Law and Race Commons^™

Resistance And Repression: The Black Guerrilla Family In Context, Azadeh Zohrabi

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation ("CDCR") considers prison gangs to be serious threats to prison safety and security and has developed a "gang validation" system to identify suspected prison gang members and their associates. The CDCR administratively segregates these prisoners from the general population by use of harsh, highly restrictive secure housing units ("SHUs"). The CDCR's gang validation process is currently applied to the Black Guerrilla Family ("BGF"), the only Black prison gang recognized by the CDCR.

This note will engage in a historical examination of the political movement that gave rise to the BGF and the life …

Beyond Bed And Bread: Making The African State Through Marriage Law Reform - Constitutive And Transformative Influences Of Anglo-American Legal Thought, Sylvia Wairimu Kang'ara

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

This article argues that marriage law reform in African countries formerly under British colonial rule has been as constitutive of the family as of the state; and that consequently, legal pluralism is an important tool of national and transnational governance. This is because marriage law has directly contributed to the economic modernization programs of colonial and postcolonial governments. For one, the colonial land law regime and subsequent expropriation of land drew inspiration from the sharp distinction colonial courts made between African and Western ideas of family.

Later, postcolonial marriage law adopted a doctrinal template that embraced individual choice and liberty, …

Picuris Pueblo Tribal Court Handbook (2012), Tribal Law Journal Staff

Tribal Law Journal

This handbook helps take some of the mystery out of practicing in tribal courts. Without the necessary information to learn new rules and protocols many attorneys are understandably reluctant to practice in a new jurisdiction. As a result, tribal courts are underused or misused. This handbook is intended to help attorneys and advocates become more aware of the various individual tribal court systems and to learn their rules and protocol.

Why We Need A Progressive Account Of Violence, Aya Gruber

Publications

No abstract provided.

Racial Inclusion, Exclusion And Segregation In Constitutional Law, Michelle Adams

Articles

In Part I of the Article, I examine early cases in which the Court described segregation as a form of resource "lock-up." In several cases leading up to Brown, the Court detailed how racial segregation allows a more dominant group to hoard substantial societal resources. In these early cases, the Court's focus was on segregation as a mechanism for excluding individuals from valuable benefits on the basis of race; it did not speak explicitly to the harms associated with racial classification schemes. In this Part of the Article, I also return to Brown v. Board of Education and explore the …

How Predatory Mortgage Lending Changed African American Communities And Families, Cheryl L. Wade

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

This symposium focuses on efforts to reform the secondary mortgage market in the aftermath of the most potent economic downturn in U.S. history since The Great Depression. One question posed at the symposium in several forms was whether low-income Americans should be encouraged to own a home. Implicit in this question is the idea that low­-income homebuyers were responsible for the losses that investors in mortgage-backed securities incurred. This question is part of a familiar narrative: investors in mortgage-backed securities suffered, and the economy suffered, because low-income homebuyers defaulted. My essay, however, looks beyond the alleged irresponsibility of homebuyers …

The Influence Of Past Racism On Criminal Injustice: A Review Of The New Jim Crow And The Condemnation Of Blackness, Jelani Jefferson Exum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

There are books that, on their own, are informative and moving. But, oftentimes, reading books together—one right after the other—compounds each works’ transformative power. Michelle Alexander’s much-needed report (calling it simply a book hardly does it justice), The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, can certainly stand on its own as an important statement about the current use of mass incarceration to maintain a racial caste system in the United States. The same strength can be found in The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America, Khalil Gibran …

Legal Education, Social Justice And The Law School Dean: Latinas At The Center, Margaret E. Montoya

Faculty Scholarship

The opening of LatCrit XVI in San Diego, CA, on October 9, 2011, coincided with the events that are identified as the start of the global expression of the Occupy Movement. The Occupy Movement began to gain media attention on September 17, 2011, in Zuccotti Park in New York City. By October 9, protests had taken place or were ongoing in eighty-two countries and over 600 communities in the United States. The broad theme for LatCrit XVI was "Global Justice" and the conference was billed as "an opportunity to explore theories, histories, and futures of global justice. Of particular importance …

Remarks, James Anaya

Publications

These remarks were delivered at the Closing Plenary--Indigenous Peoples and International Law: A Conversation with UN Special Rapporteur James Anaya and Inter-American Commission Rapporteur Dinah Shelton.

"Other Spaces" In Legal Pedagogy, Lolita Buckner Inniss

Publications

There is an increasing focus upon the material and metaphoric spatial dimensions of various academic disciplines, including law. This essay considers the spatial dimensions of legal pedagogy, focusing on Critical Race Theory (CRT). The essay first explains the "critical program" in law and how CRT grows out of it. The essay then suggests that the critical program, and especially CRT, is as much a human geographic or spatial construct as it is a social, political or historic one, and briefly describes the nature of human geography and legal geography. It next considers how metaphors for understanding CRT's position in legal …

Inextricably Political: Race, Membership, And Tribal Sovereignty, Sarah Krakoff

Publications

Courts address equal protection questions about the distinct legal treatment of American Indian tribes in the following dichotomous way: are classifications concerning American Indians "racial or political?" If the classification is political (i.e., based on federally recognized tribal status or membership in a federally recognized tribe) then courts will not subject it to heightened scrutiny. If the classification is racial rather than political, then courts may apply heightened scrutiny. This Article challenges the dichotomy itself. The legal categories "tribe" and "tribal member" are themselves political, and reflect the ways in which tribes and tribal members have been racialized by U.S. …

