Law and Race Commons^™

Exploring The Determinants Of High-Cost Mortgages To Homeowners In Low- And Moderate-Income Neighborhoods, Michael S. Barr, Jane K. Dokko, Benjamin J. Keys

Book Chapters

In spite of the recent impetus to reform home mortgage markets, particularly as they affect low- and moderate-income (LMI) households, little systematic evidence is available about how potential abuses in mortgage lending manifest in the mortgages held by those households. While racial discrimination in mortgage markets has a long history in the United States, the role of mortgage brokers in lending has only recently increased and become controversial. In this chapter, we uncover two mechanisms through which differential mortgage pricing occurs among LMI homeowners: black borrowers and borrowers who use mortgage brokers pay more for mortgage loans than other borrowers, …

Paper Thin: Freedom And Re-Enslavement In The Diaspora Of The Haitian Revolution, Rebecca J. Scott

Articles

In the summer of 1809 a flotilla of boats arrived in New Orleans carrying more than 9,000 Saint-Domingue refugees recently expelled from the Spanish colony of Cuba. These migrants nearly doubled the population of New Orleans, renewing its Francophone character and populating the neighborhoods of the Vieux Carre and Faubourg Marigny. At the heart of the story of their disembarkation, however, is a legal puzzle. Historians generally tell us that the arriving refugees numbered 2,731 whites, 3,102 free people of color, and 3,226 slaves. But slavery had been abolished in Saint-Domingue by decree in 1793, and abolition had been ratified …

Slavery And The Law In Atlantic Perspective: Jurisdiction, Jurisprudence, And Justice, Rebecca J. Scott

Articles

The four articles in this special issue experiment with an innovative set of questions and a variety of methods in order to push the analysis of slavery and the law into new territory. Their scope is broadly Atlantic, encompassing Suriname and Saint-Domingue/Haiti, New York and New Orleans, port cities and coffee plantations. Each essay deals with named individuals in complex circumstances, conveying their predicaments as fine-grained microhistories rather than as shocking anecdotes. Each author, moreover, demonstrates that the moments when law engaged slavery not only reflected but also influenced larger dynamics of sovereignty and jurisprudence.

Williams V. Lee And The Debate Over Indian Equality, Bethany Berger

Faculty Articles and Papers

Williams v. Lee (1959) created a bridge between century-old affirmations of the immunity of Indian territories from state jurisdiction and the tribal self-determination policy of the twentieth century. It has been called the first case in the modern era of federal Indian law. Although no one has written a history of the case, it is generally assumed to be the product of a timeless and unquestioning struggle of Indian peoples for sovereignty. This Article, based on interviews with the still-living participants in the case and on examination of the congressional records, Navajo council minutes, and Supreme Court transcripts, records, and …

¡Silencio! Undocumented Immigrant Witnesses And The Right To Silence, Violeta R. Chapin

Publications

At a time referred to as "an unprecedented era of immigration enforcement," undocumented immigrants who have the misfortune to witness a crime in this country face a terrible decision. Calling the police to report that crime will likely lead to questions that reveal a witness's immigration status, resulting in detention and deportation for the undocumented immigrant witness. Programs like Secure Communities and 287(g) partnerships evidence an increase in local immigration enforcement, and this Article argues that undocumented witnesses' only logical response to these programs is silence. Silence, in the form of a complete refusal to call the police to report …

Reading Charles Black Writing: "The Lawfulness Of The Segregation Decisions" Revisited, Kendall Thomas

Faculty Scholarship

The year 2010 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Charles L. Black, Jr.'s "The Lawfulness of the Segregation Decisions." Professor Black's magisterial essay on the Supreme Court's 1954-1955 decisions in Brown v. Board of Education and its companion cases is, by any account, a foundational text in the scholarly literature on race and law in the United States. Black's short but searing defense of Brown introduced ideas and arguments about race, about law, and about the law of race that transformed the field. I can think of no better way to celebrate this inaugural issue of the Columbia …

Examining The "Stick" Of Accreditation For Medical Schools Through Reproductive Justice Lens: A Transformative Remedy For Teaching The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Deleso Alford Washington

Journal Publications

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, like the traditional recounting of the event, failed to acknowledge the direct impact of untreated syphilis in women. Arguably, the most infamous biomedical research study ever performed by the United States government is the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which occurred between 1932 and 1972 in Macon County, Alabama. The stated purpose of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was to determine the effects of untreated syphilis on Black men in Macon County, Alabama. Accordingly, historical and legal accounts have primarily told the stories of the male participants of the Study.

However, an overlooked yet important question looms: What about …

A Conversation With President Obama: A Dialogue About Poverty, Race, And Class In Black America, Joseph Karl Grant

Journal Publications

The date is November 13, 2012.1 Just mere days ago, I received the invitation of a lifetime. Last night, I arrived in Washington, D.C. I am staying in the Hay-Adams Hotel on the third floor. I still cannot believe the extent of my life's journey. I have just been summoned to the White House by second term President-elect Barack Obama, who defeated Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for President on November 6, 2012. The 2012 Presidential Election was a hard-fought battle between Barack Obama on the Democratic side, and Mitt Romney on Republican side. The election was a like the …

Reaction To: Wealth, Poverty, And The Equal Protection Clause, Patricia A. Broussard

Journal Publications

No abstract provided.

Reshaping The Narrative Debate, Nancy Levit

Faculty Works

In Reshaping the Work-Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter, Joan Williams sets out to alter the terms of the public discussion about working, caregiving, and work-family conflicts. In doing so, Williams also reframes part of the conversation about the use of narratives in legal analysis and policy-making.

