June 2010
57 posts
2 tags
Homosexuality and the Texas GOP's 2010 Party...
Justin Randall, JGRJ Note & Comment Editor 2010-11
This week, the Texas Republican Party released their 2010 State Party Platform. This document outlined the official party position on a number of policy issues, including same-sex marriage, homosexuality and the former Texas sodomy statutes. In this platform, the Texas GOP ignores the separation of church and state as well...
Moving toward post-racialism on the courts
— Jennifer Wang, JGRJ Note and Comment Editor, 20010-11
I’ve been doing a lot of research on judicial nominees during the Obama administration. There is a very notable and evident trend outside of Supreme Court nominations (not that I don’t value your contributions, Wise Latina and Softball Star; you are both geniuses and feminists and I love you) at play here, and I think that it’s worth...
2 tags
Lethal Punishment
A prisoner on death row in Utah recently got the country talking again about the death penalty when he made an unlikely choice. Rodney Lee Gardner, sentenced to death in 1985 and now scheduled to die on June 18, was given a choice under Utah law, to die by firing squad or lethal injection. He chose the firing squad.
What may seem like an absurd choice was quite possibly well reasoned. As found by...
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Children Sentenced as Adults: Rehabilitation or...
-Aundreia Cameron, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
About a year ago this month, an eleven-year-old boy, Jordan Brown, was charged with murdering his dad’s fiancé, Kenzie Houk, who was with child. He currently resides in the Edmund L. Thomas Adolescent Detention Center where he has spent his birthday and Christmas. Originally, authorities placed Brown in the Lawrence...
5 tags
Progress for Women in the Military
-Jennifer Wang, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Recently, the Department of Defense decided to stock emergency contraception to dispense to members of the military in hospitals and health clinics around the world. This occurred during the aftermath of several Bush Administration attacks women’s health, including federal regulation that gave health care workers the...
3 tags
Liberty Bigotry
-Justin Randall, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Friday, February 19, 2010
Last weekend, the Liberty University School of Law hosted a conference entitled “Understanding Same-Sex Attractions and Their Consequences,” in conjunction with the Liberty University Law Review Symposium entitled “Homosexual Rights and First Amendment Freedoms: Can They Truly Coexist?” This weekend had a strong bigoted...
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Dominican Mother Makes Her Own Contribution to the...
-Connie Valenzuela Lickstein, JGRJ Contributing Member 2009-10
Friday, February 12, 2010
Many people have come together to support the people of Haiti during the incredibly difficult aftermath of the January 12th earthquake. Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have put their differences aside to advise the Haitian government. Famous singers, actors, and celebrities have...
8 tags
State of the Union
-Kapri Saunders, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Friday, February 05, 2010
Many things came out of the President’s State of the Union Address last week. Too much for a single blog post, here are some of my favorite stories since the speech. In a sentence : The President is non-black man who loves gay people, wants Americans to be able to work, and dissed the Supreme Court – right in front...
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Child Trafficking Concerns for Haiti Orphans
-Sarah Pierce, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Friday, January 29, 2010
When the earthquake hit Haiti and images of lost and seemingly abandoned children were projected onto our TV screens, the generosity of certain celebrity icons was not far from many minds. Already a hot-spot for international adoptions, the earthquake inspired a flurry of well-intentioned requests for Haiti orphans, with...
5 tags
Transforming Robots, Blue Creatures, "Negro...
-Eric McBurney, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Thursday, January 14, 2010
There seems to be a popular notion of racism in America that deems it to be something clear, obvious, and only subscribed to by a minority of people. Everything normally goes along fine until some fool breaks the rules and causes havoc. There is another theory of racism in America—subscribed to by cultural critics,...
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How Far Can a Church Go Before it Becomes a PIG?
-John Magana, JGRJ Contributing Member 2009-10
Friday, December 11, 2009
Every holiday season in recent memory has had religious controversy. This year, some groups are boycotting stores that include in their advertisements “Happy Eid Al-Adha”, which speaks primarily to Muslims. There continue to be bitter fights over Christmas Nativity scenes in public areas. Many accuse the government of...
4 tags
Princess Tiana: Disney Princess or Social...
Friday, December 04, 2009
-Connie Valenzuela Lickstein, JGRJ Contributing Member 2009-10
This December, Disney will release “The Princess and the Frog,” featuring for the first time an African-American princess, Princess Tiana. The film has caused quite a commotion, not only because it is Disney’s return to two-dimensional films, but because it is just now, in 2009, that the company has...
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Juvenile Sentences for Life in Prison without...
