Things Invisible To See: State Action & Private Property,
2018
Texas A&M University School of Law
Things Invisible To See: State Action & Private Property, Joseph William Singer, Isaac Saidel-Goley
Texas A&M Law Review
This Article revisits the state action doctrine, a judicial invention that shields “private” or “non-governmental” discrimination from constitutional scrutiny. Traditionally, this doctrine has applied to discrimination even in places of public accommodation, like restaurants, hotels, and grocery stores. Born of overt racial discrimination, the doctrine has inflicted substantial injustice throughout its inglorious history, and courts have continuously struggled in vain to coherently apply the doctrine. Yet, the United States Supreme Court has not fully insulated “private” or “horizontal” relations among persons from constitutional scrutiny. The cases in which it has applied constitutional norms to non-governmental actors should be celebrated rather …
Challenging The Rhetorical Gag And Trap: Reproductive Capacities, Rights, And The Helms Amendment,
2018
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Challenging The Rhetorical Gag And Trap: Reproductive Capacities, Rights, And The Helms Amendment, Michele Goodwin
Northwestern University Law Review
This Essay argues that the battle over women’s autonomy, especially their reproductive healthcare and decision-making, has always been about much more than simply women’s health and safety. Rather, upholding patriarchy and dominion over women’s reproduction historically served political purposes and entrenched social and cultural norms that framed women’s capacities almost exclusively as service to a husband, mothering, reproducing, and sexual chattel. In turn, such social norms—often enforced by statutes and legal opinions—took root in rhetoric rather than the realities of women’s humanity, experiences, capacities, autonomy, and lived lives. As such, law created legal fictions about women and their supposed lack …
Prosecuting U.N. Peacekeepers For Sexual And Gender-Based Violence In The Central African Republic,
2018
Brooklyn Law School
Prosecuting U.N. Peacekeepers For Sexual And Gender-Based Violence In The Central African Republic, Sophia Genovese
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
Women and children living in armed conflict are amongst the most vulnerable populations at-risk of sexual and gender-based violence. When U.N. peacekeepers arrive to help dispel conflict; these populations believe that the soldiers in blue helmets will protect them. Instead; hundreds of women and children in the Central African Republic have reported being raped and sexually violated by U.N. peacekeepers. Despite compelling evidence to validate these claims; U.N. peacekeepers who commit these crimes are seldom held accountable. This Note discusses how to hold U.N. peacekeepers accountable for their human rights violations. This Note argues that troop-contributing countries should retain responsibility …
"Playing It Safe" With Empirical Evidence: Selective Use Of Social Science In Supreme Court Cases About Racial Justice And Marriage Equality,
2018
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
"Playing It Safe" With Empirical Evidence: Selective Use Of Social Science In Supreme Court Cases About Racial Justice And Marriage Equality, Russell K. Robinson, David M. Frost
Northwestern University Law Review
This Essay seeks to draw connections between race, sexual orientation, and social science in Supreme Court litigation. In some respects, advocates for racial minorities and sexual minorities face divergent trajectories. Among those asserting civil rights claims, LGBT rights claimants have been uniquely successful at the Court ever since Romer v. Evans in the mid-1990s. During this period, advocates for racial minorities have fought to preserve earlier victories in cases such as Regents of the University of California v. Bakke and have failed to overturn precedents that strictly limit equal protection possibilities, such as McCleskey v. Kemp. Nonetheless, we argue …
Equal Protection Under The Carceral State,
2018
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Equal Protection Under The Carceral State, Aya Gruber
Northwestern University Law Review
McCleskey v. Kemp, the case that upheld the death penalty despite undeniable evidence of its racially disparate impact, is indelibly marked by Justice William Brennan’s phrase, “a fear of too much justice.” The popular interpretation of this phrase is that the Supreme Court harbored what I call a “disparity-claim fear,” dreading a future docket of racial discrimination claims and erecting an impossibly high bar for proving an equal protection violation. A related interpretation is that the majority had a “color-consciousness fear” of remedying discrimination through race-remedial policies. In contrast to these conventional views, I argue that the primary anxiety …
Trans Women In Incarceration: Housing, Healthcare, And Humanity,
2018
San Jose State University
Trans Women In Incarceration: Housing, Healthcare, And Humanity, Stanislaw Bielous
Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science
This paper seeks to analyze the experience of male-to-female transgender inmates housed in men’s prisons and to propose housing and healthcare policies with humanity and safety for all in mind. To do this, the paper examines gender dysphoria and its treatments, transgender prisoners’ increased risk of victimization, current housing placement policies, and lastly, transgender prison healthcare practices. Ultimately, this paper proposes the use of fair and adequately trained panel-based placement teams, the provision of comprehensive mental and physical health care and the establishment of impartial grievance procedures.
