Now Also In the Name of the Mother

Italy’s constitutional court has ruled that parents may opt to give their children either the mother or the father’s surname, or both. The practice of automatically giving a child the father’s surname is a violation of the mother’s rights.  The European Court of Human Rights had found in Cusan and Fazzo v. Italy (2014) that the Italian law violated Article 14 (taken together with Article 8) of the European Convention on Human Rights which requires equal treatment of persons without regard to sex.

Text of Article 14:

The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this European Convention on Human Rights shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.

 

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Conn College Joins the Free Tampon Movement

From Connecticut College’s The College Voice:

On Nov. 2, students and administrators gathered in the lobby of Cro to celebrate the launch of free menstrual health products in select bathrooms on campus. The pilot program, spearheaded by Emma Horst-Martz ’18, was implemented in collaboration with SGA, the administration and student health services. Although nearly 86 percent of women report experiencing their period in public without easy access to needed menstrual supplies, few colleges currently provide students with free pads and tampons. If her pilot program is institutionalized, Horst-Martz noted in her speech to supporters, Conn may emerge as one of the first colleges in the U.S. to distribute menstrual products with administrative financial backing. * * *

Conn’s tampon and pad pilot program recognizes the financial burden of menstruation. To purchase menstrual supplies costs an average $18,171 over the length of one’s life. The sales tax imposed on sanitary products, the so-called “tampon tax” or “pink tax,” has been dismantled in only a handful of states. Most states tax tampons and pads as luxury items even though they are, in fact, necessities. Students struggling to pay for school, Horst-Martz says, may face difficulties allocating money toward necessary toiletries.

Read the full article here.

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Free Tampons and Pads Coming to NYU

Via the Washington Square News (here), the student newspaper at New York University:

Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Marc Wais said that the university decided to convene a working group of students and staff to propose a pilot program by the end of the semester.
“The working group will be chaired by Dr. Marcy Ferdschneider, Medical Director of the Student Health Center,” Wais said. “The working group will submit its recommendations to me. The university will assess the utilization and success of the pilot over the summer to determine how we move forward in the future.”
He said that this pilot program to provide free menstrual hygiene products to all students will begin in the spring semester at both the Manhattan and Brooklyn campuses. According to the press release, the pilot program recommendations should be submitted to Wais by Friday, Dec. 23.
Gallatin junior Josy Jablons, who has led this fight on campus, said that this decision was finalized at around noon on Thursday, Oct. 20, and this came after several levels of approval.
“It was more ‘overnight’ than you might think,” Jablons said. “Given the three-prong approach of our op-ed, petition and SSC [Student Senators Council] resolution, the administration was forced to take note.”

Will other universities beside Brown and Minnesota soon follow suit?

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Hiring Announcement: Concordia

From colleagues at Concordia:

Background: Concordia University School of Law, located in Boise, Idaho, invites applications for a tenure-track position beginning in the 2017-18 academic year.  Candidates for the position must clearly demonstrate the potential for excellence in research and teaching and have a record of (or clear potential for) distinguished scholarship.  Our goal is to recruit dynamic, bright, and highly motivated individuals who are interested in making significant contributions to our law school and its students.  Practice experience is preferred, and teaching experience is desirable.  As a Lutheran institution of higher education, we seek candidates who will support our mission and promote Lutheran values.

Special Instructions to Applicants: Questions about the position can be directed to the Chair of the Committee.  Applicants should submit a current Curriculum Vitae, a statement of faith, and a letter of interest to https://cu-portland.csod.com/ats/careersite/JobDetails.aspx?id=118.  Please also provide the names and email addresses of three individuals prepared to speak to your professional qualifications for this position. Please note: these references will not be contacted immediately, but may be contacted at an appropriate later point in the review process. Additional materials related to teaching excellence and samples of scholarly publications may be emailed to the Victoria Haneman, Chair of the Committee, at vhaneman@cu-portland.edu.  Review of applications will begin immediately and continued until the position is filled. Concordia University reserves the right to give preference in employment based upon religion in order to further the Lutheran objectives of the University and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

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What Happened When One NYC Pharmacy Charged Men More

image credit: breibart.com

Thompson Chemists in the Soho neighborhood of New York City got some attention this week when it posted signs saying “All female customers shop tax free” and “All male customers subject to a 7% man tax.” Here’s some press coverage of the event from Gothamist:

Jolie Alony, who has owned the pharmacy for 22 years and lives in SoHo, said she wants men who shop at her store to understand the extra costs that women bear when they shop.

“We want to bring awareness on how it feels to be a woman, so the men actually get to feel it,” she said. * * * Despite what her signs say, Alony explained, men aren’t actually coughing up more than they normally would at the register; rather, she’s offering a 7 percent discount for women—effectively cutting out sales tax. She’s still required to report all sales and pay out the sales tax in full, so, she said, she’s just making up the difference herself.

The policy is being run as a promotion—Alony said she’ll see how the day goes and decide if she wants to keep it in place.

Thompson Chemists later posted this note on its Facebook page (see more press coverage here):

Calm down SoHo friends!

As stated in the article: “men aren’t actually coughing up more than they normally would at the register; rather, she’s offering a 7 percent discount for women—“
this makes up for how women are often overcharged for over-the-counter and beauty products (on average 7% according to the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs).

This is a friendly reminder to treat your friends and neighbors as equals and to read articles in their entirety before passing judgment.

With love from your neighborhood pharmacy,
Thompson Chemists

The Gothamist article says that the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs “wrote back to Gothamist to explain that there’s no legal issue with the Thompson Chemist promotion, as there isn’t a prohibition on price discrimination for goods. It is illegal, however, to discriminate in the pricing of services.”  I would be surprised if it is correct that vendors can legally discriminate in price, based on the sex of the customer.  The finer point is that Thompson Chemists is essentially giving a discount to women and not men by paying the women’s sales tax themselves.  In other words, Thompson Chemists is still on the hook for paying to New York State the sales tax on all of the (taxable) property it sells; the store is simply choosing to cover some of the tax itself.

I love the awareness that Thompon Chemists is raising, but I do wonder if it is legal to offer discounts to one group and not the other, on the basis of sex.  Or, are discounts so inherently discretionary that the law defers to the judgment of the store offering the discount?  Con Law experts, please chime in.

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Zurich Tampon Tax Protesters Turn Fountains Red

Earlier this week, members of Aktivistin.ch, a feminist collective in Zurich, Switzerland, ooured food dye into various public fountains in order to protest the tampon tax.

Here’s an excerpt from English-language press in Switzerland:

Spokeswoman Carmen Schoder said the #happytobleed action was meant to prompt discussion on attitudes towards the female body.

“Many people still see menstruation as something shameful,” she said, adding that people were afraid to talk about it.

The organization is angry at the fact that tampons and sanitary towels are taxed at a rate of eight percent, and not at the rate of 2.5 percent which applies to most items of daily use.

“Tampons are seen as a luxury product and women are financially disadvantaged,” Schoder said. The tax gave the impression that sanitary products were not a requirement.

The Zurich authorities, which had to clean the fountains, complained that the water was meant for public consumption and should not be misused for publicity purposes.

Read the full coverage here.

Image source here
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White Paper on Title IX & the Preponderance of the Evidence, 2d Edition

Please see the “second edition” of the White Paper on Title IX & the Preponderance of the Evidence at the link below, including the first 100 signatures from law professors across the country.  We will continue to accept signatures from law faculty members as long as law faculty members wish to sign on to the White Paper, and we will post updated editions of the White Paper as we receive additional signatures.  To add yourself as a signatory, please email your full name and the URL for your faculty webpage to Nancy Chi Cantalupo at ncantalupo@barry.edu.

title-ix-preponderance-white-paper-signed-10-3-16

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Spotlight on UDC Legislation Clinic Students’ Advocacy for #TamponTax Repeal

I mentioned here that students in the Legislation Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law were among those testifying on behalf of the proposed legislation repealing D.C. tax on diapers and menstrual hygiene products.

The students’ testimony is available here. Some local news outlets feature the students’ work, here and here.

This is a concrete example of how student advocacy can lead to real-life impact.  Congratulations to Professor Marcy Karin, who leads the Legislation Clinic at UDC, and to her students!

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D.C. Considering Repeal of the Tampon Tax

The Council of the District of Columbia’s Finance and Revenue Committee held hearings earlier this week on B21-696, the “Feminine Hygiene and Diapers Sales Tax Exemption Amendment Act of 2016.” Students in the Legislation Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law were among those testifying on behalf of the proposed legislation.

Here’s an excerpt from the Washington Post’s coverage:

Advocates for women urged the D.C. Council to lift the sales tax on diapers, tampons and pads at the first public hearing Wednesday for legislation that is being promoted across the country.

“What, how and who we tax speaks volumes about what we value as a community and a city,” said Corinne Cannon of the D.C. Diaper Bank, adding that the savings in sales tax could allow families to buy an additional dozen diapers a month.

District residents currently don’t pay sales taxes on groceries and medically necessary drugs — including Viagra.

Some advocates said taxes on feminine hygiene products were like a tax for being a woman, and argued that jurisdictions should not classify them as “luxury goods.”
At the hearing before the council’s finance and revenue committee, about a half-dozen women testified in favor of suspending the taxes. The committee’s chair, Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), said he supported the legislation.

Maryland doesn’t tax tampons and diapers; Virginia does. A bill that would eliminate the taxes on feminine hygiene products failed in Virginia this year.

The full WaPo article is here.

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New Book Announcement: Lifetime Disadvantage, Discrimination and the Gendered Workforce

Cambridge University Press has published a new book by Susan Bisom-Rapp (Thomas Jefferson) and Malcolm Sargeant (Middlesex University, UK), Lifetime Disadvantage, Discrimination and the Gendered Workforce.  Here is the publisher’s description:

Lifetime Disadvantage, Discrimination and the Gendered Workforce fills a gap in the literature on discrimination and disadvantage suffered by women at work by focusing on the inadequacies of the current law and the need for a new holistic approach. Each stage of the working life cycle for women is examined with a critical consideration of how the law attempts to address the problems that inhibit women’s labour force participation. By using their model of lifetime disadvantage, the authors show how the law adopts an incremental and disjointed approach to resolving the challenges, and argue that a more holistic orientation towards eliminating women’s discrimination and disadvantage is required before true gender equality can be achieved. Using the concept of resilience from vulnerability theory, the authors advocate a reconfigured workplace that acknowledges yet transcends gender.

Thomas Jefferson has a nice press release here.

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Lawsuit Challenging Improper Sales Tax on Toilet Paper

A New Jersey couple has filed a class action lawsuit against retailer Costco for improperly charging sales tax on toilet paper, when the state law specifically exempts toilet paper from the tax.  See the CNBC story here.

