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Civil Rights and Anti-Discrimination Law

Recent social movements and an increasingly divisive political climate have propelled civil rights and anti-discrimination lawyers into the headlines. Lawyers who practice in this area protect the rights owed to citizens under the federal and state constitutions and other relevant laws, like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). These lawyers frequently represent clients in race, gender, sexual preference, disability, and religion discrimination matters. Many times, these lawyers represent clients in issues that relate to race, gender, sexual preference, disability, and religion discrimination. To that end, this specialty overlaps with labor and employment law. However, civil rights and anti-discrimination lawyers also tackle a variety of other issues–ranging from police and prosecutor misconduct, false arrest, and jail and prison conditions, to the effect of voting rights legislation and first amendment violations.

Most civil rights and anti-discrimination lawyers work in civil litigation or legislation and lobbying. However, there is opportunity for transactional lawyers, such as by working in community business development to support economic justice.

Because of the focus on the individual in terms of whether their rights were violated, civil rights and anti-discrimination lawyers often work in a solo law firm, small to mid-sized law firms, or specialty boutique firms. Large law firms tend to represent those accused of violating civil rights or anti-discrimination principles.

There are also employment opportunities in the public sector in federal and state agencies, including the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (or their state analogs). Interested students may consider the Department of Justice Honors Programs or the equivalent in other agencies.

Civil rights and anti-discrimination lawyers may also find job opportunities in the non-profit sector with public interest litigation groups, which again exist at both the federal and state levels. Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union or the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. often hire entry-level attorneys through competitive fellowships, such as the Skadden or Equal Justice Works fellowships.

Courses

Courses designated as "primary" are foundational, while those listed as "secondary" contain relevant and related content. "Co-curricular" courses are credit-bearing extra-curricular activities, while "experiential" courses are practice-based offerings. Please keep in mind that the focus of any course will vary depending on the instructor.

Primary Courses

120: Constitutional Law I 3 credits PRIMARY

An examination of the role of the Supreme Court in the American legal system with emphasis on judicial review, justiciability, separation of powers, executive authority, regulation of interstate commerce, and taxation.

215: State Constitutional Law 3 credits PRIMARY

This course will be a study of state constitutions. In today’s legal world, state constitutions are more important than ever. They may protect rights that are not protected by the federal constitution and, subject to the federal constitution's Supremacy Clause, may provide greater protection for rights and liberties that are also protected by the federal constitution. The highest court of each state has the final prerogative to interpret the provisions of its state constitution. This course will consider the interpretation of state constitutions and state constitutions as the source of both negative and positive rights.

304: Equitable and Legal Remedies 3 credits PRIMARY

This course focuses on monetary damages (including the "rightful position" principle, consequential damages, and monetary damages for dignitary and constitutional harms) and injunctions - preventive, reparative, and structural. Other topics include contempt and attorneys' fees.

405: Criminal Procedure: Investigation 3 or 4 credits PRIMARY

A study of the legal and institutional limits on law enforcement conduct in the investigation of crime, with particular focus on the constitutional limits established by the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Topics include searches and seizures, police interrogations, and the identificaiton of suspects. Students who have taken Criminal Procedure Survey in the past or those who are currently enrolled in Criminal Procedure Survey may not register for Criminal Procedure: Investigation.

406: Criminal Procedure: Adjudication 2 or 3 credits PRIMARY

A study of the selection, prosecution, and resolution of criminal charges. Topics will be chosen from the following: selection and grouping of charges, availability of defense counsel, pretrial release, discovery, speedy trial preparation, guilty pleas, jury trials, right to confrontation, jury deliberations and verdicts, sentencing, appeal, and collateral challenges to convictions. Students who have taken Criminal Procedure Survey in the past or those who are currently enrolled in Criminal Procedure Survey may not register for Criminal Procedure: Adjudication. Criminal Procedure: Investigation is not a pre-requisite for this course. *This course may be offered for 3 hours during some years.

513: Employment Discrimination 2 or 3 credits PRIMARY

This course surveys the federal statutes prohibiting employment discrimination on account of race, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, and disability. It includes theories of liability, defenses, administrative procedures, and remedies. Offered for either 2 or 3 credit hours at the discretion of the Dean and the professor. Offered in alternate years.

Secondary Courses

397: Race, Journalism and the Law 3 credits SECONDARY

Students will study the ways in which racism is embedded in the practice both of law and journalism and to see how the two fields can be used to challenge it. Students will begin the course by reflecting on their own biases before investigating and writing about an actual case.