You Play Ball Like A Girl: Cultural Implications Of The Contact Sports Exemption And Why It Needs To Be Changed,
2018
Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
You Play Ball Like A Girl: Cultural Implications Of The Contact Sports Exemption And Why It Needs To Be Changed, Michelle Margaret Smith
Cleveland State Law Review
Women in the United States have historically earned significantly less income per year compared to their male counterparts. In 2014, the pay discrepancy was at its lowest point with women earning seventy-nine cents per every dollar men earned. This discrepancy exists even though women now attain college degrees at a higher rate than men and make up 47% of the labor force. In sports, the pay discrepancy is even greater. At the professional level, women earn as little as 1.2% of what their male counterparts earn. This Note addresses how changing the contact sports exemption in Title IX to allow …
The Devil You Don’T Know: Implicit Bias Keeps Women In Their Place,
2018
Nova Southeastern University
The Devil You Don’T Know: Implicit Bias Keeps Women In Their Place, Michele N. Struffolino
Pace Law Review
While men’s claims of gender bias in the family law system are acknowledged, this article focuses on how bias, whether implicit or explicit under the guise of unconscious attitudes or behavior, continues to place women at a systemic disadvantage. Although implicit bias also impacts outcomes in child abuse and neglect actions involving the state, the focus of this article is the impact of implicit bias in actions between women and men in the family courts, in particular those issues involved in the dissolution of the relationship and the family unit. First, the emergence of implicit social cognition theory will be …
Equal Work,
2018
University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
Equal Work, Stephanie Bornstein
Maryland Law Review
Most Americans have heard of the gender pay gap and the statistic that, today, women earn on average eighty cents to every dollar men earn. Far less discussed, there is an even greater racial pay gap. Black and Latino men average only seventy-one cents to the dollar of white men. Compounding these gaps is the “polluting” impact of status characteristics on pay: as women and racial minorities enter occupations formerly dominated by white men, the pay for those occupations goes down. Improvement in the gender pay gap has been stalled for nearly two decades; the racial pay gap is actually …
Strategies To Promote Women's Participation In Shaping International Law And Policy In An Era Of Anti-Globalism,
2018
University of Georgia School of Law
Strategies To Promote Women's Participation In Shaping International Law And Policy In An Era Of Anti-Globalism, Patricia Wald
Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law
No abstract provided.
A Tribute To Hope Lewis,
2018
Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law
A Tribute To Hope Lewis, Karen E. Bravo
Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law
No abstract provided.
Cruel & Unusual Pathways To Crime: A Call For Gender- And Trauma-Informed Correctional Care,
2018
Brooklyn Law School
Cruel & Unusual Pathways To Crime: A Call For Gender- And Trauma-Informed Correctional Care, Emily Frances Musson
Journal of Law and Policy
Many female inmates have suffered trauma by way of interpersonal violence, which often precipitates mental health issues as well as criminal behavior later in life. Eighth Amendment jurisprudence dictates that they are entitled to adequate mental health treatment while incarcerated. Despite an influx of female inmates and the number of those requiring treatment, mental health programs in penal institutions have been designed to serve the needs of incarcerated men. Meanwhile, psychosocial scholarship has determined that mental health treatment needs to be informed by offenders’ common experiences as women and victims of gender-based violence (gender-responsive), as well as survivors of trauma …
Improving Education Through Devotion: A Religious Solution To Eastern Turkey's Gender Gap,
2018
William & Mary Law School
Improving Education Through Devotion: A Religious Solution To Eastern Turkey's Gender Gap, Joshua E. Thomas
William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice
Turkey has much room for improvement regarding women’s education opportunities—particularly in eastern Anatolia. Despite the Turkish Republic’s outward secular appearance, Islamic law plays an increasingly important role in society. A potential solution to the government’s sluggish progress on gender equality may lie in the utilization of their religious directorate (Diyanet). The Diyanet could issue fatwas sympathetic to women’s rights, which may more effectively reach the conservative eastern Turkish population.
The Invisible Victims Of The School-To-Prison Pipeline: Understanding Black Girls, School Push-Out, And The Impact Of The Every Student Succeeds Act,
2018
William & Mary Law School
The Invisible Victims Of The School-To-Prison Pipeline: Understanding Black Girls, School Push-Out, And The Impact Of The Every Student Succeeds Act, Bianca A. White
William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice
No abstract provided.