This case is not quite analogous to the class action suits challenging the tampon tax in New York (see here) and Florida (see here) because toilet paper is specifically exempt from taxation under New Jersey law, whereas in New York and Florida, menstrual hygiene products are subject to tax.  But the Costco case is helpful as an example of large class action sales tax refund case. If the tampon tax were found to be unconstitutional when imposed in New York (which repealed its tampon tax prospectively) or Florida, massive refunds would be in order.  I’ll be following the Costco/toilet paper case with interest.

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Chemerinsky on the Tampon Tax

Erwin Chemerinsky (UC Irvine) published a column in last week’s Los Angeles Daily News.  Here is an excerpt:

If the government were to say that only men or only women had to pay an additional tax of several hundred dollars a year solely because of their sex, that would clearly be an unconstitutional denial of equal protection. Yet that is exactly the effect of California imposing a tax on tampons and sanitary pads. * * * [T]axing tampons and sanitary pads is sex discrimination. Only women use these products, and thus only women pay the tax.

Read the full column here.

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Lipman on Anti-Poverty Relief Delivered Through the Tax Code

Francine Lipman (UNLV) blogs here at the Surly Subgroup about newly-released national and state poverty statistics. The post is a short and clear explanation of how significant anti-poverty relief is delivered through the tax code to millions of people, including over 4 million children.  The post is worth a read.

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CFP: Wisc. J. L, Gender & Society on “Women in the Boardroom”

The Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender & Society has announced its 2017 symposium and this Call for Papers:

Women in the Boardroom:

The Social and Business Arguments that Challenge Executive Board Homogeneity

The positive correlation between the increase of women within corporate boardrooms and financial performance has initiated global business and social debates regarding the need for more diversity within executive boardrooms. We are seeking original scholarship, from both scholars and practitioners, addressing either or both the business and social arguments that surround an effort to increase women presence within the executive, corporate industry.

Ideally, proposals would highlight:

  • An analysis of either the business (higher return on equity, return on sales, etc.) or the social argument (gender equality) regarding the importance of increasing the number of women in corporate boardrooms.
  • Recommendations as to how boardroom diversity implementation could be improved upon to address issues particular to the needs of women and businesses individually.

Interested parties should send an abstract, plus a 3-5 page outline to wisc.law.gender.society@gmail.com by November 1, 2016. Those selected for the Symposium will be asked to present their scholarship in our Symposium and will be offered the opportunity to be published in our April 2017 Symposium issue. The selected authors will be notified by mid-November 2016.

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Canadian Journal of Women and the Law/ Revue Femmes et Droit: Issue on Missing and Murdered Women Indigenous Women Conference/Symposium sur Meurtres et disparitions de femmes et de filles autochotones

Canadian Journal of Women and the Law/Revue Femmes et Droit

Volume 28, Issue 2, August 2016

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Conference / Symposium sur Meurtres et disparitions de femmes et de filles autochotones

 

CJWL online – http://bit.ly/cjwl282

Project MUSE – http://bit.ly/cjwl282pm

 

EDITORIAL / ÉDITORIAL

Sexualized Violence and Colonialism: Reflections on the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Sherene H. Razack

 

Canadians live in a society where missing and murdered Indigenous women are so commonplace an occurrence that, for two years now, volunteers have organized to dredge the river that runs through the city of Winnipeg looking for the bodies of Indigenous girls and women who have disappeared. “Drag the Red,” as this organization is called, has yet to find any bodies, but its dredging operations often catch women’s underwear.1 The sheer horror of the prospect of Indigenous girls and women lying at the bottom of the river, a river that volunteers dredge, has yet to hit most Canadians, but, in 2015, Canadians elected a government that announced its intention to hold a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women, women who are unaccounted for across the country.

 

This issue came together after a symposium, jointly organized by the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law and the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action, in partnership with the Native Women’s Association of Canada on 30–31 January 2016, explored the prospect of a national inquiry. Indigenous women leaders, family members of missing and murdered women, academics, and activists, joined by six human rights experts from the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, came together to explore what an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women could accomplish….  http://bit.ly/cjwl282a

 

Violence sexualisée et colonialisme : réflexions relatives à l’enquête sur les femmes autochtones disparues et assassinées

Sherene H. Razack

 

Les Canadiennes et Canadiens vivent dans une société où la disparition et le meurtre de femmes autochtones sont tellement monnaie courante que, depuis maintenant deux ans, des bénévoles draguent la rivière qui traverse Winnipeg dans l’espoir d’y retrouver des corps de filles et de femmes autochtones disparues. « Drag the Red » (draguer la Rouge), le nom de l’organisation, n’a pas encore trouvé de corps, mais ses travaux de dragage ont souvent permis de ramasser des sous-vêtements féminins1. En général, les Canadiennes et Canadiens n’ont pas encore saisi à quel point c’est une horreur sans nom de penser que des filles et des femmes autochtones gisent au fond de cette rivière que draguent des bénévoles, mais en 2015, ils ont élu un gouvernement qui a annoncé son intention de mener une enquête nationale sur les femmes et les filles autochtones disparues et assassinées qui manquent à l’appel dans tout le pays.

 

Ce numéro spécial de la revue est issu d’un symposium tenu les 30 et 31 janvier 2016 et organisé conjointement par la Revue Femmes et droit et l’Alliance canadienne féministe pour l’action internationale, en partenariat avec l’Association des femmes autochtones du Canada, qui évoquait la possibilité d’une enquête nationale. Des leaders autochtones, les familles des femmes disparues ou assassinées, des universitaires et des militantes, avec six experts en droits de la personne des Nations Unies et de la Commission interaméricaine des droits de l’homme, examinaient ce que pourrait accomplir une enquête sur les filles et les femmes autochtones disparues ou assassinées.

http://bit.ly/cjwl282b

 

ARTICLES / ARTICLES

Shining Light on the Dark Places: Addressing Police Racism and Sexualized Violence against Indigenous Women and Girls in the National Inquiry

Pamela Palmater

 

Canada has had a long-standing problem with both societal and institutional racism against Indigenous peoples, especially within the justice system. Numerous national inquiries, commissions, and investigations have all concluded that every level of the justice system has failed Indigenous peoples. More recent inquiries indicate that racism against Indigenous peoples is particularly problematic in police forces in Canada. Yet, despite the evidence, little has been done in Canada to act on the recommendations. This has resulted in the over-incarceration of Indigenous peoples, numerous deaths of Indigenous peoples in police custody, and the national crisis of thousands of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls. This article seeks to highlight the lesser-known problem of police-involved racialized and sexualized abuse and violence against Indigenous women and girls as a root cause of the large numbers of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls in Canada. It is argued that an in-depth look at police-involved disappearances, sexual assaults, and murders of Indigenous women should be included in a national inquiry into the high rates of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls. It is hoped that such an investigation under the national inquiry will result in evidence-based analysis and recommendations for legislative and policy-based changes that are consistent with the human rights protections afforded Indigenous women and girls and with the calls for action by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, various United Nations human rights bodies, and the families, communities, and nations of the Indigenous victims. http://bit.ly/cjwl282c

 

Gendering Disposability

Sherene H. Razack

 

In 2011, thirty-six-year-old Cindy Gladue, a Cree woman, bled to death in a hotel bathtub in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. On the night she died, Gladue had contracted for sexual exchange with Bradley Barton, a white man who worked as a trucker. In 2015, Barton was tried for the murder of Cindy Gladue. With more than 1,200 missing and murdered Indigenous women, there is compelling reason to focus on the violence Barton inflicted on Gladue, understanding it as a part of a history of the sexual brutalization and attempted annihilation of Indigenous women. To show that Gladue’s death and the trial of Barton for her murder are part of a history of colonial terror, it is necessary to unpack the framework utilized by the court, a framework that revolved around the ideas of consent and contract. I propose that we utilize a framework of disposability instead, focusing on the Indigenous woman’s expendibility in settler colonialism. Sexualized violence is key to disposability, and flesh is the site at which racial and sexual power are both inscribed. I emphasize the excessive violence that is meted out to Indigenous women as evidence of colonial power imprinted on their bodies. http://bit.ly/cjwl282d

 

A Long Road Behind Us, a Long Road Ahead: Towards an Indigenous Feminist National Inquiry

Cherry Smiley

 

Since the invasion of North America by white male colonizers, Indigenous women and girls have been constructed as homogenized and dehumanized “Indian princesses” and “savage squaws.” These constructions, albeit false, have real consequences, resulting in disproportionate rates of male violence against Indigenous women and girls in the context of a contemporary for-profit rape culture. In 2015, the Canadian federal government announced a long-awaited inquiry into violence against Indigenous women and girls. This article recommends an expressly Indigenous feminist framework in order to comprehensively address the issue of male violence against Indigenous women and girls in a national inquiry. http://bit.ly/cjwl282e

 

Indian Act Sex Discrimination: Enough Inquiry Already, Just Fix It

Gwen Brodsky

 

This article links ongoing historical sex discrimination in the Indian Act to the high levels of violence against Indigenous women. The status provisions have been recognized as an underlying cause contributing to the existing vulnerabilities that make Indigenous women more susceptible to violence. Addressing violence against Indigenous women will be impossible unless and until the underlying discrimination is also comprehensively addressed. The author further contends that fixing the Indian Act does not require waiting for an inquiry. Successive federal governments have been well aware of the ongoing sex discrimination under the Act and its implications for Canada’s human rights record. The article concludes by calling for the immediate amendment of the status provisions in the Indian Act once and for all. http://bit.ly/cjwl282f

 

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Crisis: Technological Dimensions

Jane Bailey and Sara Shayan

 

This article considers how digital technologies are informed by, and implicated in, the systematic and interlocking oppressions of colonialism, misogyny, and racism, all of which have been identified as root causes of the missing and murdered Indigenous women crisis in Canada. The authors consider how technology can facilitate multiple forms of violence against women—including stalking and intimate partner violence, human trafficking, pornography and child abuse images, and online hate and harassment—and note instances where Indigenous women and girls may be particularly vulnerable. The authors also explore some of the complexities related to police use of technology for investigatory purposes, touching on police use of social media and DNA technology. Without simplistically blaming technology, the authors argue that technology interacts with multiple factors in the complex historical, socio-cultural environment that incubates the national crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The article concludes with related questions that may be considered at the impending national inquiry. http://bit.ly/cjwl282g

 

Balancing Transparency and Accountability with Privacy in Improving the Police Handling of Sexual Assaults

Amy Conroy and Teresa Scassa

 

This article considers the potential for the adoption in Ontario of a model, developed in Philadelphia and implemented in other US cities, that has proven successful in significantly improving police handling of sexual assault cases and public confidence in the system. This model directly involves front-line sexual assault victim advocates working with police in systematic reviews of police sexual assault records, with a particular focus on “unfounded” cases. Resistance to the adoption of this model in Canada has focused on arguments around public sector privacy legislation. We therefore explore the Philadelphia model through a transparency and accountability lens in the Canadian context. We suggest that the concepts of “transparency” and “accountability” are too often conflated with the disclosure of data or information through access to information channels, and we argue for a more robust understanding of these concepts. We also argue that the conventional access to information model should not be allowed to obstruct meaningful transparency and accountability by using privacy arguments to create barriers to change. http://bit.ly/cjwl282h

