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Prisoners' Rights Lawyers' Strategies For Preserving The Role Of The Courts, Margo Schlanger

Articles

This Article is part of the University of Miami Law Review’s Leading from Below Symposium. It canvasses prisoners’ lawyers’ strategies prompted by the 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”). The strategies comply with the statute’s limits yet also allow U.S. district courts to remain a forum for the vindication of the constitutional rights of at least some of the nation’s millions of prisoners. After Part I’s introduction, Part II summarizes in several charts the PLRA’s sharp impact on the prevalence and outcomes of prison litigation, but demonstrates that there are still many cases and situations in which courts continue to …

When I Want Your Opinion, I'Ll Give It To You: How Governments Support The Indigenous Right To Consultation In Theory, But Not In Practice, Laura M. Seelau, Ryan Seelau

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The article examines the gap between the legal framework protecting indigenous rights and its practical implementation, focusing on Chile's failure to uphold the right to consultation under ILO Convention 169. Despite having robust laws, including the Indigenous Law (No. 19.253) and the incorporation of Convention 169 into its Constitution, Chile's judiciary and government often misunderstand the timing and scope of consultation, undermining the effectiveness of indigenous rights. The case of the Atacameño people highlights how the denial of early consultation in geothermal exploration concessions jeopardizes indigenous property, natural resources, and water rights, demonstrating the need for clearer legal standards and …

Democracy And The Other: The Inverse Relationship Between Majority Rule And A Heterogeneous Citizenry, Franciska A. Coleman

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Civil Rights Of Sexually Exploited Youth In Foster Care, Dale Margolin Cecka

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Legal And Practical Implications Of The Potential Increased Participation In Jury Service By Racial Minorities In The U.S. Criminal Justice System, Brian Keith Leonard

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Functionally Suspect: Reconceptualizing 'Race' As A Suspect Classification, Lauren Sudeall

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In the context of equal protection doctrine, race has become untethered from the criteria underlying its demarcation as a classification warranting heightened scrutiny. As a result, it is no longer an effective vehicle for challenging the existing social and political order; instead, its primary purpose under current doctrine is to signal the presence of an impermissible basis for differential treatment. This Symposium Article suggests that, to more effectively serve its underlying normative goals, equal protection should prohibit not discrimination based on race per se, but government actions that implicate the concerns leading to race’s designation as a suspect classification. For …

The Need For A Law Of Church And Market, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

This Essay uses Helfand and Richman’s fine article to raise the question of the law of church and market. In Part I, I argue that the question of religion’s proper relationship to the market is more than simply another aspect of the church-state debates. Rather, it is a topic deserving explicit reflection in its own right. In Part II, I argue that Helfand and Richman demonstrate the danger of creating the law of church and market by accident. Courts and legislators do this when they resolve questions religious commerce poses by applying legal theories developed without any thought for the …

The Disability-Employability Divide: Bottlenecks To Equal Opprotunity, Bradley A. Areheart, Michael Ashley Stein

Michigan Law Review

Equal opportunity might appear to comprise a relatively simple question: Do similarly situated persons have an equal chance to attain a particular goal, or do obstacles irrelevant to their qualifications or to the desired goal preclude achievement? But equal opportunity is complicated.1 There are descriptive and prescriptive dimensions to this question. Nuances exist when determining who is similarly situated, whether those individuals have the same opportunity, what goals we care about equalizing, and whether the ultimate aspiration is equality of opportunity or equality of outcome. Moreover, what means should we employ to remove obstacles, are these means likely to be …

Stealth Advocacy Can (Sometimes) Change The World, Margo Schlanger

Michigan Law Review

Scholarship and popular writing about lawsuits seeking broad social change have been nearly as contentious as the litigation itself. In a normative mode, commentators on the right have long attacked change litigation as imperialist and ill informed, besides producing bad outcomes. Attacks from the left have likewise had both prescriptive and positive strands, arguing that civil rights litigation is “subordinating, legitimating, and alienating.” As one author recently summarized in this Law Review, these observers claim “that rights litigation is a waste of time, both because it is not actually successful in achieving social change and because it detracts attention and …

