Mississippi College School of Law
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“PIGS IN THE PARLOR”: THE LEGACY OF RACIAL ZONING AND THE CHALLENGE OF AFFIRMATIVELY FURTHERING FAIR HOUSING IN THE SOUTH
Full text linkThe Fair Housing Act of 1968 includes a provision that requires that the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) administer the policies within the Act to “affirmatively further” fair housing. Scholars have largely derived their analysis from studying large urban areas and struggles to integrate the suburbs. The literature, however, has not focused on the impact of zoning and discriminatory land use policies within and around low-income rural and small communities or specifically in the southeastern United States. Scholars have also insufficiently considered the implications of these policies on the duty to “affirmatively further” fair housing.
Racial zoning was the preferred method of establishing residential segregation in the South in the early 20th century until the U.S. Supreme Court formally struck it down in 1917. This Article argues that racial zoning should be considered a logic and a metaphor rather than simply a historical moment in land use policy that has passed. The logic of racial zoning typifies anti-black land use policies that confine African Americans to particular areas, and this confinement facilitates the degradation of these areas. This Article contends that the logic of racial zoning creates black residential spaces and inscribes them with features that seek to render them undesirable. This process entrenches residential segregation by driving non-black residents away, just as rendering white space as desirable and exclusive protects housing inequity. The Article explicates the history of the racial zoning movement and the court cases that led to its demise. These cases, however, left the logic of racial zoning largely untouched. It then examines the legacy of racial zoning through three phenomena: (1) the designating of locations for black communities; (2) the lack of protective zoning given to black residential areas; and (3) the disproportionate siting of LULUs in these areas. Finally, it asks whether the federal Fair Housing Act can remediate this legacy through policy or litigation. The Article argues that fair housing litigation has had limited success in undoing discrimination in land use protections that characterize the legacy of racial zoning. Instead, HUD’s AFFH Rule may have a great impact in challenging jurisdictions to tackle community development issues in the context of fair housing. Its success in the South, however, is limited because its oversight mechanisms often overlook smaller, rural communities where anti-black land use policies and segregation patterns remain in place. Ultimately, fair housing in the South is not just about access to housing itself, but also about changing the context around it
MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS AFTER THE ENACTMENT OF FEDERAL LAWS FORBIDDING DISCRIMINATION IN PAY, THE WAGE DISPARITY BASED ON SEX CONTINUES: FOCUSING ON THE CIRCUIT COURTS’ DIFFERING INTERPRETATIONS OF “FACTORS OTHER THAN SEX”
Full text linkThe broad scope of this fourth affirmative defense available to employers under the EPA and Title VII allows for inconsistency in its interpretation and is responsible, at least in part, for the continued existence of wage discrimination. Without a prescribed means of application— specifically, a stricter means of application—employers are more readily absolved from liability under the FOTS defense. The best solution to this problem is for Congress to adopt a more stringent approach to the FOTS defense under the Equal Pay Act of 1963—an approach which would apply to Title VII, as well. However, with little headway being made in the legislation regarding pay equity, this Comment proposes instead that courts adopt the job-relatedness standard that multiple circuits already apply for the FOTS defense. Part II of this Comment explores the background of discrimination laws in the United States and focuses on legislation, both adopted and proposed, surrounding wage discrimination. Part III specifically analyzes the requirements under the EPA’s burden-shifting analysis, taking into consideration the Act’s legislative history and the lack of consistency among circuit courts in interpreting the FOTS defense. Part IV concludes by suggesting reformation for, and solutions to, ongoing wage discrimination in America and urges that the FOTS defense be amended to redefine FOTS
TERRITORIAL PATERNALISM
Full text linkThis Article strives to deconstruct and dismantle the most prominent misconceptions and outright lies being used to justify the continued withholding of constitutional rights and liberties from American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Part II addresses the claim that territories are not self- governing or are otherwise effectively ruled from Washington, D.C., by a Congress that is completely unresponsive to any of their concerns. Part III examines the portrayal of the territories as geographically isolated, crumbling, lacking safe drinking water, and otherwise substantially underdeveloped compared to the mainland United States. Finally, Part IV proposes several empowering strategies that the territories and their allies could pursue to improve their current status-quo, which are not grounded in paternalism and would not require surrendering the long-term struggle for equal rights