 

Public Inquiries and Law Reform Institutions: “Truth Finding” and “Truth Producing”

Nathalie Des Rosiers

 

This article examines how the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry (MMIWGI) will be evaluated and what it means for its design and ambitions. It argues that a public inquiry, like a law reform body, must aim to be a “truth-finding” body as well as a “truth-producing” enterprise. It must understand itself as wanting to create the right leverage so that meaningful changes can occur, irrespective of whether its recommendations are immediately adopted or not. It can accomplish such a goal by having a process that becomes the message, by ensuring that it does not get derailed, and by proposing recommendations that set the stage for change, such as addressing the accountability vacuum and aiming to design a process that models the values and behaviour that it wants other institutions to adopt. http://bit.ly/cjwl282i

 

The Berger Inquiry in Retrospect: Its Legacy

Stephen Goudge

 

The following article was originally presented as the inaugural lecture of the Willms and Shier Speaker Series in Environmental Law, in collaboration with the Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa on 29 September 2015 by the Honourable Justice Stephen T. Goudge. Reflecting on the lessons and impacts of the McKenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, chaired by then Justice Thomas Berger, the article considers the lasting impact of the Berger Inquiry forty years later, including the successful recommendation to abandon plans to develop the north slope of the Yukon, in favour of conservation. The Berger Inquiry has had lasting social impacts by contributing to the rise of a collective northern voice and highlighting the fundamental importance of Indigenous interests in charting the future. In his postscript, Justice Goudge adds his hope that the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Inquiry will emulate the Berger Inquiry in three fundamental ways: by developing inquiry processes that build trust among those most affected; by proposing expeditious and timely recommendations; and, most importantly, by doing what is right. http://bit.ly/cjwl282j

 

The National Inquiry on Murders and Disappearances of Indigenous Women and Girls Recommendations from the Symposium on Planning for Change: Towards a National Inquiry and an Effective National Action Plan

Feminist Alliance for International ActionNative Women’s Association of Canada

 

On 30–31 January 2016, the Native Women’s Association of Canada, the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action, and the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law convened a symposium in Ottawa to engage in dialogue about the upcoming national inquiry on the murders and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls. Forty Indigenous women leaders, family members of murdered and disappeared women, academics, and allies were joined by six human rights experts from the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. This document is distilled from presentations and dialogue at the symposium…. http://bit.ly/cjwl282k

 

L’enquête nationale sur les meurtres et disparitions de femmes et de filles autochtones

Document final du Symposium sur les Meurtres et disparitions de femmes et de filles autochtones planifier le changement : Vers une enquête nationale et un Plan d’action national efficace

Feminist Alliance for International ActionNative Women’s Association of Canada

 

L’Association des femmes autochtones du Canada, l’Alliance canadienne féministe pour l’action internationale et la Revue Femmes et droit ont organisé à Ottawa, les 30 et 31 janvier 2016, un symposium en vue d’entamer un dialogue au sujet de l’enquête nationale à venir sur les meurtres et disparitions de femmes et de filles autochtones. Quarante leaders féminines autochtones, des membres des familles des femmes et des filles disparues et assassinées, des universitaires et des alliés ont été rejoints par cinq expertes en droits de la personne des Nations Unies et un expert de la Commission interaméricaine des droits de l’homme. Le présent document est issu des présentations et des dialogues qui ont eu lieu pendant le Symposium. … http://bit.ly/cjwl282l

 

BOOK REVIEWS / CHRONIQUES BIBLIOGRAPHIQUES

Re-Imagining an Agentic Ashley: Looking for Ashley: Re-Reading What the Smith Case Reveals about the Governance of Girls, Mothers and Families in Canada by Rebecca Jaremko Bromwich

Josephine L. Savarese

http://bit.ly/cjwl282r

 

Dying from Improvement: Inquests and Inquiries into Indigenous Deaths in Custody by Sherene H. Razack

Sarah Buhler

http://bit.ly/cjwl282r2

Information posted originally for Canadian Journal of Women and the Law by T. Hawkins.

 

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Announcing the Publication of Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court

I am excited to announce that Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court has been published by Cambridge University Press.  This volume, edited by Kathy Stanchi (Temple), Linda Berger (UNLV) and me includes contributions from over 50 law professors.  After a very long wait, the book is now in hand. I couldn’t be more pleased and honored to see in print the work of so many outstanding national colleagues who worked together on this project.

Here is the publisher’s description of the book:coveronepage

What would United States Supreme Court opinions look like if key decisions on gender issues were written with a feminist perspective? Feminist Judgments brings together a group of scholars and lawyers to rewrite, using feminist reasoning, the most significant U.S. Supreme Court cases on gender from the 1800s to the present day. The twenty-five opinions in this volume demonstrate that judges with feminist viewpoints could have changed the course of the law. The rewritten decisions reveal that previously accepted judicial outcomes were not necessary or inevitable and demonstrate that feminist reasoning increases the judicial capacity for justice. Feminist Judgments opens a path for a long overdue discussion of the real impact of judicial diversity on the law as well as the influence of perspective on judging.

A copy of the book’s (substantive) Introductory chapter and full Table of Contents is available on SSRN (here).  A series of Feminist Judgments books is also in the works.  We have plans for follow-on volumes that focus on Tax, Reproductive Justice, Employment  Law, Family Law and Torts, to name just a few projects that currently in development.  You can follow the Feminist Judgments project on Twitter @usfemjudgments

Here is a list of the cases and contributors to Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court:

Chapter 1

Introduction to the U.S. Feminist Judgments Project

Kathryn M. Stanchi, Linda L. Berger, and Bridget J. Crawford

Chapter 2

Talking Back: From Feminist History and Theory to Feminist Legal Methods and Judgments

Berta Esperanza Hernández-Truyol

Chapter 3. Bradwell v. Illinois, 83 U.S. 130 (1873)

Commentary: Kimberly Holst

Judgment: Phyllis Goldfarb

Chapter 4. Muller v. Oregon, 208 U.S. 412 (1908)

Commentary: Andrea Doneff

Judgment: Pamela Laufer-Ukeles

Chapter 5. Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965)

Commentary: Cynthia Hawkins DeBose

Judgment: Laura Rosenbury

Chapter 6. Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967)

Commentary: Inga N. Laurent

Judgment: Teri McMurtry-Chubb

Chapter 7. Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645 (1972)

Commentary: Nancy D. Polikoff

Judgment: Karen Syma Czapanskiy

Chapter 8. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)

Commentary: Rachel Rebouché

Judgment: Kimberly M. Mutcherson

Chapter 9. Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973)

Commentary: Iselin M. Gambert

Judgment: Dara E. Purvis

Chapter 10. Geduldig v. Aiello, 417 U.S. 484 (1974)

Commentary: Maya Manian

Judgment: Lucinda M. Finley

Chapter 11. Dothard v. Rawlinson, 433 U.S. 321 (1977)

Commentary: Brenda V. Smith

Judgment: Maria L. Ontiveros

Chapter 12. City of Los Angeles Department Dep’t of Water & Power v. Manhart, 435 U.S. 702 (1978)

Commentary: Cassandra Jones Havard

Judgment: Tracy A. Thomas

Chapter 13. Harris v. McRae, 448 U.S. 297 (1980)

Commentary: Mary Ziegler

Judgment: Leslie C. Griffin

Chapter 14. Michael M. v. Superior Court, 450 U.S. 464 (1981)

Commentary: Margo Kaplan

Judgment: Cynthia Godsoe

Chapter 15. Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 (1981)

Commentary: Jamie R. Abrams

Judgment: David S. Cohen

Chapter 16. Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986)

Commentary: Kristen Konrad Tiscione

Judgment: Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Chapter 17. Johnson v. Transportation Agency, 480 U.S. 616 (1987)

Commentary: Deborah Gordon

Judgment: Deborah L. Rhode

Chapter 18. Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228 (1989)

Commentary: Dale Margolin Cecka

Judgment: Martha Chamallas

Chapter 19. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992)

Commentary: Macarena Sáez

Judgment: Lisa R. Pruitt

Chapter 20. United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996)

Commentary: Christine M. Venter

Judgment: Valorie K. Vojdik

Chapter 21. Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., 523 U.S. 75 (1998)

Commentary: Margaret E. Johnson

Judgment: Ann C. McGinley

Chapter 22. Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District, 524 U.S. 274 (1998)

Commentary: Michelle S. Simon

Judgment: Ann Bartow

Chapter 23. United States v. Morrison, 529 U.S. 598 (2000)

Commentary: Shaakirrah R. Sanders

Judgment: Aníbal Rosario Lebrón

Chapter 24. Nguyen v. INS, 533 U.S. 53 (2001)

Commentary: Sandra S. Park

Judgment: Ilene Durst

Chapter 25. Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003)

Commentary: Kris McDaniel-Miccio

Judgment: Ruthann Robson

Chapter 26. Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales, 545 U.S. 748 (2005)

Commentary: Patricia A. Broussard

Judgment: Maria Isabel Medina

Chapter 27. Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584 (2015)

Commentary: Erez Aloni

Judgment: Carlos A. Ball

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Areheart on “The Symmetry Principle”

Brad Areheart (Tennessee) has posted to SSRN his working paper “The Symmetry Principle.” Here an abstract.

Antidiscrimination principles have been studied and written about for decades. Surprisingly, the question of how some laws protect symmetrically, while others protect asymmetrically, has received little attention. Even more surprising is the fact that legal scholars have not provided any systemic account of symmetry’s function in antidiscrimination law. Title VII, for example, makes it illegal to discriminate against both blacks and whites, against both men and women. In contrast, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act’s scope is asymmetrical in that it protects only those over the age of forty. This Article proposes “the symmetry principle” as a major normative theory for considering the design of antidiscrimination laws. When antidiscrimination laws are symmetrical they have the capacity to harness a unique mix of strengths—while minimizing weaknesses—from previous normative theories regarding the means and ends of antidiscrimination law. The symmetry principle is thus a design compromise, somewhere between the poles of particularism and universalism, in fashioning laws to prevent and rectify subordination.

The full paper is available here.

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Speaker Needed for FIU Symposium on Race and Reproductive Rights

From colleagues at FIU, who are looking for a speaker to round out an upcoming symposium, due to a last-minute cancellation by a previously-scheduled speaker:

Florida International University College of Law will be holding a symposium on reproductive rights, “New Approaches and Challenges to Reproductive Justice” on November 3-4, 2016. We are looking for one speaker to fill a panel. The talk can be on any aspect of reproductive rights but we are particularly interested in hearing from scholars working on race and reproductive rights or Latina perspectives on law and reproductive rights. There is an opportunity to also publish a short piece based on the talk. FIU is an R1 public research institution in Miami. The law review will cover costs of travel and accommodation to Miami. Please contact, Professor Cyra Akila Choudhury at cyra.choudhury@fiu.edu by September 16 with a 200-word abstract if you are interested.