434: Critical Race Theory 2 or 3 credits SECONDARY

This seminar explores the centrality of race as a foundational feature of American law. The study is cross-racial, comparative, and proactive, analyzing the converging and diverging experiences of indigenous peoples: Latinas/Latinos, African Americans, and Asian Pacific Americans, as well as different strategies for social justice.

447: Perspectives on Law Enforcement: Policing and Prosecutorial Accountability 0 to 3 credits SECONDARY

This seminar examines the responsibilities and conduct of both prosecutors and law-enforcement officers in the United States. We will cover topics including the role and responsibilities of prosecutors and police officers, various models of policing, forms of prosecutorial and police misconduct, legal claims that victims of such misconduct might bring against prosecutors and police officers, as well as defenses to those claims. We will discuss the merits and disadvantages of discretion in the criminal justice system and the value of mechanisms to constrain that discretion. We will think critically about various models used to hold prosecutors and police officers accountable for their conduct.

468: Reproductive Justice 1 to 3 credits SECONDARY

The purpose of this class is to introduce students to the legal and policy issues currently implicated in human reproduction and give them the frameworks necessary to analyze the novel situations that will undoubtedly arise as family structures and reproductive technology evolve. The class will provide both an overview of the current legal landscape, as well as challenge students to think about what the law governing reproduction should be as a normative matter. While sometimes using international law as a point of comparison, the course will focus primarily on US law and policy.

488: Racial Justice Advocacy 2 credits SECONDARY

This course will give students further opportunities to develop their legal writing and analysis skills in the context of analyzing seemingly race neutral issues using Critical Race Theory (CRT) techniques. Such techniques include not only considering the race of those involved in the litigation, but also racial stereotyping, the case’s historical context, implicit bias, and other relevant factors that might implicate racial issues. The goal is to help students understand how the tenets of CRT can be useful as an analytical tool in crafting a legal analysis or argument.

500: Criminal Procedure: Selected Topics 2 or 3 credits SECONDARY

A detailed study of one or more selected aspects of criminal procedure. The topics covered in recent years have included sentencing law, police accountability, and the jurisprudence of the death penalty.

507: Poverty Law 0 to 3 credits SECONDARY

This course will broadly study American poverty, poverty programs and constitutional, federal, state and municipal laws that directly affect the poor. Students will survey wealth disparities in the U.S. through demographic data relating to income, educational attainment, housing, access to medical care and voting.

528: Motherhood and the Law 3 credits SECONDARY

The language of law and the cultural support for legal analysis can have considerable influence on the construction of human behavior. The law's treatment of motherhood is an excellent example of this phenomenon. Students in this class will explore the underlying basis for our legal system and how those principles may be affected and modified when coping with the contested notions of motherhood.

531: Juvenile Law 2 or 3 credits SECONDARY

This course takes a comprehensive look at child abuse and neglect law and procedure, from reporting and investigation through adjudication/disposition and the achievement of a permanent plan. Students will become familiar with termination of parental rights, criminal abuse and neglect law, relevant child welfare federal legislation and interstate compacts. The course will also cover the major types of adoption - agency, relative, stepparent, independent, and adult - from adoption petition to entry of final decree, as well as post-adoption issues.

578: Race and the Law 2 or 3 credits SECONDARY

This seminar is designed to examine concepts of race and racism and how they intersect historically and currently with law in the United States. It is intended to equip students to think critically about legal policy, practice and analysis and how those areas impact race-related concerns. Typical topics have included concepts of race; race and constitutional interpretation; education; desegregation; and voting rights. The grade is based on a final paper that can be used to satisfy the upper level writing requirement; class attendance and participation in class discussion; and typically, three to five ungraded but required short reflection papers.

616: Housing Law and Policy 2 credits SECONDARY

Introduces U.S. housing law and policy with a focus on low and moderate income tenants as well as homeowners. Examines the history of housing policies and problems, public housing and federally subsidized housing, habitability and code enforcement, foreclosure, gentrification, eviction, and fair housing law. Students will develop an understanding of the legal, social, and historic underpinnings of contemporary housing challenges, and how these insights inform advocacy strategies to promote housing justice.

638: Social Science, Race & the Law 3 credits SECONDARY

Survey of research from across the social sciences and psychology regarding the way prejudice functions in the brain, and potential responses of legal doctrine and institutions to these scientific insights. Topics will be chosen from the following: jury selection and performance, perceived credibility of expert witnesses, cross-racial eyewitness testimony, police profiling, capital-sentencing outcomes, judicial decision-making, and parental rights termination.

647: Gender and the Law 2 credits SECONDARY

This course will examine how the law affects women's lives in a number of different contexts. The class will consider a number of different areas, including but not limited to employment, education, family responsibilities, violence against women, and other issues affecting women's bodies, including pornography and prostitution. The class will also review a number of feminist legal theories and issues relating to the intersection of gender with race and class. Offered on a periodic basis.

