Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Defending Profiling While Combating Racism: A Companion To Ogletree's Presumption Of Guilt, Amos N. Jones

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

Director's Letter, Sarah Chinn

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

As I write this, the snow is slowly melting: the residue of the blizzard that brought 2010 to a close (and ground the East Coast to an almost complete halt). The stillness of the air outside fosters a kind of meditativeness, although it's hard to get a firm grasp on the events of the past few weeks. After what seemed like an endless parade of false starts, Congress finally overturned Don't Ask, Don't Tell, a policy that came into being at the same time as our newest crop of undergraduates. And at almost the same moment, the DREAM Act, legislation …

Torch (April/May 2011), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Disgust And The Problematic Politics Of Similarity, Courtney Megan Cahill

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Just Shoot Me: Public Accommodation Anti-Discrimination Laws Take Aim At First Amendment Freedom Of Speech, James M. Gottry

Vanderbilt Law Review

Imagine a young woman, Elaine, who is a gifted photographer. She launches a small photography business with her husband, and soon she is in demand throughout the state. Her specialty is weddings. One day Elaine receives a request to photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony. Politely, she declines, explaining that she only photographs traditional weddings. Several months later, she is contacted by the state's Human Rights Commission. Elaine learns that a complaint has been filed against her, and she is being charged with discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Imagine a young man, Michael, who is a gifted filmmaker. While …

"Mancession" Or "Momcession"?: Good Providers, A Bad Economy, And Gender Discrimination, Joan C. Williams, Allison Tait

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In the aftermath of the 2008 economic downturn, two of the hardest hit industries were manufacturing and construction. As a result, men became unemployed at a higher rate than women, and consequently, women—for the first time ever—became over fifty percent of the employment. This "mancession" gave rise to great debate over the place of women in the workforce and the important role that employment plays in shaping male identity. An intervening critique came in the form of the "momcession" discourse that focused on the impact of the recession on mothers, who were often responsible for caretaking, homemaking, and providing the …

Review Of Canada's Indigenous Constitution. By John Borrows., Signa A. Daum Shanks

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This text's major thesis, that "Canada cannot presently, historically, legally, or morally claim to be built upon European-derived law alone," has been mentioned before. Yet in those earlier musings by Borrows and others, such a statement has never been documented so well as it is here. Borrows contemplates that others, besides those sympathetic with Indigenous perspectives, might just admit such a thesis is the case. Moreover, they might also support the creation of social and economic policies that demonstrate such a belief. But observing it in Canada's current legal system-really? Keenly aware of skeptics, Borrows has thought as much about …

Disgust And The Problematic Politics Of Similarity, Courtney Megan Cahill

Michigan Law Review

Martha Nussbaum's latest book, From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation & Constitutional Law, could not have come at a more opportune time in the history of gay rights in the United States. All signs point to progress toward "humanity," from same-sex couples' successful bids for marriage equality in a handful of states to the public's increasing acceptance of the prospect of gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. Even if recent cognitive science research indicates that same-sex relationships provoke more than a little disgust in some people, landmark marriage-equality victories in a few states suggest that the law is …

The Language Of Action: A Creative Study Of Resistance To Slavery From West Africa To The Days Across The Sea, Kali Block-Steele

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The goal of this paper is to study one of the lesser known aspects of the Transatlantic Slave Trade: resistance. Before the discussion of resistance, a brief history of the trade can be found. The focus on active resistance to slavery both on an individual and collective level begins on the African continent and continues through the Middle Passage, finishing with a discussion on forms of resistance in the Americas. There is a second part encompassing some creative writings inspired by the formation of this paper.

Finding A Cure In The Courts: A Private Right Of Action For Disparate Impact In Health Care, Sarah G. Steege

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

There is no comprehensive civil rights statute in health care comparable to the Fair Housing Act, Title VII, and similar laws that have made other aspects of society more equal. After Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VI served this purpose for suits based on race, color, and national origin for almost four decades. Since the Supreme Court's 2001 ruling in Alexander v. Sandoval, however, there has been no private right of action for disparate impact claims under Title VI, and civil rights enforcement in health care has suffered as a result. Congress has passed new legislation …

Criminal Procedure And The Racial Profiling Issue For Professor Gates And Sergeant Crowley, L. Darnell Weeden

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Just A Little Bit Of History Repeating: The California Model Of Marijuana Legalization And How It Might Affect Racial And Ethnic Minorities, Thomas J. Moran