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What’s Wrong With This Picture? Menstruating Woman Edition

Instagram is at it again.  Remember when Instragram twice deleted the photo by Rupi Kaur of a fully clothed woman lying on a bed, because the woman’s trousers showed a period stain?  (See here.)  Looks like women’s periods are just … too gross for Instagram.  Last week the company shut down photographer Harley Weir’s account because of art photographs of a model with menstrual blood on her legs.  The images are viewable here.  The images have now been restored to Instagram and the company has apologized.

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Higdon on “Divorce and the Serial Monogamist: The Ex Ante Consequences of Legalized Polygamy”

Michael Higdon (Tennessee) has posted to SSRN his paper, Divorce and the Serial Monogamist: The Ex Ante Consequences of Legalized Polygamy.  Here is the abstract:

The question of whether the fundamental right to marry might also include the right to polygamy is one that has long intrigued legal scholars. In the wake of Obergefell v. Hodges, that question has taken on even greater significance. Although other scholars have attempted to answer this question, this Article does so in a novel way. Specifically, this Article looks at the practice of polygamy through a law and economics lens, exploring the ex ante consequences of legalization, not on practicing polygamists, but on serial monogamists — i.e., those who never intend to have more than one spouse at any given time but are, nonetheless, prone to marry more than one person in their lifetime. When looked at in that manner, the degree to which legalized polygamy would harm the state becomes much more evident. After all, if polygamy were legal, the current laws prohibiting bigamy would no longer be in operation. In turn, separating couples would lose one of the strongest incentives they currently face to pursue formal divorce in lieu of simply deserting one another. In essence, then, a serial monogamist could marry multiple times in his lifetime without ever getting a divorce, safe in the knowledge that his actions are no longer subject to a criminal charge of bigamy. Such actions — dubbed “sequential polygamy” — are quite harmful to the state’s substantial interest in protecting its citizens from financial harms. Indeed, the current law of divorce is designed to encourage separating couples to elect that formal course of action so as to provide the state some assurance that those leaving a marriage are not doing so to their financial detriment. With the legalization of polygamy then, goes the prohibition against bigamy, thus eroding the state’s ability to encourage divorce as a means of protecting all its citizens; but in particular its poorest citizens, who would likely be hardest hit by any societal shift away from formal divorce.

The full article is available here.

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CFP: Applied Feminism and Intersectionality

From colleagues at the University of Baltimore:

CALL FOR PAPERS
APPLIED FEMINISM AND INTERSECTIONALITY:
EXAMINING LAW THROUGH THE LENS OF MULTIPLE IDENTITIES

The Center on Applied Feminism at the University of Baltimore School of Law seeks paper proposals for the Tenth Anniversary of the Feminist Legal Theory Conference.  We hope you will join us for this exciting celebration on March 30-31, 2017.

This year, the conference will explore how intersecting identities inform — or should inform — feminist legal theory and justice-oriented legal practice, legal systems, legal policy, and legal activism. Beginning in 1989, Kimberlé Crenshaw identified the need for law to recognize persons as representing multiple intersecting identities, not only one identity (such as female) to the exclusion of another (such as African American). Intersectionality theory unmasks how social systems oppress people in different ways.  While its origins are in exploring the intersection of race and gender, intersectionality theory now encompasses all intersecting identities including religion, ethnicity, citizenship, class, disability, and sexual orientation. Today, intersectionality theory is an important part of the Black Lives Matter and #SayHerName movements. For more information, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2015/09/24/why-intersectionality-cant-wait/.

We seek submissions of papers that focus on the topic of applied feminism and intersecting identities.  This conference aims to explore the following questions: What impact has intersectionality theory had on feminist legal theory?  How has it changed law and social policy? How does intersectionality help us understand and challenge different forms of oppression?  What is its transformative potential? What legal challenges are best suited to an intersectionality approach? How has intersectionality  theory changed over time and where might it go in the future?

We welcome proposals that consider these questions from a variety of substantive disciplines and perspectives. As always, the Center’s conference will serve as a forum for scholars, practitioners and activists to share ideas about applied feminism, focusing on connections between theory and practice to effectuate social change. The conference will be open to the public and will feature a keynote speaker. Past keynote speakers have included Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, Dr. Maya Angelou, Gloria Steinem, Senators Barbara Mikulski and Amy Klobuchar, NOW President Terry O’Neill, EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum, and U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner.

To submit a paper proposal, please submit an abstract by Friday October 28, 2016 to ubfeministconference@gmail.com. Your abstract must contain your full contact information and professional affiliation, as well as an email, phone number, and mailing address. In the “Re” line, please state: CAF Conference 2017. Abstracts should be no longer than one page. We will notify presenters of selected papers in November. About half the presenter slots will be reserved for authors who commit to publishing in the annual symposium volume of the University of Baltimore Law Review. Thus, please indicate at the bottom of your abstract whether you are submitting (1) solely to present or (2) to present and publish in the symposium volume. Authors who are interested in publishing in the Law Review will be strongly considered for publication. For all presenters, working drafts of papers will be due no later than March 3, 2017.

Presenters are responsible for their own travel costs; the conference will provide a discounted hotel rate as well as meals.

We look forward to your submissions. If you have further questions, please contact Prof. Margaret Johnson at majohnson@ubalt.edu. For additional information about the conference, please visit law.ubalt.edu/caf.

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Swan on Title IX, the Criminal Law, and the Campus Sexual Assault Debate

Sarah Lynnda Swan, Columbia University Law School, is publishing Between Title IX and the Criminal Law: Bringing Tort Law to the Campus Sexual Assault Debate in volume 64 of the the Kansas Law Review (2016). Here is the abstract.

In the last few years, campus sexual assault has risen to prominence as a national public concern. As policy-makers scramble to figure out how best to address this problem, the contours of the conversation in scholarship, media articles, and policy-making have devolved into two competing adjudicative frameworks: criminal law or Title IX. In this criminal law versus Title IX debate, two questions dominate. First, who can better adjudicate claims of campus sexual assault: criminal courts using criminal laws, or schools using Title IX? Second, if schools do adjudicate sexual assault claims under Title IX, are students entitled to the same procedural protections as criminal defendants? In this Symposium piece, I argue that this criminal law versus Title IX framing is unduly narrow. It ignores a third, important mode of adjudication for sexual assault claims: tort law. In this essay, I show why tort law has been left out of the campus sexual assault debate, and the potential impact of its inclusion. Incorporating tort law into the campus sexual assault debate has three specific benefits. First, conceptualizing campus sexual assault as a tort reminds us that the same wrong can be legitimately framed and addressed in multiple ways. Second, tort law sets a useful standard for determining the scope of procedural protections in campus sexual assault proceedings. Third, tort law suggests that affirmative consent may be appropriate for campus sexual interactions. Ultimately, bringing tort law into the campus sexual assault debate opens up the vast and fertile ground between the two poles of criminal law and Title IX, and creates a space where better institutional design and a more effective solution to this social problem might be found.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

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“Cocks Not Glocks” Protest at University of Texas

Jon Herskovitz writes for Yahoo, “Texas Students Use Sex Toys to Protest New Gun Laws On Campus“:

To protest a new state law that makes the carrying of concealed handguns legal in college classrooms, students at the University of Texas on Wednesday openly displayed sex toys, an act considered illegal under local indecency laws.

“We are fighting absurdity with absurdity,” said Jessica Jin, leader of the protest called “Cocks Not Glocks: Campus (Dildo) Carry,” where hundreds of sex toys were given away at the rally on Wednesday that coincided with a return to classes at university’s flagship campus.

“Texas has decided it is not all obnoxious or illegal to allow deadly concealed weapons on campus. But walking around with a dildo could land you in trouble,” Jin said.

On Aug. 1, a so-called “campus carry” law backed by the state’s Republican political leaders went into effect that allows concealed handgun license holders aged 21 and older to bring handguns into classrooms and other university facilities.

Read the full story here.

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California’s Tampon Tax May Soon End

From the Huffington Post (here):

The same bill unanimously passed in the Assembly in early June. It now heads back to the Assembly for final approval, and then to Gov. Jerry Brown (D), whose office declined to say if he will sign the bill into law or not. The measure would save California women an estimated $20 million annually, and has the support of the state’s tax board .

California is one of 39 states where tampons, pads and other similar items are not classified as necessities and are thus subject to sales tax, unlike many other medical products .

The legislation, introduced by state Assemblywomen Cristina Garcia (D) and Ling Ling Chang (R) earlier this year, would exempt menstrual products from the state sales tax. The bill’s proponents argue that items like tampons are not simply “feminine hygiene products,” but a medical necessity for women, and that subjecting the products to sales tax is a glaring example of gender inequality.

“The state of California should not be in the business of putting a tax on half the population because they were born as women,” Garcia told The Huffington Post in April.

Read the full article here.

 

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CFP: Feminist Legal Theory Collaborative Research Network at Law & Society 2017

Call for Papers – Friday September 16th Deadline

The Feminist Legal Theory Collaborative Research Network

Seeks submissions for the

Law and Society Association Annual Meeting

Mexico City, Mexico, at the Sheraton Maria Isabel, June 20 – 23, 2017

Dear friends and colleagues,

We invite you to participate in the panels sponsored by the Feminist Legal Theory Collaborative Research Network at the Law and Society Annual Meeting in 2017. The Feminist Legal Theory CRN seeks to bring together law and society scholars across a range of fields who are interested in feminist legal theory. Information about the Law and Society meeting is available at http://www.lawandsociety.org.

This year’s meeting is unique in that it brings us to the Global South, and invites us to explore the theme Walls, Borders, and Bridges: Law and Society in an Inter-Connected World. We are especially interested in proposals that explore the application of feminist legal theory to this theme, broadly construed. This might include papers that explore feminist legal theory in comparative or transnational contexts, as well as in relation to the impacts of globalism and other intersections within particular locations, relationships, institutions, and identities. We are also interested in papers that will permit us to collaborate with other CRNs, such as the Critical Research on Race and the Law CRN, and welcome multidisciplinary proposals.

Our goal is to stimulate focused discussion of papers on which scholars are currently working. Thus, while you may submit papers that are closer to publication, we are particularly eager to receive proposals for works-in-progress that are at an earlier stage and will benefit from the discussion that the panels will provide.

The Planning Committee will assign individual papers to panels based on subject. Panels will use the LSA format, which requires four papers. We will also assign a chair, and one or two commentators/discussants for each panel, to provide feedback on the papers and promote discussion. For panels with two commentators/discussants, one may be asked to also chair.

As a condition of participating as a panelist, you must also agree to serve as a chair and/or commentator/discussant for another panel or participant. We will of course take into account expertise and topic preferences to the degree possible.

The duties of chairs are to organize the panel logistically; including registering it online with the LSA, and moderating the panel. Chairs will develop a 100-250 word description for the session and submit the session proposal to LSA before their anticipated deadline of October 19. This will ensure that each panelist can submit their proposal, using the panel number assigned.

