Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Reconceptualizing Bankruptcy Education Requirements For Incarcerated Debtors, Sydney Calas

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

In the eighteen years since Congress enacted the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA), bankruptcy scholars and professionals have launched countless critiques against two of the Act’s more drastic amendments: (1) mandatory pre-filing credit counseling and (2) a mandatory post-filing financial management course. Without completing the pre-filing requirement, one cannot qualify as a debtor under the Code and is thus barred from filing for bankruptcy. Without completing the post-filing requirement, one cannot receive a discharge. Notwithstanding the volume and breadth of valid criticisms, the specific harm of BAPCPA’s education requirements has been largely ignored for one population: incarcerated …

Sb 140 - Treatment Of Gender Dysphoria In Minors, Kathleen Kassa, Alexander J. Merritt

Georgia State University Law Review

The Act adds two new subsections that prohibit licensed physicians, hospitals, and related institutions from performing or providing certain forms of gender‑affirming medical treatment, while also defining mechanisms for promulgating and enforcing new prohibitions and exceptions allowing such treatment.

“The Cruelty Is The Point”: Using Buck V. Bell As A Tool For Diversifying Instruction In The Law School Classroom, Tiffany C. Graham

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Asymmetries, Norm Matching, And The Pursuit Of Equity Between The Police And The Public, Eang Ngov

Faculty Articles

Concerns about police abuse and overcriminalization are on the forefront of public conscientiousness. In spite of the Black Lives Matter movement and calls for police reform, law enforcement officials enjoy a variety of criminal procedure loopholes and double standards, which the United States Supreme Court has ratified through its creation of the open fields, mistake of law, and third party doctrines, as well as its acceptance of deceptive police practices. This Article analyzes the asymmetries between permissible civilian conduct and permissible police conduct to make a broader, systemic critique of the double standards and loopholes that pervade constitutional criminal procedure. …

Felony Financial Disenfranchisement, Neel U. Sukhatme, Alexander Billy, Gaurav Bagwe

Vanderbilt Law Review

Individuals with prior felony convictions often must complete all terms of their sentence before they regain voter eligibility. Many jurisdictions include legal-financial obligations (“LFOs”)-—fines, fees, and/or restitution stemming from convictions-—in the terms of the sentence. Twenty-eight states, governing over 182 million Americans, either directly or indirectly tie LFO repayment to voting privileges, a practice we call felony financial disenfranchisement.

Proponents of felony financial disenfranchisement posit that returning citizens must satisfy the financial obligations stemming from convictions to restore themselves as community equals. Moralism aside, others claim low rates of electoral participation among those with felony convictions imply such disenfranchisement is …

The Human Environment: Awakening To The Indomitable Cuban Spirit--Government, Culture, And People, Berta Hernández-Truyol

FIU Law Review

My thoughts are to write about The Human Environment. I will address the recent events concerning the increased silencing of dissent and the criminal law reforms that prohibit peaceful gatherings.

Antidiscrimination Efforts And The Repressive Weight Of Culture, Matthew T. Bodie

FIU Law Review

ChatGPT In "Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit," sociologist Ashley Mears unveils the opulent world of the ultra-rich party scene, where young women, primarily models, serve as ornamental capital to enhance social status. Drawing parallels, Kerri Lynn Stone's "Panes of the Glass Ceiling" exposes enduring systemic barriers to gender equality, particularly in male-dominated professions, despite anti-discrimination laws. Stone emphasizes cultural norms and expectations perpetuating male privilege, challenging the efficacy of existing legal frameworks. Proposing a shift from anti-classification to an anti-subordination principle, Stone advocates for direct interventions, citing legislative efforts targeting pay inequality and mandating …

Universal Forms Of Influence: Support For Women On Boards, Cindy A. Schipani, Paula J. Caproni

Seattle University Law Review

There are various efforts underway to increase gender diversity on corporate boards, including legislation in California, a recent SEC approved comply or explain rule for companies listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, and efforts by institutional investors such as State Street and BlackRock to recognize the value diversity brings to corporate decisionmaking. Although some of these efforts are being contested in the courts, many companies have begun to comply with these initiatives.

This Article is organized as follows. Part I provides an overview of several efforts to increase gender diversity on boards along with numerous research studies showcasing the benefits …

“Statistics Are Human Beings With The Tears Wiped Away”: Utilizing Data To Develop Strategies To Reduce The Number Of Native Americans Who Go Missing, Lori Mcpherson, Sarah Blazucki

Seattle University Law Review

On New Year’s Eve night, 2019, sixteen-year-old Selena Shelley Faye Not Afraid attended a party in Billings, Montana, about fifty miles west of her home in Hardin, Montana, near the Crow Reservation. A junior at the local high school, she was active in her community. The party carried over until the next day, and she caught a ride back toward home with friends in a van the following afternoon. When the van stopped at an interstate rest stop, Selena got out but never made it back to the van. The friends reported her missing to the police and indicated they …

Defining Disparate Treatment: A Research Agenda For Our Times, Deborah Hellman

Indiana Law Journal

Both statutory and constitutional laws prohibiting discrimination forbid actions taken on the basis of certain traits. But rarely are those traits specifically defined. As a result, courts fill in these definitions and do so with consequential results. The boundaries they draw often determine whether or not a law, policy, or action constitutes disparate treatment on the basis of a legally protected trait. As disparate treatment calls for a significantly heavier burden of justification than does disparate impact, the key move putting laws, policies, and the acts of individuals into one category or the other happens in this definitional step.

