Gender Justice - Spring 2022

Gender Justice GU4506

This course will provide an introduction to the concrete legal contexts in which issues of gender and justice have been articulated, disputed and hesitatingly, if not provisionally, resolved.  Through these readings we will explore the multiple ways in which the law has contended with sexual difference, gender-based stereotypes, and the meaning of equality. So too, we will discuss how feminist theorists have thought about sex, gender and sexuality in understanding and critiquing our legal system and its norms.

Syllabus

January 18^th: Intro to the Course: Paradigms of Gender Equality

• Nancy Levit and Robert R.M. Verchick, Feminist Legal Theories, in Feminist Legal Theory, 11 (New York University Press, 2016).

January 25^th: Early Framing

• Jo Freeman, The Revolution For Women In Law And Public Policy, in Women: A Feminist Perspective (Jo Freeman ed. 1995) pp. 365-404
• Kathleen Neal Cleaver, Racism, Civil Rights, and Feminism  Download Racism, Civil Rights, and Feminism, in Critical Race Feminism: A Reader (Wing ed. 1997)

• Gayle Rubin, Gayle Rubin, Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality, in Pleasure and Danger 267 (Carole S. Vance ed., 1984)

February 1^st: Limits of Formal Sex-Based Equality 

• Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228 (1989) (edited)
• Jesperson v. Harrah’s Operating Co., 392 F.3d 1096 (9^th 2004) (edited)
• Jennifer Levi, Misapplying Equality Theories: Dress Codes at Work, 19 YALE J.L. & Feminism 353 (2008)
• Andre M. Perry, School dress and grooming codes are the new ‘whites only’ signs (Links to an external site.), Brookings, February 14, 2020

February 8^th: Sex-Based Categories as a Matter of Gender Justice – Boundary Work

• Richards v. USTA
• In Re Estate of Gardner
• Eligibility Requirements, United States of America Beauty Pageant  (Links to an external site.)
• Green v. Miss United States of America
• Elise Heron, An Oregon Woman Is Suing a Beauty Pageant that Excludes Transgender Contestants, Willamette Week, December 18, 2019
• Chase Strangio, An Open Letter To Those Praising The New York Times ‘Tomboy’ Piece (Links to an external site.)

February 15^th: The Pregnant Body

• Trubeck v. Ullman, 147 Conn. 633 (1960)
• Brief of ACLU in Griswold v. Connecticut
• Litigation: Connecticut, in Before Roe v. Wade: Voices that Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court's Ruling (2d edition, 2012) pp. 163-184
• Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
• Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124 (2007)

February 22^nd: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination

• Susan Stryker, My Words To Victor Frankenstein Above The Village Of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage, GLQ, June 1994
• Robert Phillips, Abjection, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 1, May 2014
• Bostock v. Clayton County, 140 S.Ct. 1731 (2020) (edited)

March 1^st: Marriage Rights vs. Sexual Justice

• Obergefell v. Hodges:
  • Opinion of Justice Anthony Kennedy
  • Opinion of Justice Katherine Franke
  • Opinion of Justice Sherif Girgis and Robert George

March 8^th: Equal Rights Amendment

• US v. Virginia
• Vitolo v. Guzman
• Primer on the Equal Rights Amendment
• Reproductive Rights and the ERA - Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v. Pennsylvania Dep't of Human Services, amicus brief ERA Project
•  Julie C. Suk, A Dangerous Imbalance: Pauli Murray’s Equal Rights Amendment And The Path To Equal Power

March 15^th: Spring Break

March 22^nd: Abolition Feminism Now, Angela Davis and Gina Dent

March 29^th: Galen Sherwin, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU, Women's Rights Project on Peltier v. Charter Day School (Dress Code case), and the ACLU's other Women's Rights work.

• Expert Report of Dr. Christia Spears Brown, Ph.D., Peltier v. Charter Day School
• Trial court ruling in Peltier v. Charter Day School
• 4th Cir. opinion in Peltier v. Carter Day School
• Petition for certiorari in National Coalition for Men v. Selective Service System

April 5^th: Trafficking

• National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking
• ILO Global Estimates of Modern Slavery (excerpt)
• Pharaohs v. SBA

April 12^th: Hillary Schneller, Senior Staff Attorney, U.S. Litigation, Center for Reproductive Rights

• Memorandum of law in support of plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment, JWHO v. Dobbs, filed April 29, 2021(notice the difference between the liberty and equality arguments in this brief)
• JWHO v. Currier, Order Granting Permanent Injunction
• JWHO v. Dobbs, Howard University School of Law amicus brief
• CRR’s “What if Roe Fell?” interactive map (Links to an external site.)