The duties of commentator/discussants are to read the papers assigned to them and to prepare a short commentary about the papers that discusses them individually and (to the extent relevant) collectively, identifying ways that they relate to one another.

If you would like to present a paper as part of a CRN panel, please email:

  • An 1000 word abstract or summary,
  • Your name and a title, and
  • A list of your areas of interest and expertise within feminist legal theory

to the CRN Planning Committee at 2017lsacrn@gmail.com. (Please do not send submissions to individual committee members.)

Note that LSA is imposing a requirement that your summary be at least 1,000 words long.  Although a shorter summary will suffice for our purposes, you will be required to upload a 1,000 word summary in advance of LSA’s anticipated deadline of October 19. If you are already planning a LSA session with at least four panelists (and papers) that you would like to see included in the Feminist Legal Theory CRN, please let the Committee know.

In addition to these panels, we may try to use some of the other formats that the LSA provides: the “author meets readers” format, salon, or roundtable discussion. If you have an idea that you think would work well in one of these formats, please let us know. Please note that for roundtables, organizers are now required to provide a 500-word summary of the topic and the contributions they expect the proposed participants to make. Please also note that LSA rules limit you to participating only once as a paper panelist or roundtable participant.

Please submit all proposals by Friday, September 16 to the email provided above. This will permit us to organize panels and submit them prior to the LSA’s anticipated deadline of October 19. In the past, we have accommodated as many panelists as possible, but have been unable to accept all proposals. If we are unable to accept your proposal for the CRN, we will notify you by early October so that you can submit an independent proposal to LSA.

We hope you’ll join us in Mexico City to share and discuss the scholarship in which we are all engaged and connect with others doing work on feminist legal theory.

 

Best,

 

2017 LSA Feminist Legal Theory CRN Planning Committee

Aziza Ahmed (co-chair)

Elizabeth MacDowell (co-chair)

Jamie Abrams

Srimati Basu

Cyra Akila Choudhury

Anibal Rosario-Lebron

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White Paper: Title IX & the Preponderance of the Evidence

Please see the “second edition” of the White Paper on Title IX & the Preponderance of the Evidence at the link below, including the first 100 signatures from law professors across the country.  We will continue to accept signatures from law faculty members as long as law faculty members wish to sign on to the White Paper, and we will post updated editions of the White Paper as we receive additional signatures.  To add yourself as a signatory, please email your full name and the URL for your faculty webpage to Nancy Chi Cantalupo at ncantalupo@barry.edu.

title-ix-preponderance-white-paper-signed-10-3-16

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CFP: “Intersectional Inquiries and Collaborative Action: Gender and Race,” Notre Dame, Mar 2-4, 2017

From the FLP mailbox:

Intersectional Inquiries and Collaborative Action: Gender and Race

University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana USA
March 2-4, 2017

Deadline for submissions: Saturday, October 1, 2016

Questions of race and gender continue to undergird broad sections of inquiry in the academy and beyond. The ongoing legacies and current manifestations of racism and sexism continue to demand intellectual analysis, institutional recognition, and collective intervention. Reaching a critical crescendo during the political upheavals of the 1960s’ civil rights/anti-colonial era and the responding cultural turn in the humanities, Black feminists have discussed the ways in which both race and gender are co-constitutive and rely on intersecting paradigms of power and constructions of difference. Indeed, the concept of “intersectionality,” coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, has become a key mode of framing how identities and sites of contestation around identity are multiple and complex. Furthermore, critics and activists from a myriad of socio-political milieus have underscored the importance of intersectional approaches in struggles for social justice and in the making of inclusive public spaces. From feminist scholarship to human rights policy to commentary via Twitter memes, intersectionality as a theoretical concept, method of analysis, and mode of collaborative action circulates in both grassroots and intellectual discourse.

The Intersectional Inquiries conference will offer a platform for scholars from various fields to interrogate the intersections of race and gender–as manifested materially and discursively–from a broad range of historical, global, and contemporary contexts. We call on scholars, activists, and students to attend rigorously to the ways that race structures gender, sexualities, class, and dis/ability and the dominating matrices of biopolitical violence and imperialism, as well as to trace how racialized subjectivities and non-normative embodiments challenge and radically fracture hierarchy. With this conference, our hope is to inspire impactful intellectual dialogue and assist in building ties that might lead to scholarly- and social justice-focused collaborations.

Our confirmed keynote speaker is Professor Patricia Hill Collins, Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park.  Professor Collins recently co-authored Intersectionality (Polity 2016) with Sirma Bilge.  Her first book, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (Routledge 1990), won the Jessie Bernard Award of the American Sociological Association for significant scholarship in gender, and the C. Wright Mills Award of the Society for the Study of Social Problems.  Professor Collins is also the author and editor of several books dealing with race, gender, education, and politics, including On Intellectual Activism (Temple 2012); Another Kind of Public Education: Race, the Media, Schools, and Democratic Possibilities (Beacon 2009); and From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism (Temple 2006).

Topics

The Organizing Committee invites proposals for individual papers, pre-constituted panels, pre-constituted roundtables, and creative works that address one or more of the following topics, or other topics aligned with the conference theme:

immigration
globalism
coloniality and imperialism
violence, terror, and war
social movements and activism
electoral politics
neoliberalism
sexualities
disability
religion and spirituality
education
environment, climate change, and sustainability
space, place, and geography
labor and economics
family and marriage
literature, visual culture, and performance
popular culture (social media, film, television, music, sports, gaming, etc.)
digitization and technicity
theory and/or methodology
feminist jurisprudence.
Submission Guidelines

The deadline for submissions is 11:59 PM (US Eastern Daylight Time) on Saturday, October 1, 2016.

Please submit your proposal here:  NDIntersectional.submittable.com/submissions   You will first need to become a member of Submittable (which is easy and free).

To allow for as many voices as possible at the conference, proposers may apply for only two of the following roles: paper presenter, creative works presenter, panel chair, roundtable coordinator, or roundtable participant.

We welcome submissions from scholars, activists, artists, and students, including those at the undergraduate level.

Open Call Papers

Individuals submitting paper proposals should provide an abstract of 250 words, a short bio, and contact information. Co-authored papers are acceptable.

Pre-constituted Panels

Panel chairs should submit a 250-word rationale for the pre-constituted panel as a whole.  For each participant, chairs should submit a 250-word presentation abstract, a short bio, and contact information. Panels should include 3-4 papers. Co-authored papers are acceptable.  Panels that include a diversity of panelist affiliations and experience levels are strongly encouraged.

Pre-constituted Roundtables

Roundtable coordinators should submit a 250-word rationale for the pre-constituted roundtable as a whole.  For each participant, coordinators should submit a 250-word abstract of planned comments, a short bio, and contact information. Roundtables should include no more than 6 participants (inclusive of coordinator).  Roundtables that include a diversity of panelist affiliations and experience levels are strongly encouraged. Roundtable participants’ remarks at the conference should be brief in order to create substantive discussion with attendees.

Open Call Creative Works

Proposals for audiovisual and other creative works should consist of a 250-word abstract (including the length and format of the work), a short bio of the producer/director, contact information, and requirements for exhibition. Co-authored work is acceptable.  If the work is viewable online, please submit a URL.

More Information

Please direct any questions about the conference and the submission process to: NDIntersectional@gmail.com.

Updates about the conference schedule, events, travel and lodging, and more will be posted here.

Conference Organizers: Tara Hudson, Z’étoile Imma, Mary Celeste Kearney, and Christine Venter, University of Notre Dame.

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Alison Piepmeier, “Thank You for My Beautiful Life”

Alison Piepmeier, currently receiving hospice care for brain cancer, has written a beautiful column for the Charleston City Paper.  Here is an excerpt:

What does it mean when the rest of your life may be measured in weeks? My brain tumor is growing. I am in hospice care. I am surrounded, constantly, by family and friends.

There are too many acts of kindness to report. People send me meals, cookies, and delicious treats from Charleston and all over the country. I receive prayers and poems. There are volunteers teaching Maybelle to ride a bike, because I can’t. Maybelle, Brian, and I have more loving offers of support than we can possibly accept.

Of course, I know what’s up. All this amazing generosity is, sadly, another sign of my imminent death. How can I exist in this place, where I’m so grateful and so sad? * * *

I am a tenured full professor who can’t pee without help. A scholar of feminist disability studies who now lives in disability’s embrace.

In a future that may only be days away, I will lose the ability to communicate before losing the ability to live. For now, my constant failures to understand and to make meaning are signs of things to come. The simplest conversation drags on as I struggle to find the right words. Dictating the first draft of this column took two hours, as my mother patiently typed.

Little by little, I’m learning that who I thought I was is sliding away. I’m sitting at the table holding coffee someone else made for me. Someone else is feeding Maybelle, putting her lunch together, getting her dressed and ready for summer camp. I’m just sitting there, no longer the mother helping Maybelle prepare for her day. * * *

I hope this won’t be my last column. Perhaps, though, knowing that it might be is a gift I should accept.

Because I should not go without saying thank you to all those whose caring has sustained me and whose kind words have created many moments of joy and beauty. Even as I feel myself slipping away, I know that Maybelle will be held up, supported for the rest of her life by a community’s love more deep, more powerful, more transcendent than any I could supply. * * *

To my brothers, parents, friends, teachers, students, co-workers, lovers, and readers, I ask forgiveness for anything I’ve done to hurt you. Thank you for my beautiful life.

If there’s a heaven, or whatever, I’ll see you there.

Read the full column here.

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When Applying for College Yields Feminine Hygiene Product Samples

In the annals of weird product placement, consider this story out of the UK about the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service sending female college applicants samples of tampons and sanitary napkins “so you can stay your fresh and confident self as you prepare for whatever next year brings.” From one Twitter user:

According to the (UK) Independent (here):

Both Ucas and Procter & Gamble have yet to respond to the Independent’s request for comment. However, a Ucas spokesperson told The University Paper it regularly works with companies that provide useful products and services aimed at students, and that females who opted in to receiving commercial emails were recently alerted to let them know they would be sent samples.

Let’s hope the Law School Admission Council doesn’t follow this example.

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Interview with Zoe Salzman, New York Attorney Challenging the “Tampon Tax”

Bridget J. Crawford recently spoke with Zoe Salzman, Esq. of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP in New York.  Ms. Salzman is representing the plaintiffs in a class action that challenges the New York “tampon tax,” the state sales tax imposed on feminine hygiene products. The Complaint in Seibert, et al. v. N.Y. State Dep’t of Taxation and Finance, et al. was filed on March 3, 2016.  On May 25, 2016, the New York State legislature voted to exempt feminine hygiene products from state sales taxes.

In this interview, Ms. Salzman explains why the plaintiffs sought to challenge the law, how a claim for sales tax refunds would work and why the case is important

Bridget Crawford: Can you tell me a little bit about how this case came about?

