Race Rights and the Law Blog
Vinay Harpalani
February 3, 2021
Today, President Joe Biden's Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped its lawsuit challenging Yale University's race-conscious admissions policies--a lawsuit that was initiated by the Trump Administration. The Biden Administration will likely effect a "complete switch in position" from the Trump Administration's stand on affirmative action and fully support the use of race as a flexible,…
Sahar Aziz
January 18, 2021
The Hill recently released a January 8-11, 2021 poll showing 49% of respondents did not have confidence in state election authorities' ability to fairly and accurately count their votes. Disaggregated by political party, only 29% of Republicans and 73% of Democrats were confident in their state's electoral authorities. Similarly, the overall confidence in American electoral systems was less…
Sahar Aziz
January 15, 2021
For a variety of reasons, Muslims in America are in the public spotlight. As a result, the demand for information and analysis on Muslims and Islam in the United States has risen. In an effort to provide a resource for academics, advocates, journalists, and others, we created this bibliography of over 250 books published between 1965 and 2020 focused on Muslims and Islam in the United States. We…
Sahar Aziz
January 13, 2021
They Want to See the Manager: Mistaking Democracy for Consumption
The events of January 6, 2021 have been a fertile source of discussion for many legal scholars and experts. As Congress attempted to certify the election of President Joe Biden in Washington, D.C., mobs of right-wing agitators stormed the Capitol and forced their way inside. The rioters had been whipped into a frenzy during a…
SpearIt
January 11, 2021
In recent weeks, Americans and the world have gotten a racial and religious double-dose of the double standards that fuel law and policy in this country. While many would like to think that equality and egalitarianism are the order of the day, recent events prove otherwise. Just a quick look at the Christmas bombing in Tennessee and the Capitol riot in Washington D.C. lay bare the two Americas…
Vinay Harpalani
January 6, 2021
Renuka Rayasam of Politico recently wrote an interesting article entitled "The Southern state where Black voters are gaining in numbers, but not power". She contrasts Georgia with Mississippi and provides insight on how Black voters can shape the Democratic Party's future in the South, if the Party can earn their trust and support.
Triaging Public Health Services Based on Race: What Are The Legal Challenges? By Christopher Ogolla.
Christopher Ogolla
January 5, 2021
According to the CDC, race and ethnicity are risk markers for other underlying conditions that affect health including socioeconomic status, access to health care, and exposure to the Covid-19 virus.[1] For example, American Indian or Alaska Natives are 4 times more likely to be hospitalized for Covid-19 and 2.6 more times to die, compared to White non Hispanic persons. Black or African American…
Nadia Ahmad
January 3, 2021
Dear 2021,
If you have a way to inoculate against the pandemic of COViD-19, do you have a vaccine against the virus of racism? Do you have a way to crush racism and the overt/subversive tactics used to silence/belittle/demean/marginalize/kill black and brown folks? And do you have a way to crush the pedantic racism masquerading as legal commentary?
What does pedantic mean?
In frequently asked…
Vinay Harpalani
December 28, 2020
In 1903, Jackson W. Giles filed a lawsuit alleging that the board of registrars of Montgomery County, Alabama had engaged in widespread disenfranchisement of Black voters. The case, Giles v. Harris, eventually landed on the desk of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, a Union army veteran who fought in the fiercest battles of the Civil War.
Holmes refused to fashion a remedy that would…
SpearIt
December 17, 2020
“I am writing to inform you that I have recommended to the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts that you receive a one-year notice of nonrenewal pursuant to the University of Mississippi’s Termination of Untenured Faculty policy." These are the cowardly words that were written to Professor Garrett Felber by the chair of the history department, Noell Wilson. She continued, “Your employment with…