Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University College of LawNot a member yet
884 research outputs found
Sort by
Professional Women Subjugated by Name-Calling and Character Attacks
Full text linkThe #MeToo Movement reminds us that women can begin movements through individual action. The #MeToo Movement also confirms that we are still dealing with the same old strategies that keep women in subjugated spaces, including in our workplaces. This Article analyzes how name-calling and character attacks continue to be used to put professional women in a gendered place. These strategies were used to defeat Hillary Clinton in her efforts to become the first female president of the United States. If we do not challenge their destructive effect, professional women will continue to be expected to put up with conduct that is often dismissed as harmless or viewed as the price women pay to be in the workplace. This is similar to how women were once expected to put up with sexual harassment at work. My proposal is simple. We begin a movement by acknowledging the problem, illustrating the ways in which it manifests, and encouraging individual action to challenge it, with the hope that, like the #MeToo Movement, this individual approach will lead to collective action
North Carolina\u27s H.B.2: A Case Study in LGBTQ Rights, Preemption, and the (Un)Democratic Process
Full text linkIn 2014, community advocates in Charlotte, North Carolina, began organizing to press the city to amend its antidiscrimination ordinance to add several new protected classes, including sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. After a contentious hearing where opponents argued that the change-which would allow transgender people to use public restrooms according to their gender identity-would subject women and children to sexual predators, the city council voted down the amendment. Undaunted, advocates worked over the next several months to elect new council members and a mayor who supported LGBTQ rights. The amendments to the civil rights ordinance were then brought back before the council and passed in February 2015. Less than a month later, the state Speaker of the House Tim Moore and the Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, both Republicans, called a special session of the legislature to address the bathroom issues of Charlotte\u27s new ordinance. Two days later, the General Assembly convened and, in one day, passed House Bill 2 ( H.B. 2 ). Governor Pat McCrory, the former mayor of Charlotte, who had earlier threatened city leaders with the specter of immediate state legislative intervention, signed the bill that same day. H.B. 2, mischaracterized as the bathroom bill, was a sweeping anticivil rights measure that extended far beyond the issue of access to restrooms. By narrowly defining sex as [b]iological sex-the physical condition of being male or female which is stated on a person\u27s birth certificate, the law not only denied transgender residents access to facilities based on their gender identity, but also undermined the existence of any antidiscrimination laws that included sexual orientation or gender identity and prohibited the adoption of any new local laws that would do so. And although unrelated to the Charlotte ordinance, H.B. 2 also expressly preempted any local antidiscrimination or workers\u27 rights ordinances related to wages, benefits, leave, or protections for minors in the workforce. Additionally, the law eliminated the longstanding public policy exception to the state\u27s employment-at-will jurisprudence, which authorized a state cause of action for employees who alleged they had been discharged because of illegal discrimination. H.B. 2 immediately became the highest-profile issue in the state. The American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) quickly filed a lawsuit in federal court, and Roy Cooper, the Democrat Attorney General, announced that his office would not defend the State in the suit. The law also gained national notoriety, leading to boycotts and the cancellation of numerous events in the state, including a Bruce Springsteen concert, the NBA All-Star Game, and a range of collegiate sporting events. PayPal withdrew plans for a $36 million dollar, 400-job facility planned for Charlotte because of the law. Governor McCrory\u27s support for H.B. 2 played a critical role in his narrow defeat by Roy Cooper in 2016. The bill was formally repealed in March 2017, although the replacement statute, H.B. 142, continues to preempt local governments from passing new local legislation to protect LBGTQ civil rights. The legal and political struggle over H.B. 2 provides a primer on the issues of civil rights, local control, and state preemption and the particular challenges for progressive local governments in states controlled by conservative legislatures. While many tried to narrowly characterize North Carolina\u27s experience with H.B. 2 as a debate between local control and uniformity of state law regarding access to bathrooms (the statute was regularly referred to as the bathroom bill ), in reality, the issues and context regarding the passage, reaction to, and ultimate repeal of H.B. 2 are much deeper. At its core, H.B. 2 forced the state and nation to consider how our political processes address (or fail to address) the expansion of civil rights for historically marginalized groups; overtly discriminatory, anti-LGBTQ policy making, rhetoric, and prejudice; and the manipulation of the democratic process. Part II of this Article examines the passage of the Charlotte City Council\u27s antidiscrimination ordinance. Part III discusses the legislature\u27s response and passage of H.B. 2. Part IV describes the economic and political backlash following the law\u27s passage. Part V details the legislature\u27s repeal of H.B. 2. Part VI analyzes the broader political implications of the struggle over H.B. 2
Fighting Back from the Brink: International Efforts to Prevent Illegal Trafficking in Endangered Species