Race As A Legal Concept, Justin Deystone

Publications

Race is a legal concept, and like all legal concepts, it is a matrix of rules. Although the legal conception of race has shifted over time, up from slavery and to the present, one element in the matrix has remained the same: the background rules of race have always taken a view of racial identity as a natural aspect of human biology. To be sure, characterizations of the rule have oftentimes kept pace with developments in race science, and the original invention of race as a rationale for the subordination of certain human populations is now a rationale with little …

Arizona, Immigration, And Latinos: The Epistemology Of Whiteness, The Geography Of Race, Interest Convergence, And The View From The Perspective Of Critical Theory, George A. Martinez

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In this article, the author analyzes a scheme of laws in Arizona regarding immigration and Latinos by using the powerful tools of contemporary critical theory, which have been especially developed to analyze issues of race such as those presented in the laws at issue. As discussed below, critical theory, as applied to Arizona, reveals (1) that the newly enacted scheme of laws reflects an epistemology of whiteness and operates to transform Arizona into a white geographical landscape; (2) that the outlawing of ethnic studies in Arizona is a corollary to the establishment of a white geographical space in Arizona; (3) …

Defusing Implicit Bias, Jonathan Feingold, Karen Lorang

Faculty Scholarship

The February 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin has slowly reignited the national conversation about race and violence. Despite the sheer volume of debate arising from this tragedy, insufficient attention has been paid to the potentially deadly mix of guns and implicit bias. Evidence of implicit bias, and its power to alter real-world behavior, is stronger now than ever. A growing body of research on “shooter bias” reveals that, as a result of implicit bias, White and Black Americans are more likely to shoot unarmed Black men than unarmed White men. The problem has been diagnosed. What remains to be determined …

'Other Spaces' In Legal Pedagogy, Lolita Buckner Inniss

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

There is an increasing focus upon the material and metaphoric spatial dimensions of various academic disciplines, including law. This essay considers the spatial dimensions of legal pedagogy, focusing on Critical Race Theory (CRT). The essay first explains the “critical program” in law and how CRT grows out of it. The essay then suggests that the critical program, and especially CRT, is as much a human geographic or spatial construct as it is a social, political or historic one, and briefly describes the nature of human geography and legal geography. It next considers how metaphors for understanding CRT’s position in legal …

The War On Women's Fundamental Rights: Connecting U.S. Supreme Court Originalism To Rightwing, Conservative Extremism In American Politics, Donna J. King

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article argues that the Fourteenth Amendment's Privileges or Immunities Clause, intended to protect fundamental rights for all citizens, including women, has been systematically undermined by the U.S. Supreme Court's originalist interpretations. This erosion, exemplified by cases like SlaughterHouse, has emboldened right-wing extremism and threatens women's rights, particularly in the context of unenumerated fundamental rights. The article contends that the Court's narrow constructions and disregard for legislative history have perpetuated inequality and stripped the Clause of its intended protective power.

Ain't I A Victim? The Intersectionality Of Race, Class, And Gender In Domestic Violence And The Courtroom, Geneva Brown

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The legal system systematically fails to protect marginalized groups, particularly African American women, from intimate-partner violence due to entrenched race, gender, and class biases. These biases manifest in the courts' disregard for the unique experiences of African American women, as highlighted by Kimberlé Crenshaw's intersectionality theory. The article examines how systemic discrimination and the courts' failure to enforce protective orders perpetuate violence against this vulnerable population, emphasizing the lethal consequences of these failures. The analysis also critiques the Supreme Court's narrowing of constitutional protections in cases like DeShaney v. Winnebago County and Castle Rock v. Gonzales, which further erode …

Bridging The Great Divide--A Response To Linda Greenhouse And Reva B. Siegel's Before (And After) Roe V. Wade: New Questions About Backlash, Lolita Buckner Inniss

Publications

This essay discusses the history of Roe v. Wade as recently addressed by Linda Greenhouse and Reva B. Siegel. Going beyond their assertions, I suggest that an additional, more encompassing inquiry focuses on what factors are implicated in the politics of abortion and how these factors relate to larger social, political, and cultural conflicts both before and after Roe. By naming party politics and the Catholic Church, Greenhouse and Siegel posit two crucial elements that shaped the abortion debate. I assert, however, that what is not discussed in their Article is the way numerous other factors have figured into …

Brief Of Committee Of Law Professors And Constitutional Historians As Amicus Curiae In Support Of Plaintiffs-Appellants, Coalition To Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights & Fight For Equal. By Any Means Necessary (Bamn) V. Regents Of The Univ. Of Mich., Nos. 08-1387, 08-1534 (6th Cir. Oct. 25, 2011)., Michelle Adams, Richard Aynes, Wilson R. Huhn, Michael A. Lawrence, Michael Perry, Richard Saphire, Christopher Waldrep, Rebecca Zietlow

Con Law Center Amicus Briefs

The purpose of this brief is to place the dispute over affirmative action in Michigan’s public universities within a broader historical context. State constitutional amendments such as Proposal 2 are not uncommon in American history. In reaction to calls for reform from a minority group - whether it be the end of slavery, the enactment of non-discrimination laws, or the adoption of voluntary programs of racial integration - the majority has often responded by attempting to prevent the debate from occurring, by denying members of the minority group the opportunity to participate in the political process, or by making it …

Confronting Race In The Criminal Justice System: The Aba's Racial Justice Improvement Project, Cynthia E. Jones

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.