651: Sexual Identity and the Law 2 credits SECONDARY

This class explores a wide variety of issues related to sexual identity and sexual orientation, particularly as those issues continue to push the law to address the wide variations of patterns in which human beings relate. The course looks at the law as it both constricts societal development at times and acts as a catalyst for radical social change at other times. With the law as the starting point, the overarching questions that define the place of the gay person in American society will be examined. We will consider, among other topics, the regulation of sexuality, sexual orientation, gender roles, the workplace, the intersection of law and religion, same-sex relationships, and parenting. Much of the legal doctrine considered in this course will inevitably be constitutional in nature, including studies of the right to privacy, the First Amendment, and equal protection. The course will also touch on basic employment and family law doctrines as they relate to gay litigants. Apart from the substantive law, our doctrinal discussions will focus on a number of larger themes: the nature/nurture debate and its legal ramifications; the public/private distinction as exhibited in the legal conflicts between free expression and “coming out” and the “right to be let alone”; gender roles and their changing place in society; and the equality/diversity distinction, which arises in the context of assimilation versus difference.

697: Race, Law, and Literature 3 credits SECONDARY

Experiential Courses

345: Semester in Practice 10 or 11 credits EXPERIENTIAL

This is the field placement component of a full term externship program and is paired with the Externship Lecture course. Total credits between Semester in Practice and Externship Lecture will total 13. The number of credit hours awarded to an individual student will determine the hours of work required at the field placement and meet or exceed the ABA standards. In accordance with ABA guidelines, students work at a placement under a supervising attorney. C-LAW 300.

399: Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic - Seminar 2 credits EXPERIENTIAL

This experiential clinic course focuses on the attainment of fundamental lawyering skills through direct client representation and advocacy, with a particular emphasis on problem solving and legal remedies to address health-harming legal needs. Through collaboration with healthcare providers, students will identify legal issues that negatively contribute to the health of low-income patient-clients and develop a comprehensive, interprofessional strategy to overcome barriers to health justice. Seminar topics educate students about fundamental lawyering skills and substantive law essential for the cases students will work on over the course of their time in the clinic.

447: Perspectives on Law Enforcement: Policing and Prosecutorial Accountability 0 to 3 credits EXPERIENTIAL

This seminar examines the responsibilities and conduct of both prosecutors and law-enforcement officers in the United States. We will cover topics including the role and responsibilities of prosecutors and police officers, various models of policing, forms of prosecutorial and police misconduct, legal claims that victims of such misconduct might bring against prosecutors and police officers, as well as defenses to those claims. We will discuss the merits and disadvantages of discretion in the criminal justice system and the value of mechanisms to constrain that discretion. We will think critically about various models used to hold prosecutors and police officers accountable for their conduct.

622: Innocence and Justice Clinic 4 credits EXPERIENTIAL

In this interdisciplinary course, students will examine the legal, scientific, cultural and psychological causes of wrongful convictions. They will apply this knowledge to actual cases by reviewing and investigating claims of actual innocence by inmates and, where appropriate, pursuing legal avenues for exoneration and release from prison. Students will meet for two class hours per week and for one hour a week with instructor to examine and complete field work assignments.

676: Summer Externship 4 credits EXPERIENTIAL

This course is currently available only in the summer. The director of the externship designates one or more cities in North and South Carolina, usually including Charlotte, NC, and offers the students externships in a designated practice area. The practice areas vary from summer to summer. Students meet weekly with the director to integrate and apply the doctrinal insights received elsewhere in the law school curriculum and in the subject matter of the field placements. The course fulfills the practical skills requirement.

Faculty

The following faculty are knowledgeable about the topic and may be a useful resource for you.

Jane Aiken

Jane Aiken

University Distinguished Professor

Alyse Bertenthal

Alyse Bertenthal

Associate Professor of Law

Meghan Boone

Meghan Boone

Associate Professor of Law

Marie-Amélie George

Marie-Amélie George

Associate Professor of Law

Shannon Gilreath

Shannon Gilreath

Professor of Law

Allyson E. Gold

Allyson E. Gold

Associate Dean for Experiential Learning

Wendy Parker

Wendy Parker

Research Professor of Law

Abigail Perdue

Abigail Perdue

Professor of Law

Steve Virgil

Steve Virgil

Clinical Professor of Law

Related Pathways

Labor and Employment Law

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Civil Litigation

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Legislation and Lobbying

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Transactional

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Law Firm

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Public Interest Organizations

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