-Maxine Nash, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Recently, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on two cases before this term considering the issue of sentencing juveniles to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The two cases are both from Florida, and have to do with juveniles who were sentenced to life in prison without parole for non-homicidal...
6 tags
Beaches, Hollywood, Disneyland, and A Right to...
-Kapri Saunders, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Friday, November 13, 2009
It is often said that what happens in California influences the rest of the nation. While other states may not want California’s massive debt or Schwarzenegger for their governor (hey, I respect him), I think they may be wise to follow California’s latest move. In California, poor litigants in civil cases now have a right...
3 tags
Maine's Mistake
-Libby Skarin, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Yesterday, fifty-three percent of voters in Maine approved a repeal of the state’s recent law legalizing same-sex marriage. I can’t help but think that yesterday, fifty-three percent of voters in Maine demonstrated an utter lack of both compassion and understanding of basic human dignity. The battle for equal rights for...
3 tags
Egyptian Women’s Freedom Curtailed
-Brooke Amos, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Friday, October 30, 2009
Americans often take it for granted that they will be able to express themselves through clothing. Whether the clothing choice be based on fashion choices, a political statement, or religious beliefs, rarely do Americans have to worry they will not be allowed to express their views or religious beliefs through clothing....
3 tags
Abortions in Oklahoma
-Sarah Brandt, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Friday, October 23, 2009
Earlier this month, the Oklahoma state legislature passed a law which mandates publishing information about every abortion performed within the state on a public website. The law was intended to take effect on November 1, 2009. Under the law, a woman seeking to obtain an abortion in the state will have to reveal the...
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Release of Public Records Violates the First...
-Kapri Saunders, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Saturday, October 17, 2009
First Amendment arguments get tricky when the court must balance the rights of a small group of private citizens against the public interest. As a pursuer of justice, there is a natural inclination to protect the smaller group. Why not use the First Amendment as a shield to protect a small group of well-meaning...
3 tags
The Debut of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor
-Rachelle Paquin, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Friday, October 09, 2009
Monday marked the beginning of a new term for the Supreme Court of the United States with the addition of Justice Sonia Sotomayor. There has been a great deal of commentary, both positive and negative, following President Obama’s nomination of Justice Sotomayor in May and her confirmation to the Court on August 6th. She...
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Recognizing Historical Disparages to Help Zimbabwe...
-Brooke Amos, JGRJ Student Writer 2010-09
Friday, October 02, 2009
In most places in the world, property rights have always been key in the legal system. However, in Zimbabwe, the newly formed government has been taking the land of the white farmers to give to the landless black citizens. This program started in 2000 when Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe declared that the government would be...
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The Lavender Law Fair
-JGRJ Student Writer, 2009-10
Monday, September 28, 2009
On September 10, 2009 after traveling since 4 a.m. from Iowa City, Iowa, I arrived at the Lavender Law Fair at the Brooklyn Bridge Marriott, in New York, at 1 p.m. The law school diversity job fair was in full swing. There were over 100 law firms and non-profit organizations at the law fair spaced out in the grand ballroom. The air...
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Why Diane Sawyer’s New Job Matters
-Libby Skarin, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Monday, September 14, 2009
Early this month, Charlie Gibson announced that he will be stepping down as the anchor of ABC’s nightly news broadcast at the end of the year. Immediately after this, ABC announced his replacement. Who did they pick? Diane Sawyer. As a self-proclaimed feminist and journalism junkie, I could not have been happier to hear...
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Mind the Gap: Racial Inequality in America Today
-Kaili Kuiper, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Are we living in a post-racial society? Has the election of a black president proven that racial inequality in America is a thing of the past? Statistics on asset holdings, an important indicator of economic well-being, show a significant disparity between white and black households. According to the 2002 Survey of...
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Women in the Recession
-John Sherman, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Monday, September 07, 2009
A recent study conducted by the New York nonprofit research group Catalyst indicates that the economic recession has impacted professional men and women in the workplace similarly, in that there are not large disparities in the number of women being promoted or laid off during the economic crisis. A Wall Street Journal...
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Was Racism Involved?
-Eric McBurney, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Professor Aya Gruber was invited to JGRJ’s writers’ workshop on August 5th to give a brief talk to the new student writers. She aptly chose the Henry Gates incident for her topic and began with the question: “Was racism involved?” Although the talk started with the traditional paradigm of a racist white officer,...
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Intersection of Law and Religion
-Maxine Nash, JGRJ Student Writer 2009-10
Monday, August 31, 2009
In a vote of delegates at the national assembly of the largest Lutheran church group in the United States, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) approved a resolution allowing lesbians and gay men in committed relationships to become members of the clergy. This makes them the third “mainline” Protestant...