Defining …

The Legacy Of Brown V. Board Of Education: Achieving Student Body Diversity In All Levels Of Education, Nancy L. Zisk

Touro Law Review

This Article addresses the legal standard by which school admissions programs may be judged and validated as school districts struggle to achieve student body diversity. As the Supreme Court recognized in its seminal decision, Brown v. Board of Education, education “is the very foundation of good citizenship.” Twenty years after that case was decided, Thurgood Marshall, who had argued that separate was not equal in the Brown case, observed as a Justice of the Court that “unless our children begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will ever learn to live together.” Because achieving student body …

Dobbs, Democracy, And Dysfunction, David Landau, Rosalind Dixon

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

How The “Black Criminal” Stereotype Shapes Black People’S Psychological Experience Of Policing: Evidence Of Stereotype Threat And Remaining Questions, Cynthia J. Najdowski

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Cultural stereotypes that link Black race to crime in the U.S. originated in and are perpetuated by policies that result in the disproportionate criminalization and punishment of Black people. The scientific record is replete with evidence that these stereotypes impact perceivers’ perceptions, information processing, and decision-making in ways that produce more negative criminal legal outcomes for Black people than White people. However, relatively scant attention has been paid to understanding how situations that present a risk of being evaluated through the lens of crime-related stereotypes also directly affect Black people. In this article, I consider one situation in particular: encounters …

The Post-Shelby Southern Struggles, Marla Zappa

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

The Summary Judgment Revolution That Wasn't, Jonathan R. Nash, D. Daniel Sokol

Faculty Articles

The U.S. Supreme Court decided a trilogy of cases on summary judgment in 1986. Questions remain as to how much effect these cases have had on judicial decision-making in terms of wins and losses for plaintiffs. Shifts in wins, losses, and what cases get to decisions on the merits impact access to justice. We assemble novel datasets to examine this question empirically in three areas of law that are more likely to respond to shifts in the standard for summary judgment: antitrust, securities regulation, and civil rights. We find that the Supreme Court’s decisions had a statistically significant effect in …

Panes/Pains Of Privilege, Jessica L. Roberts

FIU Law Review

In "Panes of the Glass Ceiling," Kerri Lynn Stone explores how unspoken beliefs rooted in gender stereotypes contribute to workplace inequalities for women. This article, reflecting on Stone's work, discusses how Stone critiques employment discrimination law's inadequacy in addressing these issues and proposes reforms, emphasizing the need for cultural changes beyond legal remedies. The article contextualizes Stone's observations within the framework of privilege, underscoring the invisible nature of privilege in the workplace and advocating for a broader societal shift to dismantle deeply ingrained unspoken beliefs.

Virtually Inaccessible: Resolving Ada Title Iii Standing In Click-And-Mortar Cases, Saxon S. Kagume

Emory Law Journal

As the electronic age has taken hold of the global community, and digital devices have become the mainstay of human interaction, new accessibility barriers have emerged for people with disabilities. Although most courts now conclude virtual inaccessibility is an injury cognizable under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, great ambiguity surrounds the injury-in-fact requirement of Article III standing in online accessibility cases. Despite pleading for elucidation and clarifying principles, federal district courts have been left to navigate the uncharted territory of the digital injury-in-fact inquiry with exiguous guidance from higher courts. The resultant confusion in the federal courts …

To Prohibit Free Exercise: A Proposal For Judging Substantial Burdens On Religion, Eric H. Wang

Emory Law Journal

In Employment Division v. Smith, the Supreme Court famously held that the First Amendment Free Exercise Clause permits neutral laws of general applicability to incidentally burden religion without offering religious exemptions. Today, many people—including Justice Alito in his concurrence in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia—are calling for Smith to be replaced by a jurisprudence that applies strict scrutiny to neutral, generally applicable laws that place a substantial burden on religion.

Yet, both before and after Smith, what exactly has constituted a “substantial burden” on religion has been far from clear. While some courts indicate that burdens on …

First Amendment Protections For "Good Trouble", Dawn C. Nunziato

Emory Law Journal

In the classical era of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, activists and protestors sought to march, demonstrate, stage sit-ins, speak up, and denounce the system of racial oppression in our country. This was met not just by counterspeech—the preferred response within our constitutional framework—but also by efforts by the dominant power structure to censor and shut down those forms of public rebuke of our nation’s racist practices. Fast forward seventy years, and the tactics of the dominant power structure have essentially remained the same in response to today’s civil rights activists who seek to protest …

“Known Adversary”: The Targeting Of The Immigrants’ Rights Movement In The Post-Trump Era, Azadeh Shahshahani, Chiraayu Gosrani

Emory Law Journal

No abstract provided.