Civil Rights and Remedies

Catalog description

Federal courts have for many years struggled with the use of factors like race, sex, and disability when crafting remedies for civil rights violations. When there has been discrimination against groups or persons based on race, national origin, sex, or disability, courts have had to use these factors when providing remedies for that illegal conduct. Normally, under the law, race, national origin, sex, or disability should not be a basis for determining whether a person gets a job, education, housing, or any other governmental or private benefit or service. When courts must craft remedies for discrimination that has denied people benefits or services based on race, national origin, sex, or disability, courts have had to take care in crafting such remedies so as not to affect other people unfairly based on their race, national origin, sex, or disability (or lack of disability). The course will discuss ever-changing legal landscape of the permissible uses of race, national origin, sex and disability in the context of current civil rights litigation in areas such as school desegregation, affirmative action, employment discrimination, housing discrimination, voting practices, and police misconduct, as well as laws regarding the treatment of persons with disabilities.