Zoe Salzman: We’ve seen increasing attention to the discriminatory tampon tax at both the national and international levels.  There had been attempts in New York to repeal the tax with legislation – but nothing was happening.  We decided it was time to force change through litigation.

Crawford: How did you become involved in the case?

Zoe SalzmanSalzman: Some women who were already working to end the tampon tax approached our firm and suggested that we get involved.  Once we learned about the issue, we were determined to do something about it.

Crawford: The tampon tax has gotten coverage in many media outlets, including Time and Cosmopolitan magazine.  What is it about the cultural zeitgeist that makes people so interested in this issue?

Salzman: Maybe the fact that a lot of people still think “tampon” is a dirty word and it’s scandalous to see it in print?  But all joking aside, I think people are drawn to this issue because the tampon tax is so obviously wrong, discriminatory, and unjustifiable.  It’s not often that an issue is this clear-cut.  Women and men alike are shocked and I think that leads them to be inspired by this campaign.

Crawford: Why did your clients want to pursue legal action, even though there was already some indication that the New York State legislature was moving in the direction of a repeal of the sales tax on feminine hygiene products?

Salzman: Attempts to repeal the tampon tax through legislation had been languishing in Albany for years.  Earlier this year, Utah rejected a similar measure.  New York women were tired of waiting and so we turned to litigation—and, lo and behold, after we filed our case, the legislature and the governor got motivated enough to finally end the tampon tax.  There’s no question that the lawsuit brought a lot of attention to this issue and was a powerful catalyst for change.

Crawford: I notice that this case has five named plaintiffs. What went into the decision to have more than one named plaintiff?  How were they selected?

Salzman: A lot of women wanted to be plaintiffs in this lawsuit.  Every woman I spoke to was outraged and shocked by this unfair, regressive tax.  The five plaintiffs who put their names on the lawsuit saw themselves right from the beginning as standard-bearers for all New York women.  They are a diverse group, from all walks of life, but all of them were burdened by this discriminatory tax and all of them were determined to do something to end it.

Crawford: Your Complaint asks for both declaratory relief – essentially a ruling that the sales tax should not apply to feminine hygiene products – and refunds of past sales tax paid.  How does the subsequent repeal of the New York sales tax on these products impact your case?

Salzman: The change in the law moots the injunctive claims but the refund claims remain.

Crawford: How does a sales tax refund work in New York?  Would it come from the state government, or does it come from the retail vendor of the product?  Is there a time period beyond which refunds could not be granted, like only with respect to sales in three years prior to any decision?

Salzman: The State collected the tax, so the refund would come from the State.  We have claims under federal law for the violation of the federal Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause and the statute of limitations for those claims is three years.

Crawford:  Practically speaking, if women were to win this case, how would they get refunds?  Would they have to show receipts?  Not that many people hang onto receipts for everyday purchases from the corner store last week, let alone last month or last year. What would happen to any unclaimed award?

Salzman:  That will have to be worked out after additional discovery in the case and the assistance of experts, but there are several options for how the refunds could be distributed.  Class actions distribute refunds to millions of people all the time.

Crawford: Your Complaint estimates that New York State collects approximately $14 million in sales tax on tampons and other feminine hygiene products. Is there any precedent in New York for that level of refund claim being paid in the context of a sales tax imposed on a consumer product?

Salzman: I haven’t researched that issue specifically.  Certainly people apply for and receive refunds from the State all the time – here, the size of the refund reflects the amount the State unlawfully collected from New York women for years under the guise of this discriminatory tax.  The State gets the benefit of the three year statute of limitations, but the reality is that the damage to women who have been paying this tax their entire lives is far greater. It’s also a small fraction of the entire annual New York State budget – less than one hundredth of one percent.

Crawford: One interesting thing about this case is that the New York Department of Taxation and Finance seems to have made a very deliberate decision to tax tampons and pads, whereas adult diapers, incontinence pads, condoms and hair regrowth treatments like Rogaine are not subject to tax.  Why do you think the Department decided to tax tampons and pads? Do you think there was a discriminatory intent? Continue reading

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Interview with Dana Brooks Cooper, Florida Attorney Challenging the “Tampon Tax”

Bridget J. Crawford recently spoke with Dana Brooks Cooper, Esq. of Barret, Fasig & Brooks in Tallahassee, Florida.  Ms. Brooks is representing the plaintiff in a class action that challenges the Florida “tampon tax,” the state sales tax imposed on feminine hygiene products. The Complaint in Wendell v. Florida Department of Revenue et al. was filed in the Circuit Court, Second Judicial Circuit, in and for Leon County, Florida, on July 6, 2016.

In this interview, Ms. Cooper explains the background to the case, the grounds for the legal challenge and why the case is important.

Bridget Crawford: Can you tell me a little bit about the background to this case?

Dana Brooks Cooper: Our plaintiff is an impressive 23-year old woman who had already started a non-profit, “FLOW” (For the Love of Women), for purposes of removing the stigma associated with women’s periods and putting sanitary products in women’s shelters in the Tampa/St. Pete area.Dana Brooks Cooper

Crawford: How did you become involved in the case?

Cooper: I was contacted by one of the other attorneys who was already on the case who I have worked with in the past on constitutional challenges.

Crawford: I notice that the two other named partners in your firm are men, and seven of the ten attorneys at your firm are men. How did your colleagues – at your firm and otherwise – react to your taking on this case?

Cooper:  Well, we recently hired another attorney, who is a woman, so now we’re 36% female!  That is actually quite high for a firm that is 100% plaintiff trial lawyers.  Women are still woefully underrepresented among trial lawyers, especially on the plaintiff’s side.

To answer your question, there was 100% unanimous support from the very beginning. Although every one of my male partners has important women in their lives—mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, like me, they don’t see this as a women’s issue; it’s a fairness issue.

I’m the managing partner in this firm so I’m the one dealing with maternity leave and other issues.  My partners have always supported by efforts at gender parity.  I make sure that our female attorneys are not penalized when they go on maternity leave – we make sure they receive the same pay and benefits but we also have the other attorneys (male and female) help maintain her caseload so she doesn’t miss out on the additional income she could and would have made, but for the pregnancy. Same thing with sick leave – we pay our employees for unused sick time but I realized that women take more leave than men.  Investigating further, I found out it was mainly because they suffered from reproduction-related health problems, like menstrual cramps, excessive bleeding, anemia, headaches, etc., which reduced their leave substantially compared to their male counterparts.  Those are real dollars women are losing compared to men.  Luckily, it was simply a matter of opening my male partners’ eyes to this – they had never even thought about things like that until they had a female managing partner.

Bottom line – I work in an exceptional law firm and my partners are like my father and brothers.

Crawford: Your Complaint in the case argues that the Florida law improperly classifies tampons and pads and thus subjects them to sales tax, while similar products like adhesive tape, Epson salts, athlete’s foot treatment, Rogaine and petroleum jelly are not subject to tax.  As a technical matter, this happens in Florida law through a tax exempt classification for certain medical products as well as “common household remedies recommended and generally sold … for the cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of illness or disease in human beings.” In your Complaint, you say that tampons and pads “are far more necessary to the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of illness or disease than other products the State of Florida considers medically exempt.” I don’t think you are saying that menstruation is an illness or disease.  What did you mean?

Cooper: No, of course menstruation, in and of itself, isn’t a disease.  It is a natural process, but one for whom no woman has the opportunity to “opt out.”  However, sanitary products play an essential role in reducing and preventing the spread of blood borne illnesses.   If you think about it, if an athlete gets injured and starts bleeding in a basketball game, s/he must leave the game specifically to avoid the potential spread of disease.  In Florida, the absorbent products used for that active bleeding – gauze, tape, band-aids, etc. – would be tax exempt for both male and female athletes.  Women use sanitary products for the same reason – to keep from bleeding all over the place – yet they are taxed for similar absorbent products.  Women don’t use these products for fear of their own blood – it’s for the protection of everybody else.  Simply put, it’s a public health safety issue, the costs of which are solely borne by women. These products are not luxuries – women can’t just stay home until they stop bleeding.  Imagine the world if every menstruating woman opted out of paying for this “luxury,” and just stayed home from school, work, church, shopping, and volunteering while they were bleeding.  The average start of menarche is age 12 and the onset of menopause is usually around age 51-52.  Women have their periods every 28 – 30 days for 5-7 days.  If you do the math, the average woman spends between 6.6 and 9.2 years of her life on her period!  With a life expectancy of 78 years, the average woman spends 8.5-11.8% of her life bleeding for no other reason than the fact of being born female.

Crawford: Why do you think that the Florida Department of Health, which is responsible for creating the list of “common household remedies” that are exempt from Florida sales tax, did not include feminine hygiene products on that list and exempt them from tax? Continue reading

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Making Women’s Periods Commercial-Chic (Who Benefits?)

Is there nothing that escapes commercialization?  A U.K. company called Pink Parcel is hawking “Period Subscription Boxes” to deliver to your home each month tampons, pads, tea, chocolate, beauty products (like tweezers! hand cream!).  Goodies come in recyclable and biodegradable boxes.  The website includes gushing endorsements such as these:

  • “That time of the month can be tough, and having a little box of goodies arrive each month to make it a little easier can only be a good thing – it’s the perfect excuse for a little extra pampering time.”
  • “Let’s not beat around the bush; your er, time of the month, is never a walk in the park. But this where Pink Parcel steps in. Perfect for those who really get it bad around that time, or just to make Mother Nature’s visit a little more palatable.”

Really?

But that’s not all.  Pink Parcel has its own PR firm (see here) that aims to raise the company’s profile and “engage Pink Parcel in relevant conversations surrounding the abolition of the [U.K.] ‘tampon tax’ (where VAT is imposed on sanitary items).”  And the company’s blog includes (laudable) posts against body-shaming (see here). So maybe we can point to Pink Parcel as an example of a company trying to capitalize on a certain female-positive activism-chic?

image source here
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NYS Repeals Tampon Tax

In May, the New York State legislature passed a bill eliminating the sales tax on feminine hygiene products. As expected, that bill was signed into law yesterday by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

In the press release (here) issued by the Governor’s office, Cuomo said, “This is a regressive tax on essential products that women have had to pay for far too long and lifting it is a matter of social and economic justice.” Some local press coverage can be found here.

The estimated budget impact, according to some reports (e.g., here) is $10 million per year.  A class action lawsuit filed in March of this year (before the legislative repeal) estimates that the “tampon tax” generated over $14 million for New York State.

Although New York has prospectively changed its law, the lawsuit is going forward, as the plaintiffs have requested restitution for past tax paid.

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Free Tampons in the 212: NYC Passes New Law

Last month the New York City Council passed laws requiring the City to provide free menstrual hygiene products in schools, homeless shelters and jails.  Here’s an excerpt from the press release:

Feminine hygiene products are essential for the health and well-being of women and girls. Inadequate menstrual hygiene management is associated with both health and psycho-social issues, particularly among low-income women. Access to feminine hygiene products has proven to be limited for certain populations, including public school students, the homeless, and incarcerated women.  * * *

“Feminine hygiene products are not a luxury for women, but rather an essential part of women’s health,” said Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. “Whether it’s in public schools, shelters, or even our city jails, giving women access to these products is a no-brainer, and long overdue. I’d like to thank Council Member Julissa Ferreras-Copeland and all my colleagues for their work and leadership on this crucial legislative package.”