Creating A Classroom Component For Field Placement Programs: Enhancing Clinical Goals With Feminist Pedagogy,
2018
University of Maine School of Law
Creating A Classroom Component For Field Placement Programs: Enhancing Clinical Goals With Feminist Pedagogy, Linda Morton
Maine Law Review
There exists a historic conflict between the more traditional Langdellian philosophy of legal education, and the experiential philosophy of apprenticeship programs, now known as field placement programs. The conflict is most recently apparent in the American Bar Association's (ABA) attempts to impose a more traditional classroom format on field placement programs through its regulations, guidelines, and instructions pertaining to law school accreditation. The ABA argues that law schools need to allocate greater instructional resources toward their field placement programs, particularly programs that provide more than one-half a semester's credit. Such programs should include a classroom component that meets ABA guidelines. …
The Ecoa And Disparate Impact Theory: A Historical Perspective,
2018
Brooklyn Law School
The Ecoa And Disparate Impact Theory: A Historical Perspective, Winnie F. Taylor
Journal of Law and Policy
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) prohibits credit discrimination because of sex, marital status, race, age, and other personal attributes. Congress enacted the ECOA in 1974 to eliminate unfair lending practices that inhibit equality in the credit industry. Recently, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB” or “Bureau”) sued several automobile financiers and alleged ECOA violations in the various complaints; the resulting settlements became controversial when critics questioned the CFPB’s use of an evidentiary standard known as “disparate impact” to support its discrimination claims. While plaintiffs may use disparate impact theory to prove unintentional discrimination, they may also use another analytical …
Born Free: Toward An Expansive Definition Of Sex,
2018
University of Oklahoma College of Law
Born Free: Toward An Expansive Definition Of Sex, Laura Palk, Shelly Grunsted
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
The State of New York recently issued its first physician-certified “intersex” birth certificate, correcting a 55-year-old’s original birth certificate. This is a positive step towards eliminating the traditional binary approach to a person’s birth sex, but it creates potential uncertainties in the employment discrimination context. Over the past several years, the definition of what constitutes “discrimination on the basis of sex” has both expanded (with the legalization of same-sex marriage) and narrowed (restricting the use of gender specific bathrooms). Until recently it appeared that a broader definition of the term “sex” would become the judicial—and possibly legislative—norm in a variety …
Removing Camouflaged Barriers To Equality: Overcoming Systemic Sexual Assault And Harassment At The Military Academies,
2018
University of Michigan Law School
Removing Camouflaged Barriers To Equality: Overcoming Systemic Sexual Assault And Harassment At The Military Academies, Rebecca Weiant
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
The Education Amendments of 1972 introduced requirements to protect female students from discriminatory policies at post-secondary institutions. A portion of those amendments, commonly known as Title IX, require that no students be subjected to discrimination based on their sex by any educational institution or activity receiving federal financial assistance. An exemption under § 1681(a)(4), however, explicitly prohibits application of Title IX to any educational institution whose primary purpose is to train individuals for military service or the merchant marine. Although those students are still subject to stringent conduct standards, the service academies themselves are tethered to sex discrimination policies only …
Now We Know Better: A New Legal Framework On Sex To Better Promote Autonomy, Equality, Diversity And Care For The Poor,
2018
University at Buffalo School of Law
Now We Know Better: A New Legal Framework On Sex To Better Promote Autonomy, Equality, Diversity And Care For The Poor, Helen M. Alvaré
Buffalo Law Review
Over especially the last 50 to 60 years, US laws and policies concerning the sexual relationships between men and women have more consciously articulated a need to pursue social justice according to the categories of autonomy, equality, diversity and care for the poor. These categories are admirable on their face and responsive to the times in which they emerged. They are particularly well-suited to the history of discrimination against women and African Americans in the US. They were strongly influenced, inter alia, by the development of contraceptive technology and an array of social welfare initiatives, the rise of feminism and …
When Courts Run Amuck: A Book Review Of Unequal: How America's Courts Undermine Discrimination Law By Sandra F. Sperino And Suja A. Thomas (Oxford 2017),
2018
University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law
When Courts Run Amuck: A Book Review Of Unequal: How America's Courts Undermine Discrimination Law By Sandra F. Sperino And Suja A. Thomas (Oxford 2017), Theresa M. Beiner
Texas A&M Law Review
In Unequal: How America’s Courts Undermine Discrimination Law (“Unequal”), law professors Sandra F. Sperino and Suja A. Thomas provide a point-by-point analysis of how the federal courts’ interpretations of federal anti-discrimination laws have undermined their efficacy to provide relief to workers whose employers have allegedly engaged in discrimination. The cases’ results are consistently pro-employer, even while the Supreme Court of the United States—a court not known for being particularly pro-plaintiff—has occasionally ruled in favor of plaintiff employees. The authors suggest some reasons for this apparent anti-plaintiff bias among the federal courts, although they do not settle on a particular reason …
