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Memories of an Affirmative Action Activist
Get PDFSome twenty-five years ago, the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) led a march supporting Affirmative Action in legal education to counter the spate of litigation and other legal prohibitions that exploded during the 1990s, seeking to limit or abolish race-based measures. The march began at the San Francisco Hilton Hotel, where the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) was having its annual meeting, and proceeded to Union Square. We, the organizers of the march, did not expect the march to become an iconic event; one that would be remembered as a harbinger of a new era of activism by law professors.
If we are to redefine affirmative action as a remedy for slavery and segregation, we need to pay attention to history and recognize that these evils, born of the belief in White Superiority, extend beyond the native-born Black community. Preserving our democracy depends on working toward racial justice. This Article details my academic and activist work. My work focusing on affirmative action represents my commitment to constructing a society—the U.S specifically—and a world in which the concepts of equality, liberty, and justice meaningfully impact the lives and opportunities of all people, especially those whose race, color, caste, gender, religion, or national origin have subjected them to subordination, often based on the ideology of White Supremacy
SFFA v. Harvard College: Closing the Doors of Equality in Education
Get PDFThe United States Supreme Court’s recent combined decision ending affirmative action in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina was hailed in conservative circles as the beginning of “the long road” towards racial equality. Others declared that “the opinion may begin the restoration of our nation’s constitutional colorblind legal covenant.” Another writer pronounced, “Affirmative action perpetuated racial discrimination. Its end is a huge step forward.” A Washington-based opinion page even declared: “[T]he demise of race-based affirmative action should inspire renewed commitment to the ideal of equal opportunity in America.” Despite these laudatory pronouncements, the decision and celebratory calls are wrongheaded and champion nothing close to equality, or an actual colorblind approach to society for that matter. The SFFA decision held that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause forbids the consideration of race in college admissions. The holding, implicitly and explicitly, rests on a vision of equality based on the conservative theory of achieving a colorblind society. As this Article will demonstrate, the embrace of a so-called colorblind society by the members of the Court is one in which endorses a society to continue to provide lessor opportunities for racial minorities. The Court endorses a society that provides a public education system that is not even remotely approaching any notions of equality but can hold illegal efforts seeking to bring us slightly closer to racial equality
Feeding the Good Fire: Paths to Facilitate Native-Led Fire Management on Federal Lands
Get PDFIn 2003, nearly twenty Native American reservations were devastated by wildfires that originated on adjacent federal lands. The San Pasqual Reservation’s entire 1,400 acres were burned along with over a third of its homes, and seventy-five percent of the Rincon Reservation was burned, taking twenty homes with it. These devastating fires, along with others in 2002, brought about the Tribal Forest Protection Act of 2004 (TFPA), which offered hope for Tribes to propose projects on bordering or adjacent federal lands and protect reservation lands in the process. Unfortunately, twenty years later, the TFPA has had a marginal effect in enabling Tribal management on federal lands. In those same twenty years, wildfires have burned an average of seven million acres each year, more than double the rate of lands burned in the 1990s. Climate change has created warmer, drier conditions, particularly in the western United States, which have made wildfires more destructive.
This Note seeks to provide multiple legal mechanisms to assist the TFPA and other federal statutes in facilitating Native-led fire management practices on federal lands. Part I provides a brief history of Native forestry and fire practices, how they were impeded and superseded by federal forestry practices, and how federal forestry practices have evolved, or remained the same, since their inception in the late nineteenth century. Part II describes the current legal mechanisms that Tribes use to propose fire management projects, weighing the pros and cons of each mechanism: National Indian Forest Resources Management Act (NIFRMA), TFPA, Memorandums of Agreement (MOU), Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA or “638”) Agreements, and Good Neighbor Authority (GNA). Part III analyzes how these legal mechanisms can be improved, either by revising them to be less restrictive on Tribal-led fire management practices or by developing new legislation that incorporates the effective aspects of these mechanisms. Part III also analyzes how amendments or new legislation could adopt legal mechanisms used in environmental statutes, such as the Clean Air Act (CAA). This comparison makes an appeal to relinquish federal authority and allow for Tribal authority of environmental standards alongside forestry and fire management on federal lands
Preparing for the Reckoning of Law with Justice: Organizing LatCrit Hemispherically for Systemic and Material Power
Get PDFStudent Life E-Newsletter April 08, 2024
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Michael Oher, the Tuohys, and The Blind Side: A Conservatorship Case Study
Get PDFConservatorships (or guardianships, as they are called in some states) are ubiquitous in the United States, and they are extremely important and impactful to those affected by them, such as Michael Oher. Many people learned of Michael Oher thanks to the hit movie The Blind Side, which has earned more than $300 million to date and for which actress Sandra Bullock won the Academy Award for Actress in a Leading Role in 2009.
The Blind Side is based on the real-life story of Michael Oher, who went from foster care and homelessness, to star college football player, and to first-round pick in the NFL Draft. While in high school, the Tuohys, a family in Memphis, Tennessee, took an interest in Michael, and Michael subsequently lived with the Tuohys. Both The Blind Side and the book on which it is based portray Michael as having been adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Tuohy; however, many people were probably surprised to learn that the Tuohys never in fact adopted Michael. Instead, they became his legal co-conservators.
Part I of this Article dives into the story of Michael Oher, the Tuohys, and The Blind Side. Part II explores the details of Michael Oher’s conservatorship. Part III discusses common complaints about conservatorships in the United States and analyzes them with respect to Michael Oher’s conservatorship. Part IV discusses recommendations for conservatorships in the United States in an effort to remedy their current myriad of problems
Religious Freedom and Diversity Missions: Insights from Jesuit Law Deans
Get PDFThis Article is a transcript of a panel moderated by Anthony E. Varona, Dean of Seattle University School of Law. During the panel, Jesuit and religious law school deans discussed what law schools with religious missions have to add to the conversation around SFFA and the continuing role of affirmative action in higher education