“I am so proud that the Council will pass three pieces of sensible yet groundbreaking legislation which will guarantee access to menstrual hygiene products to tens of thousands of New Yorkers. For students who will no longer miss class because they do not have a pad or tampon to mothers at shelters and women in prison who will have access to these critical yet often overlooked products, this package makes our City a more fair place. I thank Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Women’s Issues Chair Laurie Cumbo, and all my colleagues who again are setting a standard for equality and access for the rest of the country to follow,” said Council Finance Chair Julissa Ferreras-Copeland.

“The provision of free feminine hygiene products in public schools is an important service to students who would otherwise not be able to afford them,” said NYC Education Committee Chairperson Daniel Dromm, co-prime sponsor of Intro 1128-A.  “These free tampon and sanitary napkin dispensers will ensure that girls and young women avoid the discomfort and embarrassing situations that can get in the way of learning.  I am proud to work alongside Council Member Julissa Ferreras-Copeland to make our schools safer and healthier places for our students.”

The full press release is here.

UPDATE 7/15/16: NYC Mayor Bill DiBlasio signed the legislation into law on July 13, 2016.  The mayor’s press release, including statements from a variety of City Council members and community supporters, is here.

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Syracuse L Rev CFP: “Constitutionality of Laws Surrounding Reproductive Health”

From the FLP mailbox:

Call for Papers:

Analysis and Comment on Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt and the Constitutionality of Laws Surrounding Reproductive Health

The Syracuse Law Review seeks manuscripts that address the constitutionality of laws surrounding reproductive health and how the Supreme Court’s decision of Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt has and will continue to affect the landscape. A book of Volume 67 of the Law Review will be dedicated to addressing constitutional themes that emerged from last year’s Supreme Court term, and we would like to include an article on reproductive health in the conversation. The article’s subject was left intentionally broad so as to leave room for authors to choose individual, specific topics within the field. Article submissions should be approximately 10,000 words (flexible) and must be submitted to the Law Review no later than October 1, 2016 (deadline open to negotiation). If you are interested in submitting or if you have any questions, please contact Lead Articles Editors Hillary Anderson at haanders@syr.edu and Matthew Petrone at mlpetron@syr.edu.

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“A Papa Murphy’s take-and-bake pizza is not essential in the same way as feminine hygiene products are to menstruating women”

This week the Appellate Court of Illinois, Fifth District, has served up some very quotable dicta.  The court affirmed the dismissal of a putative class action against Papa Murphy’s International, a pizza franchisor, and a local franchisee, located in Edwardsville, Illinois.  The plaintiff in Karpowicz v. Papa Murphy’s International had alleged that the imposition of an 8.8% tax on his “take and bake” pizza violated the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act because applicable taxing law and regulations impose a sales tax of only 1% on food for human consumption that is to be consumed off the premises where it is sold (other than alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, candy and food that has been prepared for immediate consumption).” Applicable state regulations further provide that if the retailer provides premises for food consumption, then “a rebuttable presumption is created that all sales of food by that retailer are considered to be prepared for immediate consumption and subject to tax at the high rate.”

The defendant moved to dismiss the complaint on several grounds, including failure to state a valid claim under the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act, a procedural inability to recover under Illinois law, and the “voluntary payment doctrine.”  That is the notion that a taxpayer cannot recover taxes paid voluntarily, even if those taxes were illegal, unless specifically authorized by the statute.

In Karpowicz, the plaintiff argued that he had paid the tax on his pizza under duress, and therefore the “voluntary payment doctrine” did not preclude him from challenging the law. The plaintiff in Karpowicz relied heavily on the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision in Geary v. Dominick’s Finer Foods, Inc., 129 Ill. 2d 389 (1989), which held that female consumers had paid a sales tax on feminine hygiene products under “duress” and therefore the voluntary payment doctrine did not prevent those plaintiffs from challenging the law.

Here’s the dicta from Karpowicz: “A Papa Murphy’s take-and-bake pizza is not essential in the same way as feminine hygiene products are to menstruating women.  The plaintiff did not pay the tax involuntarily; reasonable alternatives exist that fulfill a consumer’s basic need for sustenance.”

In other words, a pizza is not like a tampon, and we can cite the Appellate Court of Illinois, Fifth District for that!!

H/T Arthur R. Rosen

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Call For Papers: Special Issue of Canadian Journal of Women and the Law/Revue femmes et droit

From the mailbox:

 

Appel à communications – édition spéciale dans la Revue femmes et droit Commémoration des travaux de la professeure Nicole LaViolette

 

La Revue femmes et droit sollicite des observations rédigées en français sur l’intersection des LGBTQ et des réfugiés. Cette édition spéciale commémore les travaux de la professeure Nicole LaViolette dont le travail a contribué à mieux comprendre les croisements entre l’orientation et l’identité sexuelles et la migration forcée au Canada et à l’échelle internationale. Dans ce numéro spécial, on cherche à faire avancer les travaux de la professeure LaViolette. Les auteurs sont invités à puiser dans une bibliographie annotée que la professeure LaViolette et Mary Kapron ont compilée en vue de générer des idées ou de l’utiliser comme source (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2457503).

 

Les articles, d’une longueur maximale de 10 000 mots, doivent être finalisés d’ici le 1er octobre 2016.

 

Nous sommes ouverts à la collaboration de nouveaux chercheurs et étudiants des cycles supérieurs. Veuillez faire parvenir des résumés de 500 mots maximum à Jamie Liew (jamie.liew@uottawa.ca) et Mary Kapron (mary.kapron@gmail.com) au plus tard le 1er août 2016.

 

 

Call for papers – Special Issue in Canadian Journal of Women and the Law

Commemorating the work of Professor Nicole LaViolette

 

The Canadian Journal of Women and the Law is welcoming submissions written in French on the intersection of LGBTQ and refugees. The special edition is commemorating the work of Professor Nicole LaViolette whose work contributed to understanding the intersection of sexual orientation and gender with forced migration both in Canada and internationally. The edition hopes to further the work of Professor LaViolette. Writers are welcome to mine an annotated bibliography that Professor LaViolette and Mary Kapron compiled to generate ideas or use as source material (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2457503).  Papers no more than 10,000 words must be completed by October 1, 2016.

 

We welcome emerging scholars and graduate students. Abstracts of 500 words should be submitted to Jamie Liew (jamie.liew@uottawa.ca) and Mary Kapron (mary.kapron@gmail.com) by no later than August 1, 2016.

 

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Where There is Hatred, Let Us Sow Love

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Jamie Abrams on “Women’s Acts of Violence”

Jamie Abrams (Louisville) has posted to SSRN her article The Feminist Case for Acknowledging Women’s Acts of Violence, Yale J. Law & Feminism 101 (2016).

Here is the abstract:

This Article makes a feminist case for acknowledging women’s acts of violence as consistent with—not threatening to—the goals of the domestic violence movement and the feminist movement. It concludes that broadly understanding women’s use of strength, power, coercion, control, and violence, even illegitimate uses, can be framed consistent with feminist goals. Beginning this conversation is a necessary—if uncomfortable—step to give movement to the movement to end gendered violence.

The domestic violence movement historically framed its work on a gender binary of men as potential perpetrators and women as potential victims. This binary was an essential starting point to defining and responding to domestic violence. The movement has since struggled to address women as perpetrators. It has historically deployed a “strategy of containment” to respond to women as perpetrators. This strategy includes bringing male victims of domestic violence within existing services, monitoring exaggerations and misstatements about the extent of women’s violence, and noting the troublesome line between perpetrator/victim for women. This strategy achieved specific and important goals to domestic violence law reforms. These goals included retaining domestic violence’s central and iconic framing as a women’s issue, preserving critical funding sources and infrastructure to serve victims, and thwarting obstructionist political challenges largely waged by men’s rights groups.

While acknowledging that these goals were sound and central to the historic underpinnings of domestic violence law reforms, this Article considers whether the strategy of containment is too myopic and reactive to endure. It begins a discussion of whether moving beyond a strategy of containment might paradoxically advance the efficacy of both domestic violence law reforms and the feminist movement. It suggests that moving beyond the strategy of containment would strengthen the infrastructure and foundation of the domestic violence movement. It would move beyond the limited masculinist frame dominating domestic violence, beyond the pathologized and marginalized frame depicting women abusers, and toward a more inclusive movement. It further examines potential gains to the broader feminist movement, such as preserving the movement’s sustained legacy, diffusing gender stereotypes, righting skewed legal standards, and advancing women’s political and professional status.

The full paper is available here.

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Feminist Legal Theory Panels at Law and Society

The annual meeting of the Law and Society Association kicks off tomorrow in New Orleans.  There are some super panels being organized by the Feminist Legal Theory Collaborative Research Network.  A full list is here. A few panels that caught my eye include:

Friday, June 3, 12:45 to 2:30 pm 

[Panel 1224] Advancing Diversity with Feminist Legal Theory

Room: 2nd Floor, Studio 9

Chair: Jessica Clarke

1. Supporting Faculty

Panelist: Meera Deo, Thomas Jefferson School of Law

Commentator: Wendy Greene

2.  The Collapse of the House that Ruth Built: The Impact of the Feeder System on Female Judges and the Federal Judiciary, 1970-2014

Panelist: Alexandra Hess, Law Clerk, Second Circuit Court of Appeals

Commentator: Victor Quintanilla

3.  Mapping the European and international legal framework concerning gender equality in employment and working life

Panelist: Aija Valleala, Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki

Commentator: Marley Weiss

4.  Gender In/sight: Examining Culture and Constructions of Gender

Panelists: Adam Chang and Stephanie Wildman, Santa Clara Law

Commentator: Luke Boso

Friday, June 3, 4:45 to 6:30 pm   

[Panel 1228] Policing, Masculinities, and Gender

Room: 3rd Floor, Salon E

Chair: Leigh Goodmark

1.  Policing and the Clash of Masculinities

Panelist: Ann McGinley, William S. Boyd School of Law, UNLV

Commentator: Leigh Goodmark

2.  The Feminist Case for Acknowledging Women’s Acts of Violence

Panelist: Jamie Abrams, University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law

Commentator: Jane Stoever

3.  The Violent Ends of Violent Delights

Panelist: Leslie Y. Garfield, Professor, Pace Law

Commentator: Cynthia Godsoe

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SULC Hiring Director of Law Library

From colleagues at the Southern University Law Center:

SULC hiring for a Director of Library Services (at Assistant/Associate Professor rank)

The Director of the Law Library

Reports to the Chancellor of the Southern University Law Center

Responsible for all aspects of library operations including management, budgeting, hiring, and supervision of library staff

Strategic planning and collection development

Initiating and monitoring innovative library programs and services

Minimal Qualifications

Juris Doctor (JD) from an ABA accredited institution

Law library administrative experience

Law practice or law teaching experience is required

A M.L.S. from an ALA accredited institution is preferred.