3 tags
Varnum v. Brien: The Iowa Supreme Court Protects...
- Judith Faucette, JGRJ Student Writer 2008-09
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
On Friday, April 3, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously decided in Varnum v. Brien that the Iowa legislature’s exclusion of same-sex couples from the legal institution of marriage is unconstitutional. The opinion, written by Justice Cady, was particularly well written, and many non-legally-trained gay and lesbian...
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Rebellious Lawyering Conference
- Jaqueline Orozco, JGRJ Student Writer 2008-09
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
A couple of weeks ago, I had the great fortune of attending the 15th Annual Rebellious Lawyering Conference with six of my peers from the University of Iowa College of Law. What does it mean to be a rebellious lawyer? In his opening remarks Harold Hongju Koh, Dean of the Yale Law School, shared that the Rebellious...
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Sioux City Anti-Same-Sex Marriage Ordinance...
- Scott J. Burrill, JGRJ Student Writer, 2008-09
Monday, February 23, 2009
Proponents of equality were dealt another blow in Iowa recently, when the city council of Sioux City, Iowa proposed legislation stating that the city council supports only marriage between a man and a woman. While this proposal would be non-binding, it is nevertheless another public expression of intolerance and...
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Who is John Yoo?
- Tony Frank, JGRJ Student Writer 2008-09
Thursday, February 19, 2009
John Yoo is a well-known lawyer who advised the Attorney General during his time in the United States Justice Department’s Office of Legal Council. He is most famous for a memo that he wrote concerning interrogation techniques used on enemy combatants during the Bush administration. Within the memo he defended the United...
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Repeal of the "Global Gag Rule"
- Judith Faucette, JGRJ Student Writer 2008-09
Friday, January 30, 2009
On January 23rd, one day after the thirty-sixth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the case that legalized abortion in the United States, President Obama rescinded the “global gag rule.” Also known as the Mexico City policy, this regulation put a restriction on U.S. government funding to international organizations...
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Equality in the U.S. is Not Yet Realized
- Tony Frank, JGRJ Student Writer 2008-09
Monday, December 15, 2008
Over the last few decades, America has made impressive leaps forward in civil rights and equality. The 60s saw the end of legal discrimination and race relations have been improving since. With the 60s also came the election of John F. Kennedy, the first non-Protestant to serve as President of the United States. On November...
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Crack Cocaine Sentencing and Race in the U.S.,...
- Volney Brand, JGRJ Student Writer 2008-09
Monday, December 08, 2008
The disparity of crack versus cocaine sentencing debate is one that still sparks considerable controversy. What is not debatable is the impact of crack cocaine sentencing on the black community. After the war on drugs was launched by the administration of Ronald Reagan, the campaign’s main attention was focused in the...
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Crack Cocaine Sentencing and Racism in the U.S.,...
- Atanna Essama, JGRJ Student Writer 2008-09
Thursday, December 04, 2008
One of the more incendiary issues to a great deal of activists, especially as of late, has been the sentencing discrepancies between crack cocaine (“crack”) and powder cocaine (“cocaine”). It is a particularly important issue to those who claim that this is yet another incident of racism that keeps blacks from achieving...
3 tags
Thanksgiving
- Jude Pannell, JGRJ Student Writer 2008-09
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Every year on Thanksgiving, newspapers across the country print editorials and columns appropriate for the occasion. Some mark the passage of the seasons. Some wax eloquent on the importance of family. Others encourage generosity towards those less fortunate than readers. Most make an obligatory mention of the food most...
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Symposium Banquet Keynote Speaker: Dan Savage
- Brieanne Billie, JGRJ Senior Managing Editor 2008-09
Monday, November 17, 2008
The staff and editorial board of The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice is proud to announce that the keynote speaker for this year’s Symposium banquet will be Dan Savage. Mr. Savage is the editor of The Stranger, a weekly newspaper in Seattle, and writes a syndicated advice column, “Savage...
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Right to Counsel ... Not So Quick!
- Jonathan Stensvaag, JGRJ Student Writer 2008-09
Thursday, November 13, 2008
A recent New York Times article written by Erik Eckholm addresses the challenges and problems with public defenders’ offices in many states. Rising caseloads and low pay are pushing public defenders to quit their jobs, and budget cuts in many states are pushing public defenders’ offices to the verge of collapse....
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A Step Forward?
- Thyannda Mack, JGRJ Student Writer 2008-09
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Imagine after over a year of supporting a candidate and praying for his or her success in the election feeling terror, instead of the excitement and glee that you expected to feel. This is what happened to me after seeing that Barack Obama had won the presidency. After all the anticipation and excitement leading up to...