Griggs At Midlife, Deborah A. Widiss

Michigan Law Review

Not all Supreme Court cases have a midlife crisis. But it is fair to say that Griggs v. Duke Power Co., which recently turned forty, has some serious symptoms. Griggs established a foundational proposition of employment discrimination law known as disparate impact liability: policies that significantly disadvantage racial minority or female employees can violate federal employment discrimination law, even if there is no evidence that the employer “intended” to discriminate. Griggs is frequently described as one of the most important decisions of the civil rights era, compared to Brown v. Board of Education for its “momentous social consequences.” In 1989, …

Trends In Prisoner Litigation, As The Plra Enters Adulthood, Margo Schlanger

Articles

The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), enacted in 1996 as part of the Newt Gingrich "Contract with America," is now as old as some prisoners. In the year after the statute's passage, some commenters labeled it merely "symbolic." In fact, as was evident nearly immediately, the PLRA undermined prisoners' ability to bring, settle, and win lawsuits. The PLRA conditioned court access on prisoners' meticulously correct prior use of onerous and error-inviting prison grievance procedures. It increased filing fees, decreased attorneys' fees, and limited damages. It subjected injunctive settlements to the scope limitations usually applicable only to litigated injunctions. It made …

“Seguimos Siendo Indígenas” Una Investigación Sobre El Discurso De Los Derechos Y Necesidades De La Comunidad Shipiba De Cantagallo Como Pueblo Indígena En El Contexto Urbano De Lima., Janet Sanchez

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

A través de un método etnográfico basado en entrevistas formales e informales y observaciones tomados durante dos semanas en la Comunidad ShipiboKonibo de Cantagallo, este informe examina cómo esta comunidad expresa sus derechos y necesidades como pueblo indígena en el contexto urbano de Lima. Este estudio fue ejecutado durante un tiempo de conflicto entre la comunidad y la Municipalidad de Lima, que bajo el cargo de Luis Castañeda, canceló la reubicación de la Comunidad ShipoKonibo que está siendo desplazado por la construcción del Vía Parque Rímac. Los resultados demuestran que los Shipibos de Cantagallo luchan por ser tratados como iguales …

The Obese And The Elite: Using Law To Reclaim School Sports, Dionne L. Koller

All Faculty Scholarship

Sports in schools are a uniquely American phenomenon. Athletic programs flourish in high schools, colleges, and universities with traditionally very little interference by legislatures or courts. The most notable, if not limited, exception to this deference is Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title IX), which prohibits educational institutions receiving federal financial assistance from discriminating on the basis of gender. As applied to athletic programs, Title IX is often cited as a public policy success. The law has led to the creation of meaningful sports participation opportunities for women and girls and shaped new norms for sports …

22nd Annual Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. Lecture. University Of The District Of Columbia David A. Clarke School Of Law, Thomas E. Perez

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Doj Clears Wilson But Excoriates Ferguson Police, Lauren Carasik

Media Presence

No abstract provided.

Torch (March 2015), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

A Battle Of The Amendments: Why Ending Discrimination In The Courtroom May Inhibit A Criminal Defendant’S Right To An Impartial Jury, Gina M. Chiappetta

Fordham Law Review

    Since the U.S. Supreme Court began limiting the exercise of peremptory challenges to safeguard potential jurors from discrimination, it has faced a nearly impossible task. The Court has attempted to safeguard a juror’s equal protection rights without eradicating the peremptory challenge’s ability to preserve a criminal defendant’s right to an impartial jury. Under the current legal framework, it is not certain whether either constitutional right is adequately protected. This Note examines the history of the Supreme Court’s limitation on peremptory challenges. It then discusses the current federal circuit split over whether peremptory challenges should be further limited. Finally, this Note …

What’S Hud Got To Do With It?: How Hud’S Disparate Impact Rule May Save The Fair Housing Act’S Disparate Impact Standard, William F. Fuller

Fordham Law Review

    Since 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court has granted certiorari three times on the question of whether disparate impact liability is cognizable under the Fair Housing Act (FHA). The first two times, the parties settled. The question is before the Court once again in Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., and this time the parties seem unlikely to settle.

    Disparate impact liability in the civil rights context entails liability for actions that have a discriminatory effect, regardless of an actor’s motive. Under the FHA, this can translate into liability for actions that make housing …

Masthead And Front Matter

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.