Race Rights and the Law Blog
Atiba Ellis
July 2, 2020
I cannot celebrate this Independence Day in a spirit of joy over “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Yet I feel in this time that the clarity we see these days for America’s faults is now more than ever balanced by America’s possibility, that continuing yet unfulfilled promise of equality.
That possibility was born on the Third of July. This year, I will celebrate it and mourn the…
Vinay Harpalani
June 30, 2020
Professor Luke Boso of the University of San Francisco School of Law has posted a new piece entitled "Anti-LGBT Free Speech and Group Subordination" on SSRN. Professor Boso draws from Critical Race Theory to reconceptualize the relationship between liberty and equality. The full abstract is given below, and the article is available for free download here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm…
Nadia Ahmad
June 29, 2020
AALS is hosting a program on Racism, Justice, and Your Fall Classes on June 30th at 4 pm ET/1 pm PT. In this program, panelists will discuss how you might think about incorporating topics concerning racism, justice, diversity, and inclusion into your fall classes at a time when these issues are front-and-center. Here is the registration link.
AALS invites tenure-track, clinical, and legal…
Vinay Harpalani
June 25, 2020
Professor andré douglas pond cummings of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law published an article a couple of years ago that is quite relevant to current issues and debates, in the wake of protests over George Floyd's killing. It is entitled "Reforming Policing" and was published in the Drexel Law Review. The abstract is given below, and here is the link:…
Sahar Aziz
June 23, 2020
When President Trump announced his intention to designate Antifa as a domestic terrorist organisation, his disregard for the upsurge of white right-wing extremist violence was obvious. So, too, was his objective -- quashing political opposition to his administration.
Antifa, short for anti-fascist, is a far-left ideological movement opposed to fascists, neo-Nazis and far-right groups. A…
SpearIt
June 19, 2020
Our years of studying constitutional civil rights have taught us that police policies and even criminal statutes are not enough to overcome the “blue wall of silence” among officers. What’s needed are state laws that create an affirmative duty for bystander cops to intervene to prevent use of excessive force or other civil rights deprivations, and that allow civil suits against cops who don’t.…
Vinay Harpalani
June 16, 2020
Professor Meera Deo recently published UNEQUAL PROFESSION: RACE AND GENDER IN LEGAL ACADEMIA (Stanford University Press, 2019) -- a study that has been getting a lot of attention recently. Professor Deo's work is the first formal empirical study of law faculty with an emphasis on raceXgender challenges facing women of color law professors. Her qualitative and quantitative findings from…
Nadia Ahmad
June 16, 2020
The ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice has developed a multi-part webinar series exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic highlights critical legal issues of criminal justice, civil rights, human rights, and economic concerns, to name only a few. In these free non-CLE and (two CLE) webinars, panelists will address the deepening crisis in our collective pursuit of advancing law and…
Vinay Harpalani
June 14, 2020
During his bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, Andrew Yang received more national media attention than any prior Asian American political candidate [1]. Although not a major contender for the nomination, Yang—who is Taiwanese American—was an engaging and entertaining presence, capturing the imagination of many observers. He gathered a following known as the “Yang Gang”—a group…
Vinay Harpalani
June 13, 2020
C.H. Reed, Woodcut illustrating escape from slavery, Schomburg Center, New York Public Library
Antebellum Law is the Precedent for Today’s White-on-Black Violence
2/23/2020 - Ahmaud Arbery was hunted down and killed by three white men while he was out jogging in Brunswick, Georgia.
3/13/2020 - Breonna Taylor was killed by police while sleeping in her own home when they executed…