Full text linkThis article advances the argument for sustainable harvesting as a broad supplement, even replacement, to the prevailing no-trade policies currently used in many countries and international organizations. It is the author’s premise that the no-trade conservation paradigm is failing to adequately prevent illegal trafficking and endangered wildlife populations are suffering catastrophic losses as a result. This article will explain the current state of prevailing no-trade regulations and efforts to stem the onslaught of illegal wildlife trafficking. The article will then explore two examples of successful sustainable farming and harvesting programs, the American alligator and the Peruvian vicuñas. After a comparison of the benefits and drawbacks of sustainability programs, this article will provide a detailed list of critical elements for development of a successful sustainability program. These guidelines can be modified for the specific needs of a range country or endangered species
2020 Hooding Ceremony Program
Full text linkhttps://commons.law.famu.edu/hooding-ceremony-programs/1015/thumbnail.jp
Doctrine of Dignity: Making a Case for the Right to Die with Dignity in Florida Post-Obergefell
Full text linkThe discussions about the right to privacy have evolved, and the national landscape on physician-assisted suicide has changed since Krischer. Surely, it is time Floridian citizens are given the opportunity to decide whether the right to privacy guaranteed by the Florida constitution includes the right to die with dignity. Numerous states across the nation have adopted legislative provisions which afford those within that state’s borders the ability to die with dignity through physician-assisted suicide. In addition, the seemingly unrelated decision of the United States Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges has reopened the discussion of Glucksberg and its holding. In Obergefell, Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion emphasizes that the right to marry – specifically, gay marriage – is inherent in a person’s right to privacy because it is part of his or her dignity. Accordingly, this decision effectively overruled Glucksberg’s analysis and implicated a change in the evaluation of the constitutional right to privacy. Since the Florida Supreme Court leaned heavily on Glucksberg to decide Krischer, the stagnant conversation in Florida regarding physician-assisted suicide deserves to be renewed under today’s national and local sociopolitical climate with Obergefell in mind. Part I will examine developments in state legislations regarding physician-assisted suicide and the history of physician-assisted suicide in Florida. Part II of this note will analyze the Court’s decisions in Glucksberg and Obergefell, as well as the hypothesized implications of Obergefell on Glucksberg. Finally, this Note argues that Florida’s discussions about physician-assisted suicide are outdated. Therefore, new legislation or jurisprudence should be put forth regarding physician-assisted suicide in light of, amongst other things, the renewed evaluation of Glucksberg after the decision in Obergefell
Does the National Forest Service Have Authority to Grant Rights-of-Way under the Mineral Leasing Act through National Forest Lands Traversed by the Appalachian Trails
Full text linkAtlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC, proposed construction of a natural gas pipeline stretching from West Virginia to North Carolina. The route approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission included a section running across National Forest System land, including the point at which the pipeline would cross the Appalachian National Scenic Trail (ANST). After initial objections, the U.S. Forest Service reversed course and issued the needed right-of-way across National Forest System lands. Environmental groups objected and a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit unanimously held that the Forest Service had acted arbitrarily and capriciously thereby violating both the National Forest Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The Fourth Circuit vacated the grant of the right-of-way. Additionally, that court ruled that the Forest Service lacked authority under the Mineral Leasing Act to issue a right-of-way for a pipeline crossing the ANST. Only this last ruling is the subject of Supreme Court review
Beloved Pan-Africanism: Martin Luther King’s Stride Toward Africa, International Human Rights, and the Black International Tradition
No full textMartin Luther King, Jr.’s significance as a promising Pan-Africanist, that is, an advocate and supporter of African liberation, self-determination, and independence as well as the internationalization of human rights norms, doctrine, and jurisprudence that inform them, has been entirely ignored in the scholarship on King. Not a single book-length manuscript exists on King’s thoughts on, and relationship to, the African continent and its peoples as a whole. Moreover, King’s ideals, ministry, advocacy, activities, initiatives, and influence on Africa, African leaders, and US foreign policy towards Africa are literally unknown and form a critical part of King’s global ministry and the Black International Tradition (BIT). Was King a Pan-Africanist? If so, what circumstances, experiences, and phenomena influenced his Pan-African outlook? What was the nature of King’s range of contributions—ideological, political, material, spiritual, and otherwise—to the anti-colonial, anti-racist, and anti-apartheid struggles in Africa and the Black Diaspora? How did King invoke the binding authority of the law to advocate for black people and peoples?https://commons.law.famu.edu/faculty-books/1042/thumbnail.jp
Damn It! A Conversation on Being Black, Female, and Marginalized during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Is the World Listening? A Conversation between Black Female Law Professors
Full text linkWe are African American women with a combined forty-four years in academia. We are professors of law and have seen firsthand how COVID-19 has ravaged African Americans across this country. As we conversed with one another in the Spring of 2020 about what we were witnessing, we began to look through the spectrum of the law and discrimination, and how this novel Coronavirus is laying bare the inequities and inequalities that have been evident for hundreds of years in the Black community. We felt compelled to put pen to paper and document our conversations in an attempt to give a voice to those most negatively impacted by this deadly virus-those that have long been most underrepresented. We hope that by calling out these disparities, we somehow elevate our nation and change the course of the lives of Black women for the better