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Socially Acceptable Hate: America’s Homeless Are...
- Tony Frank, JGRJ Student Writer 2008-09
Monday, November 03, 2008
I recently read an article about the rise of assaults on homeless people in our nation. The author gives a sickening example of the kinds of assaults that homeless people across the nation are subjected to, gives some reasoning for the recent rise in assaults, and suggests making attacks on homeless people a hate crime....
4 tags
Proposition 8 and African-Americans: The Conundrum...
- Zak Toomey, JGRJ Articles Editor, 2008-09
Thursday, October 30, 2008
On election day, the California electorate will be faced with a proposed amendment to the California Constitution that would ban same-sex marriage. This ballot measure, known as Proposition 8, was proposed by conservative groups as a response to the California Supreme Court’s recent ruling that the current California...
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CT Supreme Court: Denying Marriage to Same-Sex...
- Judith Faucette, JGRJ Student Writer, 2008-09
Thursday, October 23, 2008
On October 10, 2008, the Connecticut Supreme Court became the third state supreme court to hand down a decision finding the denial of civil marriage to same-sex couples unconstitutional. Despite a 2005 Connecticut law that allows gay couples to enter into civil unions with the same rights and benefits of married...
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HandsOn: Cedar Rapids
- Atañna Essama, JGRJ Student Writer, 2008-09
Thursday, October 16, 2008
The University of Iowa College of Law’s Journal of Gender, Race & Justice, accompanied by Dean Jones and Dean Crain, members of TLCP, and various other students took a trip out to Cedar Rapids, IA. The purpose of the trip was to provide the labor necessary to clean up and restore a children’s playground. The day...
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No Child Left Behind Act Update
- Zak Toomey, JGRJ Articles Editor, 2008-09
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Last Wednesday, the Washington Post issued the results of a study claiming that “[s]ince enactment of the No Child Left Behind law, students from poor families in the Washington area have made major gains on reading and math tests and are starting to catch up with those from middle-class and affluent backgrounds.”...
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Solomon Amendment
- Kristen DePena, JGRJ Student Writer, 2008-09
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Many U.S. soldiers serving in Vietnam returned to the United States in the face of criticism, blame, and disrespect from Americans in disagreement with the war. Fortunately, our country since recognized the importance of positive American bipartisan response to soldiers and their continued bravery, selflessness, and...
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Editorial Power: Balancing Content and Legal...
- Tony Frank, JGRJ Student Writer, 2008-09
Friday, September 26, 2008
Jocelyn Simonson chronicles the unique editing process used for an article that was recently published in The Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review in Breaking the Silence: Legal Scholarship as Social Change. The original article was written by a prison inmate named Thomas O’Bryant, who is serving a life sentence...
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Project NOLA Experience
Josh Williams, JGRJ Student Writer, 2006-2007
Monday, April 09, 2007
Last March, 45 students at the Iowa College of Law spent their spring break in New Orleans partici-pating in the Project: NOLA Hurricane Katrina relief service trip, sponsored by the Equal Justice Foundation. Eighteen months after the hurricane hit, we found that there was still a substantial amount of devastation and...
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Same-Sex Marriage: Forty Years of Due Process From...
David Franker, JGRJ Student Writer, 2006-2007
In 1965 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that there was a fundamental liberty right to privacy under the U.S Constitution such that the government had no right to “search the sacred precincts of marital bedrooms for the telltale signs of the use of contraceptives.” Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 485 (1965). While Justice William Douglass then...
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Child Pornographers Sigh in Relief: U.S. v. Booker...
~ Laura Klever, 2006-2007 Student Writer
Friday, April 06, 2007
In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in United States v. Booker that the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which had previously dictated sentence length, were no longer mandatory, but merely advisory. That decision effectively restored to judges discretion to make sentencing decisions. The Booker decision could not have come at a...
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Neighborhood Switch Won't Help Poor
Steven Nelson, JGRJ Student Writer 2006-07
Monday, February 26, 2007
I’ve long asserted that the conservative sect of American politics has it all wrong. Taking the “tough love” approach on welfare reform is inadequate at best. The liberals have done no better. Senator John Edwards’ opinion seems to be that of liberals: move the poor people into better neighborhoods. This statement has...
3 tags
The Tenuous Constitutionality of Nebraska's L.B....
Abigail Darwin, JGRJ Student Writer 2006-2007
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
On April 13, 2006, Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman signed Legislative Bill 1024 (L.B. 1024) into law. The law is set to take effect in 2008. By its language, this bill only applies to the city of Omaha and allows Omaha to separate into three racially-identifiable school districts. The language of the bill is...
