Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

From Wards Cove To Ricci: Struggling Against The Built-In Headwinds Of A Skeptical Court, Melissa Hart

Publications

When the Supreme Court in 1971 first recognized disparate impact as a legal theory under Title VII, the Court explained that the "absence of discriminatory intent does not redeem employment procedures or testing mechanisms that operate as ‘built-in headwinds’ for minority groups and are unrelated to measuring job capability." Forty years later, it is the built-in headwinds of a Supreme Court skeptical of - perhaps even hostile to - the goals of disparate impact theory that pose the greatest challenge to continued movement toward workplace equality. The essay examines the troubled trajectory that disparate impact law has taken in the …

Intermediaries And Hate Speech: Fostering Digital Citizenship For Our Information Age, Danielle Keats Citron, Helen Norton

Publications

No longer confined to isolated corners of the web, cyber hate now enjoys a major presence on popular social media sites. The Facebook group Kill a Jew Day, for instance, acquired thousands of friends within days of its formation, while YouTube has hosted videos with names like How to Kill a Beaner, Execute the Gays, and Murder Muslim Scum. The mainstreaming of cyber hate has the troubling potential to shape public expectations of online discourse.

Internet intermediaries have the freedom and influence to seize this defining moment in cyber hate's history. We believe that a thoughtful and nuanced intermediary-based approach …

Class Actions At The Crossroads: An Answer To Wal-Mart V. Dukes, Suzette M. Malveaux

Publications

The Supreme Court has recently decided to hear argument in the largest private-employer civil rights case in American history, Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. This historic case involves up to 1.5 million women suing Wal-Mart, one of the largest companies in the world, for alleged gender discrimination in pay and promotions, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Like many employees who challenge companywide employment discrimination, the plaintiffs in Dukes brought their case as a class action pursuant to Rule 23(b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and sought injunctive and declaratory relief, …

Wrongful Convictions As A Result Of Public Defender Representation., Annie Elizabeth Ross

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Our criminal justice system works very hard to prevent criminals from harming other individuals; however, unfortunately mistakes happen. One wrongful conviction is one too many. There are multiple factors that can be assumed to be the cause of wrongful convictions. However, due to the lack of directly related research, the determents are not well established. The following research addresses wrongful convictions as a result of public defender representation. Through the process of theory construction, the research uses critical race theory and social disorganization theory to show the relationship between court appointed representation and wrongful convictions. A new theory is also …

Fred Fejes' Gay Rights And Moral Panic: The Origins Of America's Debate On Homosexuality (Book Review), Michael Boucai

Book Reviews

No abstract provided.

Antidiscrimination Rights Of Contingent Workers In The United States, Hyun Joo Kang

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits an employer's discriminatory employment practices against an employee on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, or national origin. Most contingent workers in the United States are faced with discriminatory employment practices, such as low wages and low or no benefits, and they are disproportionately women and minorities. Title VII is the focal point, but Title VII has not functioned as a remedy for contingent workers. This dissertation examines why contingent workers suffer discrimination, despite Title VII, and suggests possible solutions.

In the United States, the distinctive interpretation of laws …

Cultural Norms And Race Discrimination Standards: A Case Study In How The Two Diverge, Derek W. Black

Faculty Publications

The legal standard for race discrimination - the intent standard - has been scrutinized and justified for decades, but that conversation has occurred almost entirely within the legal community. Relatively little effort has been made to engage the public. This Article posits that the discussion of discrimination standards must account for and include public understandings of race and discrimination because race is a socially constructed concept and discrimination is culturally contingent. Race discrimination standards based solely upon the legal community’s perceptions are susceptible to significant flaws. This Article begins the incorporation of public understandings of race and discrimination by examining …

Does Ricci Herald A New Disparate Impact?, Joseph Seiner, Benjamin N. Gutman

Faculty Publications

Federal law has long prohibited not just intentional discrimination by employers, but also practices that have an unintentional disparate impact on minorities. A cryptic passage at the end of the Supreme Court's recent decision in Ricci v. DeStefano may signal a sea change for this disparate impact doctrine. Ricci, a lawsuit about a civil-service exam for firefighters, received widespread attention as a case about intentional discrimination. We show that the opinion also can be read to suggest a new affirmative defense for employers facing claims of disparate impact. Before Ricci, disparate impact was a purely no-fault doctrine. An employer was …

Breaking The Dress Code: Protecting Transgender Students, Their Identities, And Their Rights., Zenobia V. Harris

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract Forthcoming.

