Rights In Education, 1968-1974, Charles L. Zelden

Akron Law Review

This situation would change. Seemingly out of nowhere, and in a very short period of time, the federal courts transformed the concept of civil rights, taking it in a new and expansive direction almost impossible to predict a mere decade before. Reinterpreting a mix of government laws, regulations and past judicial orders, the courts, along with other branches of the federal government, began to reallocate social and economic resources such as access to education, jobs, political power and housing away from the majority toward the social margins. By 1974, a system of governmnt-ordered, race and gender-based, redistributive remedies to the …

Affirmative Action For The Master Class: The Creation Of The Proslavery Constitution, Paul Finkelman

Akron Law Review

The Constitution of 1787 was a proslavery document, designed to prevent any national assault on slavery, while at the same time structured to protect the interests of slaveowners at the expense of African Americans and their antislavery white allies. To understand this earliest form of affirmative action, I begin with a view of the Constitution first articulated by the great abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, and then turn to an examination of the Convention that wrote the Constitution and the document that convention produced.

West V. Gibson: Federal Employees Win The Battle, But Ultimately Lose The War For Compensatory Damages Under Title Vii, Christina M. Royer

Akron Law Review

This Note analyzes the Supreme Court's decision in West v. Gibson against the backdrop of the new damages provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 and the EEOC system for federal employees. Section II provides a brief legislative history of the 1991 CRA, outlines the EEOC complaint procedure specifically tailored to federal sector employees, and describes the cases leading up to West v. Gibson. Section III describes the Supreme Court's reasoning in Gibson, and Section IV analyzes the decision, concluding that, given the realities of congressional compromise and systemic constraints, the Supreme Court's decision actually does little to benefit …

Genaro V. Central Transport: A New Direction In Ohio Law Regarding Employment Discrimination, Karen Gaum

Akron Law Review

Part I of this Note will examine the Genaro decision in depth, focusing on the Ohio Supreme Court’s reasoning. The court looked at the language of Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4112, specifically the use of the word “agent” as support for its imposition of individual liability. In addition, Part II will also examine the the policy goals the Ohio Supreme Court has attempted to achieve. Finally, Part II will also demonstrate that the Genaro decision is a poor one, one which was not legislatively intended, one that imposes an undue burden on individuals without a corresponding increase in benefit to …

"Nobody's Saying We're Opposed To Complying": Barriers To University Compliance With Vawa And Title Ix, Charlotte Savino

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

Part I of this note will explore the government’s action in addressing sexual assault on campus, including the history of VAWA, the Clery Act, and Title IX. Part II will posit barriers to compliance, including ambiguous mandates, due process issues of private adjudication, and privacy law. Part III encapsulates the current political landscape and the laws that are under consideration. Part IV concludes with the financial and legal consequences of university action and inaction, including lawsuits brought by victims, lawsuits brought by the accused, Department of Education and Office of Civil Rights fines, and admissions consequences as prospective students actively …

Teaching Slavery In American Constitutional Law, Paul Finkelman

Akron Law Review

From 1787 until the Civil War, slavery was probably the single most important economic institution in the United States. On the eve of the Civil War, slave property was worth at least two billion dollars. In the aggregate, the value of all the slaves in the United States exceeded the total value of all the nations railroads or all its factories. Slavery led to two major political compromises of the antebellum period, as well as to the most politically divisive Supreme Court decision in our history. Vast amounts of political and legal energy went into dealing with the institution. It …

Hate Crimes And The Need For Stronger Federal Legislation, Troy A. Scotting

Akron Law Review

This Comment focuses on the HCPA, concluding that such legislation is necessary to help combat the onslaught of hate crimes in America. Part II focuses on the problem of hate crimes, including the incidence of hate crimes, the characteristics of hate crimes, and the effects of hate crimes on the individual and the community. Part III examines state legislation concerning hate crimes, including the rise of hate crimes legislation, and treatment by the Supreme Court. In Parts IV and V, this Comment examines current federal legislation and the recently proposed HCPA. Part VI looks at the proposed extension of federal …

Giving The Bat Back To Casey: Suggestions To Reform Title Ix's Inequitable Application To Intercollegiate Athletics, Christopher Paul Reuscher

Akron Law Review

This monetary limitation on athletic departments has led institutions to eliminate male athletic teams as the only way to comply with Title IX.