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Voting Equality And Educational Equality: Is The Former Possible Without The Latter And Are Bilingual Ballots A Sensible Response To Education Discrimination?, Meaghan Field

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Burying Our Heads In The Sand: Lack Of Knowledge, Knowledge Avoidance And The Persistent Problem Of Campus Peer Sexual Violence, Nancy Chi Cantalupo

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article discusses why two laws that seek to prevent and end sexual violence between students on college campuses, Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 ("Title IX") and the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act ("Clery Act"), are failing to fulfill that goal and how these legal regimes can be improved to reach this goal. It explicates how Title IX and the Clery Act ignore or exacerbate a series of "information problems" that create incentives for schools to "bury their heads in the sand" with regard to campus peer sexual violence. These …

The Importance Of Immutability In Employment Discrimination Law, Sharona Hoffman

William & Mary Law Review

This Article argues that recent developments in employment discrimination law require a renewed focus on the concept of immutable characteristics. In 2009, two new laws took effect: the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA). This Article’s original contribution is an evaluation of the employment discrimination statutes as a corpus of law in light of these two additions.

The Article thoroughly explores the meaning of the term “immutable characteristic” in constitutional and employment discrimination jurisprudence. It postulates that immutability constitutes a unifying principle for all of the traits now covered by the employment …

Plausibility Pleading Employment Discrimination, Charles A. Sullivan

William & Mary Law Review

The Supreme Court’s unanimous 2002 decision in Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N.A., which took a very permissive approach to pleading discrimination claims, may or may not remain good law after Ashcroft v. Iqbal. As is well known, Iqbal took a restrictive approach to pleading generally under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and its application to employment discrimination cases could pose serious problems for plaintiffs attempting to get into federal court. In addition, there is certainly a tension between Swierkiewicz and Iqbal. This is in part because the former is a strong reaffirmation of notice pleading as it has traditionally been …

Some Women's Work: Domestic Work, Class, Race, Heteropatriarchy, And The Limits Of Legal Reform, Terri Nilliasca

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Note employs Critical Race, feminist, Marxist, and queer theory to analyze the underlying reasons for the exclusion of domestic workers from legal and regulatory systems. The Note begins with a discussion of the role of legal and regulatory systems in upholding and replicating White supremacy within the employer and domestic worker relationship. The Note then goes on to argue that the White, feminist movement's emphasis on access to wage labor further subjugated Black and immigrant domestic workers. Finally, I end with an in-depth legal analysis of New York's Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, the nation's first state law to …

Whither The Disability Rights Movement?, Robert W. Pratt

Michigan Law Review

While reading this book in 2010, almost twenty years to the date after President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disability Act ("ADA"), one realizes how much the world of politics has changed. It is difficult to remember a time when such major legislation passed the U.S. Senate by a vote of 91 to 6 and the House of Representatives by 377 to 28. Even more surprising, as we look back to 1990, is the fact that the executive branch was controlled by a different political party than the legislative branch. Contrast this legislative record with the milieu surrounding …

Why Now And What's Next: The February 20th Movement’S Challenge To The State, Marina Balleria

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Moroccan state takes a nuanced place among autocracies and democracies—the regime features fundamental democratic institutions and while the central power of the monarchy is maintained through a constellation of political, economic, social, and cultural institutions. In this case, David Brumberg’s classification of “liberalized autocracies” is useful, which defines these states as using a mixture of “guided pluralism, controlled elections and selective repression” to maintain and centralize power[1] This political structure of liberalized autocracy creates sufficient political opportunity for various protest movements to emerge but until recently few have successfully enacted change. The February 20^th protest movement, inspired …

"On The Take": The Black Box Of Credit Scoring And Mortgage Discrimination, Cassandra Jones Havard

All Faculty Scholarship

Subprime credit, a relatively new method of risk-based pricing, has been hailed as a way to open up markets and provide access to credit to those who would otherwise be excluded. Evidence suggests that subprime mortgage segmentation increases rather than reduces exclusionary practices in lending. Furthermore, what is unclear is how lenders determine who qualifies as a subprime borrower. This concern became manifested when studies demonstrated that minority borrowers, regardless of creditworthiness, are more likely to receive expensive, sub-prime loans. The disparity is properly attributed to lenders’ credit pricing policies which included discretionary increases despite the objectively-determined risk-based interest rate …