This essay describes the debate about narrative or storytelling in the legal academy. Two decades ago, a pitched jurisprudential battle surfaced in the pages of law reviews about the value of storytelling as legal scholarship. Since that time, narrative has sifted into academic texts: people are telling stories all over the place. …

Jury Nullification, Race, And The Wire, James M. Keneally

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial: Voting Rights For The Incarcerated, Juan Moreno Haines

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

The Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal is proud to present Voices from the Community. This feature will allow us to publish pieces written by those affected by the legal system, so that our Journal is not merely one of academic discourse, but one that invites persons experiencing injustice to add their perspectives to our publication. In our introductory piece, Juan Moreno Haines, a man currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison, lends firsthand insight on felon disenfranchisement and how it affects him and the other men with whom he is incarcerated.

Equality Behind Bars: Improving The Legal Protections Of Transgender Inmates In The California Prison Systems, Angela Okamura

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

This note examines the failure of federal and California law to protect perhaps its most vulnerable population: transgender prisoners. Although California expresses its concern for the safety and well-being of transgender individuals in other areas of the law, rights for transgender inmates get left in the dust. Transgender inmates are disproportionately likely to be sexually abused in prison, and their safety is not adequately assured under the current state of federal or California law. Currently, when classifying and housing prisoners, officials of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation ("CDCR") are only required to look at factors that point to …

The Intersection Of Intellectual Property And Race In The Twenty-First Century: An Examination Of The Interpretation Of Racial Categories In Patent Law, Tiffany Cruz Gonzalez

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

The political and jurisprudential treatment of racespecific patents, patents on inventions that are aimed at certain racially or ethnically defined groups, in the United States has the potential to legitimize the reification of race and severely impact society's understanding of racial disparities. Accordingly, with the increase in race-specific patents, and race-based technology in general, the way that the courts will construe racial categories in claim terms will determine the pattern and practice of future race relations in the United States. This note examines the role of a judge and an inventor in the potential litigation of a racespecific patent both …

A Civil Right To Counsel Through The States Using California's Efficiency Project As A Model Toward A Civil Gideon, Brian Brophy

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

While the United States Supreme Court's decision in Gideon v. Wainwright guaranteed the right to counsel in criminal trials, the poor are often left without representation in civil cases. These cases can have devastating impacts on the poor's access to housing, welfare benefits, children, and more. In 2009, California passed the Sargent Shriver Civil Counsel Act, which created pilot projects that guarantee access to counsel in civil cases for indigent Californians. This note examines how state legislatures can use California's act as a model to expand access to counsel into the civil context. If state officials are shown the dire …

You Don't Have To Reinvent The Wheel: A Comparison Of Wage And Hour Laws, Their Effects On The Latino Family, And What We Can Learn From Them, Brenda Valle

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

Latinos have become the fastest growing minority population in the United States. As a result, the United States has seen a surfacing of issues that have had a unique impact on the Latino population. One issue that has specifically affected Latinos is the weakness in wage and hour laws, both at the federal and state level. Because Latinos as a group are primarily concentrated in low-wage sectors, wage and hour laws have a greater impact on Latinos than any other group. Furthermore, the negative impact wage and hour laws have does not stop with the low-wage worker but extends to …

Williams V. Lee And The Debate Over Indian Equality, Bethany R. Berger

Michigan Law Review

Williams v. Lee (1959) created a bridge between century-old affirmations of the immunity of Indian territories from state jurisdiction and the tribal self-determination policy of the twentieth century. It has been called the first case in the modern era of federal Indian law. Although no one has written a history of the case, it is generally assumed to be the product of a timeless and unquestioning struggle of Indian peoples for sovereignty. This Article, based on interviews with the still-living participants in the case and on examination of the congressional records, Navajo council minutes, and Supreme Court transcripts, records, and …

The Brains Behind Mediation: Reflections On Neuroscience, Conflict Resolution And Decision-Making, Daniel Weitz

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

On September 13, 1848, an explosives charge sent a three-foot tamping iron about an inch in diameter through the head of Phineas Gage. Although Gage survived, the tamping iron, which entered just under the left eye and exited through the frontal portion of his head, destroyed his prefrontal cortex. Prior to the accident, Gage was a popular foreman of a railroad construction crew. After the accident, he was a tactless, profane, and impulsive man with a dramatically altered personality.

Red Card Racism: Using The Court Of Arbitration For Sport (Cas) To Prevent And Punish Racist Conduct Perpetrated By Fans Attending European Soccer Games, Alexander Wynn

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This Note proceeds in three sections. Part I describes the extent to which racism infects European soccer, the processes by which Uefa addresses violations of the Uefa Statutes and CAS' contributions to sports mediation and arbitration. Part II contextualizes Uefa's governing authority within statutory and case law from the E.U. and the United Kingdom [hereinafter "U.K."] as legal frameworks through which to explore possible reasons why Uefa rarely imposes substantial sanctions on member associations or teams whose fans perpetrate racist acts. Finally, Part III explores the reasons why CAS is better able to address and punish racism in European soccer …

Teaching Gender As A Core Value In Business Organizations Class, Cheryl L. Wade

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

I teach a business organizations course that is typically a large class with up to ninety students. At some point in the first week of each semester, I talk about public companies and the men who lead them. I point out to my students that while it is appropriate in most contexts to use gender-neutral language, it would be inaccurate to do so when talking about big business. Only fifteen percent of the board seats at Fortune 500 companies are held by women, and only sixteen percent of Fortune 500 corporate officers are women. I let my students know …