Part II discusses the purpose behind Title IX, its legislative history, and its “flawed” modern day application to intercollegiate athletics. Part III critically examines how the majority of courts have incorrectly construed Title IX, and also focuses upon the shocking results between the success rate of male and female plaintiffs.

Part IV supplies reasoning and analysis why Title IX is inapplicable to athletics, notwithstanding the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987. Finally, as an alternative to Part …

The Constitutional Politics Of Interpreting Section 5 Of The Fourteenth Amendment, Christopher P. Banks

Akron Law Review

This essay analyzes the Rehnquist Court’s Section 5 cases by first, in Section I, establishing how the Supreme Court has historically assumed the task of interpreting Congress’ power to act under the Fourteenth Amendment. Two periods, Reconstruction and then the mid- 1960s, are examined because they present contrasting views about the scope of what the Fourteenth Amendment and its enforcement section means. Section II then surveys Section 5 cases from the Rehnquist Court in order to illustrate how its jurisprudence mirrors the antifederalist rhetoric established in the post-reconstruction era while, not surprisingly, departing from the principles set forth in the …

Rolling John Bingham In His Grave: The Rehnquist Court Makes Sport With The 14th Amendment, Stephen E. Gottlieb

Akron Law Review

The Warren Court organized the concept of strict scrutiny in Shelton v. Tucker. Where the defendant was obligated to treat people without regard to membership in a suspect class and failed to do that, the Court would hold them liable for their behavior unless it was done for a compelling public reason and there was no less damaging alternative.

The concept of strict scrutiny had nothing to do with intentions. The issue for the Warren Court was whether one party had injured another because of a forbidden reason. That concept of causation was understood broadly. The Court was not looking …

Congressional Enforcement Of Civil Rights And John Bingham's Theory Of Citizenship, Rebecca E. Zietlow

Akron Law Review

In the Twentieth Century, Congress’ power to enact civil rights legislation, and make it privately enforceable against states and private parties, became widely recognized as one of the most important functions of the federal government. Yet in recent years, the Supreme Court has greatly restricted this function with its rulings restricting Congress’ commerce power and its power to enforce the Equal Protection Clause under Section five of the Fourteenth Amendment. Cases such as United States v. Morrison, Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v. Garrett and Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents have left Congress in a vacuum, …

Will Employment Discrimination Class Actions Survive?, Melissa Hart

Akron Law Review

This paper will argue that the changes wrought by the Civil Rights Act of 1991 do not in fact pose a barrier to resolution of employment discrimination claims through class litigation. The addition of compensatory and punitive damages and a jury-trial right in the Civil Rights Act of 1991 may increase the level of scrutiny and perhaps the level of judicial involvement necessary in an employment discrimination class action. But they do not render such a class action either impermissible under Rule 23 or violative of due process or Seventh Amendment jury trial rights. Courts and commentators who insist that …

Unintended Consequences Of The Fourteenth Amendment And What They Tell Us About Its Interpretation, Richard L. Aynes

Akron Law Review

Much of the literature, understandably, seeks to find out what the framers of the amendment or the ratifiers of the amendment “intended.”...This article treats that issue as well, but begins with a different question: Does the amendment have consequences which were unintended by the framers? Over one and a quarter centuries ago, Justice Joseph Bradley answered that question in the affirmative: “It is possible that those who framed the article were not themselves aware of the far ranging character of its terms.” I suggest those unintended consequences include the effect of the Citizenship Clause on the force of the Fourteenth …

Maya Arce, Et Al. V. Diane Douglas, Et. Al, Lorraine Bannai, Robert Chang, Charlotte Garden, Fred T. Korematsu Center For Law And Equality, Ronald A. Peterson Law Clinic, Seattle University School Of Law

Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality

Fighting Arizona's Attack on Ethnic Studies

Intestacy Concerns For Same-Sex Couples: How Variations In State Law And Policy Affect Testamentary Wishes, Megan Moser

Seattle University Law Review

As the number of same-sex couples increases in the United States, concerns regarding the evolution of federal and state law, with respect to rights for same-sex couples, also continue to rise. As marriage is not always available to same-sex couples, they often face very different legal issues than couples in a traditional marriage. Because marriage is typically not a legal cause of action, the question of a marriage’s validity often arises incidentally to another legal question, such as the disposition of a decedent’s estate.