To apply for this position, a letter of application, curriculum vita and at least (3) three references should be sent to:

Professor Roederick White 
Chair, Faculty Appointment, Retention, Promotion and Tenure Committee
Southern University Law Center
P.O. Box 9294
Baton Rouge, LA 70813-9294
Criminal Background Check & Reference Verification is required. Southern University A&M College is an equal opportunity employer.
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CFP: The Unruly Nature of the Law of Trusts and Estates

Call for Papers

Trusts & Estates Section

2017 AALS Annual Meeting

January 4-7, 2017 – San Francisco, CA

 

The Section on Trusts and Estates is pleased to announce a Call for Papers …

Sex, Death, and Taxes: The Unruly Nature of the Laws of Trusts and Estates

Trusts & Estates is a far-reaching and broad-based discipline of law that impacts private citizens’ decisions about sex, death, and taxes.  This legal discipline is based on speculation about donors and their intentions that, by their very nature, create unintended consequences because the laws exist largely unseen until they come into play.  Moreover, ascertaining these preferences prove difficult because individuals are entrenched with idiosyncratic preconceptions about death, family, property rights, personal legacies, paternalism, altruism, investment strategies, taxes, and many other effective interests.  In addition, the field sits at the crossroads of other legal disciplines such as family law, property law, elder law, and tax law.  For students, T&E makes an appearance in law schools and the bar exam, but is not like a constitutional law class that is unabashedly theoretical in its presentation and in meeting students’ non-expectations of a skills-centric classroom experience.  In practice, some of the most thriving areas require expertise in T&E.  In ordinary people’s everyday lives, the legal discipline is like an operating system that quietly runs in the background, but in reality organizes and informs the end user’s experience, often without the end user’s full awareness.  In the academy, it is caught between the practical and theoretical—a microcosm of the questions at the heart of debates about the value and normative objectives of a legal education.  Yet, during a time when T&E is becoming more relevant than ever, the discipline may be under–theorized and marginalized in the academy.  Therefore, this panel will interrogate T&E’s unruly nature, entertaining inquiries about the intersectionality of gender, race, sexual orientation, and class; the pervasiveness of succession law in aligned fields; its history of adaptation to changing social norms; and the development and evolution of law reform in this area.  The panel will explore new visions for the field and frameworks that disrupt and reimagine the field, while looking forward to practical and theoretical responses to such things as the pending elder care issues, concentration of wealth, taxation, large wealth transfers, social fixity, and the ongoing privatization of family caregiving and support.

Submissions, due dates and method:

Submissions should be of abstracts between 250 and 1000 words, inclusive of any footnotes. Scholarship may be at any stage of the publication process from work-in-progress to completed article, but if already published, scholarship may not be published any earlier than 2015. Each potential speaker may submit only one abstract for consideration.
There are two submission due dates.  The Section seeks detailed abstracts in late summer, with final papers due in late fall.

  • The due date for detailed abstracts is August 15, 2016.
  • The due date for final papers is November 15, 2016.

Abstracts and papers should be submitted electronically to:  Professor Lee-ford Tritt at tritt@law.ufl.edu

Submission review, selection, conference attendance:

Abstracts and papers will be reviewed by members of the Section’s Executive Committee.  Selected presenters will be announced in Fall 2016.  The Call for Paper presenters will be responsible for paying their registration fee and hotel and travel expenses.

Inquiries or questions:

Any inquiries about the Call for Papers should be directed to Professor Lee-ford Tritt at tritt@law.ufl.edu , (352) 273-0952.

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Exclusive Review Opportunity at Penn State Law Review

From the students at the Penn State Law Review:

The Penn State Law Review is conducting a direct article review to fill positions in Volume 121: Issue 1 and 2. Any article submitted to this review between now and May 9th will be considered and evaluated by May 13th. If you have submitted an article to the Penn State Law Review previously, you must resubmit your article for consideration in this direct review.

By submitting your article, you agree to accept an offer for publication, should one be extended. Any articles accepted will be published in Volume 121: Issue 1 or Issue 2 of this review. Issue 1 is currently scheduled for publication in September 2016.

If you have an article that you would like to submit, please e-mail an attached copy of the article, along with your cv and cover letter, to bta5030@psu.edu . Please include “2016 Direct Article Review” in the subject line.

Please feel free to contact Brett Atanasio, Editor-In-Chief, with questions.

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Feminist Law Prof Michelle Anderson Named Dean of Brooklyn College

Michelle Anderson, feminist law prof and outgoing dean at CUNY Law School, has been named President of Brooklyn College.  Here is a portion of CUNY’s press release:

The Board of Trustees of The City University of New York today appointed Michelle J. Anderson as the tenth President of Brooklyn College. She is presently the Dean and Professor of Law at the CUNY School of Law. Chancellor James B. Milliken recommended Dean Anderson’s appointment to the CUNY Board of Trustees after a national search.

In a joint statement, Board of Trustees Chairperson Benno Schmidt and Chancellor Milliken stated: “Dean Anderson brings to Brooklyn College a record of extraordinary academic leadership and success, a strong commitment to students, an exemplary record of public service and a deep belief in Brooklyn College’s mission of academic excellence and opportunity. She will build upon an exemplary foundation of student and faculty achievement nurtured and enhanced by President Karen Gould at an institution so vital to our State, City and nation.”

The nomination was approved unanimously. The appointment is effective August 1, 2016.

Founded in 1930, Brooklyn College serves nearly 18,000 undergraduate and graduate students and was recently rated the number one “Best Bang for the Buck” college in America by Washington Monthly.

The full announcement is here.

Congratulations Michelle Anderson!

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How to Ask for a Raise, Via a Deodorant Commercial


Andrea Schneider blogs here at Indisputably about Secret’s new ad. She writes: “I love that wage gap is now part of the commercial lexicon and that asking for it is portrayed so wonderfully.” Read the full post here.

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Why Put an Orange on the Seder Plate?

Via Anita Silvert at JUF News:

It started with Dr. Susannah Heschel. The story you may have heard goes something like this: After a lecture given in Miami Beach, a man (usually Orthodox) stood up and angrily denounced feminism, saying that a woman belongs on a bima (pulpit) the way an orange belongs on a Seder plate. To support women’s rightful place in Jewish life, people put an orange on their Passover tables.

It’s a powerful story. And it’s absolutely false. It never happened.

Heshchel herself tells the story of the genesis of this new ritual in the 2003 book, The Women’s Passover Companion (JPL). It all started with a story from Oberlin College in the early 1980’s. Heschel was speaking at the Hillel, and while there, she came across a haggadah written by some Oberlin students to bring a feminist voice into the holiday. In it, a story is told about a young girl who asks a Rebbe what room there is in Judaism for a lesbian. The Rebbe rises in anger and shouts, “There’s as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the seder plate.”

Though Heschel was inspired by the idea behind the story, she couldn’t follow it literally. Besides the fact that it would make everything-the dish, the table, the meal, the house-unkosher for Passover, it carried a message that lesbians were a violation of Judaism itself, that these women were infecting the community with something impure.

So, the next year, Heschel put an orange on the family seder plate, “I chose an orange because it suggests the fruitfulness for all Jews when lesbians and gay men are contributing and active members of Jewish life.”

The symbolism grew to include people who feel marginalized from the Jewish community: the widow, the orphan, women’s issues in general, but solidarity with the gay and lesbian Jewish community was at the core. It wasn’t a navel orange; it had to have seeds to symbolize rebirth, renewal. And spitting out the seeds reminds us to spit out the hatred and ostracization of homosexuals in our community, and others who feel prejudice’s sting.  The orange is segmented, not fragmented. Our community has discrete segments, but they form a whole. The symbolism of the orange may have expanded, but its origins are clearly from a desire to liberate an entire segment of our community from their painful mitzrayim-narrow place.

Passover is a holiday of liberation, and in thanking God for our own national liberation, we must also take notice of those around us who are not free, but still in chains either seen or felt. There are so many Haggadot on the market today. Each has a different perspective, perhaps, but each tells the same story. There was a people enslaved by others, and they were freed with God’s  outstretched arm. But God didn’t act alone. God needed human partners to make the liberation a reality. Who are we reaching out to today?  Who needs that outstretched arm and open hand?  And what new symbols or rituals can you bring into your Seder to deepen the meaning of this most fundamental gathering?

Read the full column here.

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Touro Dean Search

The announcement is here.

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Free ABA Telecast – “The Tax Code and Income Inequality: Limitations and Political Opportunities”

The ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice is hosting this free teleconference, co-sponsored with the ABA Section on Taxation. Feminist Law Prof Francine Lipman (UNLV) is one of the featured speakers.

FREE TELECONFERENCE*

The Tax Code and Income Inequality: Limitations and Political Opportunities

“Welfare” has become “workfare,” delivered through the Tax Code, e.g., the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit. How well is that really working for low and middle income Americans, much less those in poverty? At the same time, tax deductions, credits—and avoidance/evasion schemes—are increasingly benefitting wealthy individuals and big corporations, which increasingly pay a smaller portion of federal tax revenue—revenue that could fund government programs, bolster economic growth and benefit the bottom 99% by providing jobs and increase skills of lower income American. Panelists will discuss how changes to the Tax Code can address income inequality in the U.S. and political opportunities for reform.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016
12:30 – 2:00 p.m.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED: please RSVP here

Speakers

  • Dean Baker, Economist and Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
  • Francine Lipman, William S. Boyd Professor of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Alexandra Thornton, Sr. Director of Tax Policy, Center for American Progress

Moderator

  • Marilyn Harbur, Sr. Asst. Attorney General, Oregon Department of Justice; Vice Chair, ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice Economic Justice Committee

More info here.

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Mansplaining Event at PayPal

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via Francine Lipman (@Narfnampil)

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CFP: Women’s Learning Partnership Case Studies — PAID

From the FLP mailbox:

Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP) has undertaken a three-year research/advocacy project leading to a global campaign on reform of discriminatory laws against women in the family. The project will focus on the relationship between articles of the law and perpetration of violence against women and girls. The attached document describes the terms of reference for the eleven country case studies the results of which will contribute to developing strong advocacy methods for our global campaign. Applicants must have a graduate degree in a related field, extensive research experience, and good drafting skills in English. Interested candidates should submit a CV, letter of interest, names of three professional references, and a writing sample in English to wlp@learningpartnership.org by April 28, 2016. Please note: Candidates should also list the country in which they are based and the country or countries where they can carry out a case study from among the 11 countries listed in the terms of reference. The initial phase of the project will include case studies from the following 11 WLP partner countries: Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Senegal, Lebanon, Morocco, Jordan, Palestine, Turkey, Iran, and Brazil, as well as an additional case study from India.

The full details are here. This is a paid opportunity.

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