crm. 104 cia #4

Traditional Authority

Someone solely enjoys power while the other follows rules and regulations

Types of lawyers

• Private attorneys (corporate lawyers, litigators, solo practitioners)

• Public defenders and prosecutors

• Gov’t lawyers and judges

  → Legal aid attorneys serving marginalized communities

Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSP)

• Traditional “Big Law” firms dominate, but there has been a rise in non-traditional legal services providers

• ALSPs offer cheaper, tech-driven legal solutions, taking away from some traditional legal jobs

• AI and automation are reshaping legal work

Meritocracy - Kay and Gorman

• Minority lawyers face barriers to bias in hiring, lack of mentorship, and exclusion from high-profile cases

• Networking, mentorship, and social capital (which are not equally accessible) play a major role in advancement

Gender Inequality in the Legal Field

• Law school is a hostile environment for women

→ Bias & Harassment

→ Many classes/counselors steer women to the public interest or family law

→ Work environment (Family - Maternity leave?)

Frustration by Women in the Workplace

• Work harassment

• Pay Inequality

• Discrimination managing bias

• Sexual Harassment

America’s Struggle with Race

• The American Dilemma - Gunnar Myrdal (1944)

→ Contradictions between American democratic ideals and the reality of segregation and discrimination

Reconstruction Era

15th Amendment: Right to vote for all citizens except women

→ Suboptimal Implementation

• Poll taxes and literary tests

• Highlighted the fact that women including white women did not have the right to vote

Shelby County v. Holder, 2013

Ruth Ginsburg: Law impacts the behavior of people in society and the behavior of people varies

14th Amendment

Naturalized citizenship, due process, equal protection

Newly formed Civil Rights (13th-15th Amend.)

Ignored

Plessy v. Ferguson

• Plessy & his allies hoped that his arrest would prove the arbitrary nature of the law (he was mixed-race & considered “black” in Louisiana)

• Plessy lost, upholding “separate but equal” laws

Jim Crow Laws

SC rules Jim Crow laws as constitutional and did not violate the 14th Amendment

Deliberate Speed

• 10 years after the 1st Brown decision, only 1% of black students in the South were enrolled in schools with whites

• Brown required individual plaintiffs to file suit against their school

• Southern Manifesto - Propaganda campaign against integration in schools

Hate Crime

Based on the discretion of the first responders to it

Backlash of LAW with LGBTQ+ Now

• In the U.S. about 9/10 heterosexual Americans have 84% support for equal rights for LGBTQ+

• Yet in 2023, hate crime went up by 300% from last Pride Month

• 600 Anti-LGBTQ+ proposed legislation

O’Shae Sibley - Ripple Affect of LGBTQ: Hate Crime Legislation

Pumping gas, dancing to music; was told to stop by another group and ended up killed

Laura Cariton

LGBTQ+ ally, kid yelled at her to take down LGBTQ+ flag, ended up shooting and killing her

Black Lives Matter Movement

Shows the dynamics of social movements in reshaping societal norms

BLM Changes/Impact

• Police reform & accountability policies

• First Step Act which reduced mandatory min. sentence

• Civilian Oversight Boards

• Reallocating police budgets

• Voting Rights & Political Engagement

• Corporate & Institutional Change

Rogers v. American Airlines (1981) - Title VII (Cornrows)

Social change = Crown Act: Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair

Theories of the State

Explore how states operate, and interact with law & society

Consensus Theory of the State

• Fundamental American Value System (work ethic, individual freedoms, family values, etc.)

• The state represents the interest of the public (they are neutral)

• Law reflects the collective will of the people and serves everyone equally

• Durkheim

Pluralist Theory of the State

• State is neutral

• Made up of various interest groups that tend to clash

• Groups build a link between people and gov’t

• Groups play by the rules of game

• Weber

Conflict Theory of the State

• Conflicts of Interest, particularly between classes

• The state is not neutral - acts in the interest of the economic elite

• No shared values

• Laws = instruments of control that reinforce the dominance of the powerful

• Marx

Instrumentalist Theory of the State (Subpart of Conflict Theory)

• The state is not neutral

• Powerful groups manipulate the legal system

• Ex: Pharmaceutical companies lobbying

• Marx

Structuralist Theory of the State (Subpart of Conflict Theory)

• Structure of societies and interrelationships–in this case, the state

• The symbiotic relationship between the capitalist elite and the capitalist state

• State has own self-interest–state survival is dependent on capitalist survival (i.e. tax revenue)

• Function of State: Capital Legitimacy and Capital Accumulation

• Marx

Dialectical Structuralist Theory of the State (Subpart of Conflict Theory)

• Contradictions as the engine for social change state

• Law: Economic function and Political function

• The state is class biased but forced to present as neutral to be legitimate (ex. Immigration Act of 1986)

• Function of State: Conflict

• Marx

Symbolic Law

• Political pressure on the legitimacy of Capitalist State

• Political Pressure to Implement Law Based on Symbolic Politics

Symbolic Law - Implementation of Law

• Organized and persistent protest

• The need not to interrupt the consistent for successful profit-making

The Paradoxical Role of Lawyering - Sutton

• Gatekeeping and Professional Socialization

→ The role of law schools, the bar exam, and professional licensing in controlling entry into the legal profession

→ The influence of elite law schools in shaping the upper ranks of the profession

Speed of Change of Legislation

• Same-sex marriage: 2+ yrs

• Abortion: 6 yrs

• Women’s suffrage: 10 yrs

• Prohibition: 13 yrs

• Interracial marriage: 19 yrs