Dimensions of Equality: Doctrines of Limitation

America can be justifiably proud of the enormous strides its legal system has made since the end of World War II in identifying and vindicating equality rights under the U.S. Constitution. The 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, striking down the separate-but-equal doctrine in public education, provided the inspiration and the doctrinal basis for racial minorities, women, aliens, children born out of wedlock, the disabled, and the poor to pursue their claims for evenhanded treatment in the courts. We also have seen greater judicial protection of equality in the exercise of rights guaranteed by the first amendment to the Constitution, such as freedom of religion, speech, and the press. For all this progress, however, the Supreme Court has over the last two decades embraced doctrines of limitation that severely constrain the ability of equality claims to get a judicial hearing and to receive vindication. These doctrines raise serious questions as to whether the federal court system can be looked to in the future for meaningful protection of equality rights. It is to a brief discussion of a few of these doctrines-state action, discriminatory intent, and federalism-that I would like to turn

Better Days

Fifth of ten poems written by the late and great Nigerian Poet Ikeogu Oke

Four Days in Heaven Spending Four Days in Hell

I spent four days this past weekend wallowing in the depths of hell. Around me swirled the maelstrom of battle, a spinning vortex of blood, death, destruction and loss. Outside the windows, every patch of ground is a reminder of the sacrifice and heartache. If you squinted your eyes, or better yet closed them completely, you could see it all. [excerpt

Solicitors General Panel on the Legacy of the Rehnquist Court

All of us who are speaking probably share the same giddy feeling in front of a microphone with no red light. For years, my daughter told people that the greatest threat to Western civilization was her father at a podium without a red light. Before becoming Solicitor General, I spent my career as a trial lawyer, arguing only a few appeals. I found this red light tradition a little peculiar. More often than not, timers and lights in courts of appeals are viewed as advisory at best. I\u27ve had arguments where ten minutes were allocated per side, and yet argument extended until the afternoon. In another case that allocated ninety minutes per side and began at nine o\u27clock, we didn\u27t actually finish until four o\u27clock in the afternoon. So coming into the SG\u27s office, my view about the red light was, well, perhaps it shows your time has nominally expired, but undoubtedly the Justices will have other questions. And in any event, I might want to take a few extra minutes to address additional points. That was so wrong. The red light ended everything-absolutely everything-and not just for the advocates; it also ended the questioning of the Associate Justices. The Chief Justice was an equal opportunity cutter-offer. On many occasions, he cut off oral argument when a Justice was at the outset of a question he or she had been trying to get out in the open oral combat that was advocacy in the Supreme Court of Chief Justice Rehnquist

Proposals for additional INSET days: consultation on future requirements for additional INSET days

"This consultation is designed to gather views on the Welsh Assembly Government’s proposals for additional INSET days in the school year 2010/11, in order to inform decisions for this school year and consideration of longer-term requirements. Additional INSET days are ‘additional’ to the five statutory non-teaching days available to schools." - overview

Brown Blues: Rethinking the Integrative Ideal

Thirty-eight years have passed since the Supreme Court\u27s Brown v. Board of Education decision declaring unconstitutional stateimposed segregation of public schools. One would have thought that by now American society would have arrived at a consensus with respect to the substance and scope of Brown. The truth is otherwise. Even in the education sector of our national life that Brown specifically addressed, deep differences remain over what changes that decision was designed to effect