Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
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2024 Hooding Ceremony Program
https://commons.law.famu.edu/hooding-ceremony-programs/1019/thumbnail.jp
Let the Sun Shine: Methods for Expansion of Small-Scale Solar Electricity to Reduce Fossil Fuel Dependence, Ease Financial Energy Burdens, and Enhance Community Resiliency
With so many benefits to solar electricity generation, it behooves state and local governments across America to explore laws and policies which encourage small-scale solar deployment. To help guide development of such laws and policies, Part I of this Article will explain the mechanics and the financing involved with the installation, operation, and maintenance of an on-site solar system. Part II explores the unique benefits and challenges of small-scale solar usage in low-income and weather vulnerable communities. Part III explains the legal and financial governance of American electric companies and how existing frameworks may lead utilities to erect hurdles to prevent on-site solar electricity generation. Part IV explores strategies, specifically laws and financing tools, used successfully by Hawaii, California, and Illinois to encourage widespread investment in on-site solar systems. Finally, Part V presents recommendations on how best to incorporate legal and political tools in jurisdictions seeking to expand use of small-scale solar, with an emphasis on benefiting low-income and weather vulnerable communities
Exceedingly Unpersuasive” - Discrimination, Transgender Students, and School Bathrooms
This Article is organized chronologically, in an effort to more effectively reflect the nearly identical fact patterns, timelines, and intersecting opinions of these cases. Part I provides the factual background of both cases. Part II summarizes the substantial preliminary litigation in Grimm; Part III examines the district court ruling in Adams; Part IV analyzes the summary judgment ruling in Grimm. Part V covers Adams’ first appellate ruling; Part VI discusses the Fourth Circuit’s ruling in Grimm three weeks later, and Part VII considers the aftermath of that decision. Parts VIII and IX explore the second panel ruling in Adams and the majority and dissenting en banc opinions, respectively. Part X considers the significant lessons from all these opinions and analyzes the relative strengths and weaknesses of the arguments for expanding or restricting the LGBTQ rights
Why I Will Not Stop Teaching Law Students to Think Critically About Race: the Attack on Teaching about the Role of Race in Law
As someone who has been involved in legal education teaching for over 40 years and as someone who was drawn to legal education as an alternative to a career more directly devoted to litigation concerning racial justice, so that others might be encouraged to explore critically both what race has meant to our legal system and how we might collectively counter its negative influence, the “Stop W.O.K.E act” presents a real and present danger. Thus, in August of 2022 I agreed to be the lead named plaintiff in Pernell, et. al. v. Florida Board of Governors of the State University System, et. al. Case No. 4:22cv304-MW/MAF, with representation by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, The American Civil Liberties Union, and the law firm Ballard Spahr.6 On November 17, 2022, Judge Mark Walker, United States District Court, issued a preliminary injunction barring the Florida Board of Governors of the State University System, from the enforcement of this act. It is the first decision of its kind to halt suppression of thought surrounding Critical Race Theory.
As of the date of this writing the case is on appeal to the United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. This article is not about that case or its specifics as it applies to me. Rather, this article will explore the national effort to legislatively suppress Critical Race Theory and the teaching of the significance of race as a pedagogical tool and to demonize those who support and promote the importance of such teaching in our legal education system – particularly at this time. This article will explore the Critical Race Theory (CRT) connection to the educational development of the African American community as well as its role in providing both a voice for a community often historically voiceless and a vital cog in bringing about transformative change. This article will also look behind the egalitarian façade used to justify these laws through false fears and somewhat disingenuous declarations of a “Color-Blind”, Post-Racial Society
Kara Consalo
Recent Publication: Karen Consalo, Let the Sun Shine: Methods for Expansion of Small-Scale Solar Electricity to Reduce Fossil Fuel Dependence, Ease Financial Energy Burdens, and Enhance Community Resiliency, 24 NEV. L.J. 793 (2024).https://commons.law.famu.edu/homepage-images/1017/thumbnail.jp
2023 Hooding Ceremony Program
https://commons.law.famu.edu/hooding-ceremony-programs/1018/thumbnail.jp
The Anti-Woke and the Black American (Waking) Dream
This essay, though not a direct transcript, is based largely upon the keynote address given by the author on February 24, 2023, at the “The American Dream Belongs to All of Us” Symposium sponsored by the Florida A&M University (FAMU) Law Review and the FAMU Hispanic American Law Student Association (HALSA) at FAMU College of Law. The author joyfully acknowledges that her remarks are likely impermissible under the so-called Stop-W.O.K.E. Act that is currently being challenged in court by members of the FAMU College of Law community
Bridge or Barrier: The Intersection of Wealth, Housing, and the Disparate Impact Standard
This note asserts that exclusionary zoning and housing based on income or economic standing can have a disparate impact on race. The disparate impact standard of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, 42, U.S.C.S § 3601 et seq., used in the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities, does not do enough to aid plaintiffs in bringing claims where there is a racial disparity in housing. Part One of this paper will discuss the Federal policies that historically contributed to the wealth gap that exists on the basis of race, the legacy of these policies, and how they affect wealth in modern-day. Part Two will discuss the intent of the Fair Housing Act and argue that economic standing touches and affects race: a class intended to be protected by the act. Lastly, Part Three will examine the standard set by the United States Supreme Court in the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities case and argue that this disparate impact acts as both a bridge and a barrier for bringing claims under the Fair Housing Act
School Curriculum: The Sigmatic Harm to Students and the Responsibility of Congress to Act Again
When Brown was decided, the Supreme Court felt that it could not trust the States to encourage and facilitate equality on its own, which was proven true in the subsequent, decades-long resistance against integration following the Brown II mandate. Once again, the States cannot be trusted to move towards equality and away from backward community norms and bias without federal intervention. This is currently being exemplified by states like Florida—explicitly banning public schools from teaching Critical Race Theory. The Supreme Court does not seem willing to extend Brown any further, but the federal government may encourage and facilitate curriculum equality under its enumerated Taxing and Spending Power. Resisting efforts to diversify the curriculum will continue to harm students and prevent minority communities from progressing by giving all students a false representation of the society they must live in outside the classroom. This burdens both the students’ First Amendment right to information deemed to be of educational value by their educators as well as burdening their educators’ First Amendment right to free speech