From ‘Baggage’ To Not ‘Non-Persons’: Levy V. Louisiana And The Struggle For Equal Rights For ‘Illegitimate’ Children, Sherrie Anne Bakelar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study focuses on "illegitimate" children, who are more visible
than other children within the historical record because of the many laws
related to their existence. By examining this group of children, it is
possible to improve upon the framework that shapes our understanding
of childhood and provide a starting point for future studies that will
continue to illuminate children's history. Although illegitimacy laws are
as ancient as Western civilization, the key moment for the United States'
laws related to nonmarital children came in the spring of 1968 and the
pivotal decision of Levy v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 68 (1968). …

Reply Brief For Petitioner. Thompson V. North American Stainless, Lp, 562 U.S. 170 (2011) (No. 09-291), 2010 U.S. S. Ct. Briefs Lexis 2135, Eric Schnapper, David O'Brien Suetholz, Lisa S. Blatt, Anthony Franze

Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

A Furious Kinship: Critical Race Theory And The Hip Hop Nation, André Douglas Pond Cummings

Law Faculty Scholarship

Two explosive movements were born in the United States in the 1970s. While the founding of both movements was humble and lightly noticed, both grew to become global phenomena that have profoundly changed the world. Founded by prescient agitators, these two movements were borne of disaffect, disappointment, and near desperation - a desperate need to give voice to oppressed and dispossessed peoples. America in the 1970s bore witness to the founding of two furious movements: Critical Race Theory and Hip Hop.

Critical Race Theory was founded as a response to what had been deemed a sputtering civil rights agenda in …

Torch (November/December 2010), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Ricci's "Color-Blind" Standard In A Race Conscious Society: A Case Of Unintended Consequences?, Michael J. Zimmer

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Admitting Guilt By Professing Innocence: When Sentence Enhancements Bases On "Alford" Pleas Are Unconstitutional, Anne D. Gooch

Vanderbilt Law Review

A few days before Christmas in 1994, in Vineland, New Jersey, Charles Apprendi, Jr. was drunk. At 2:04 a.m., he fired several shots from a .22 caliber gun into the home of an African-American family in his neighborhood. By 3:05 a.m., he had been arrested and had admitted that he was the shooter. Apprendi was interrogated for several hours after these events. At 6:04 a.m., he apparently stated that he committed the crime because the victims were black, but he later retracted this statement. Apprendi was indicted on twenty-three counts in connection with the shooting, and eventually pleaded guilty to …

Redemption And Resistance: Lessons In Non-Violent Action From Early Aotearoa/New Zealand, Ian Macduff

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article provides a brief account of the non-violent resistance of two Maori chiefs, Te Whiti and Tohu, in 19th century New Zealand. Each example of such non-violent or passive resistance is unique to its historical and cultural context; but at the same time there is a tangible common ground between this example and those found elsewhere, such as Martin Luther King and Gandhi. This article will also draw a link between the politics of acts of resistance – in this case, resistance to the forceful acquisition of Maori land – and faith-based justifications. In conclusion, it will be suggested …

Amicus Curiae Brief In Support Of Plaintiff-Appellees By Asian American Justice Center, Asian Law Caucus, Asian American Institute, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Asian Pacific American Women Lawyers Alliance, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, Api Equality, California Conference Of The Naacp, Chinese For Affirmative Action, Coalition For Humane Immigrant Rights Of Los Angeles, Korematsu Center At Seattle University, Mexican American Legal Defense And Education Fund, And The Zuna Institute, Fred T. Korematsu Center For Law And Equality, Attorneys For Amicus Curiae

Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality

Perry v. Hollingsworth

Brief For Amici Curiae National Immigration Project Of The National Lawyers Guild, National Police Accountability Project, And Legal Services For Children In Support Of Petitioner, Betsy Ginsberg

Amicus Briefs

Amici have a substantial interest in the outcome of this case. The Federal Tort Claims Act ("FTCA" or the "Act") provides compensation for victims of government negligence and abuse. All too often, those cases arise in the immigration and law enforcement contexts, like the case at issue here. They arise when American citizens are unlawfully detained or deported. They arise when people in immigration detention are mistreated or denied proper medical care. And they arise when immigration officials engage in unlawful home raids.

A robust and uniform Federal Tort Claims Act is essential both to compensating victims and to preventing …

Protecting Indigenous Identity And Culture In The Modern Nation-State: A Case Study Of The Sami In Norway, Claire Lockerby

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The plight of indigenous peoples around the world is a serious one, and without significant international action, many valuable cultural and linguistic traditions are in grave danger of disappearing altogether. Many of these indigenous groups have experienced detrimental consequences from the history of slavery, colonialism and imperialism, and the emergence of nation-states that stripped them of their autonomy and greatly threatened their way of life. Today, there are some positive examples of international and national efforts to protect indigenous peoples, but unfortunately, most indigenous populations remain dispossessed and underrepresented. Although the international community has established principles of unalienable human rights, …

El Papel De La Educación Y Las Ong’S En Mejorar El Acceso A Derechos Para Inmigrantes: El Caso De Los Derechos Sexuales Y Reproductivos = The Role Of Education And Ngo’S In Helping Immigrants Obtain Better Access To Their Rights: The Specific Case Of Sexual And Reproductive Rights, Amy Torres

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In January of 2004, Argentina approved a new immigration law that guaranteed the protection of human rights for all immigrants in the country regardless of their legal status with the State. Among the rights explicitly guaranteed by this law were the right to migrate, the right to education and the right to health care. While this law represents a significant advance by the Argentine government in protecting the human rights of immigrants, oppressive mechanisms still remain in everyday practices that inhibit actual access to their rights.

Considering the changes in the law and the breach between the laws and everyday …