We’ve notice the publication of a terrifically interesting essay collection and the posting of one of its chapters. The collection is
The Rights Revolution Revisited: Institutional Perspectives on the Private Enforcement of Civil Rights in the US, edited by
Lynda G. Dodd, City College, City University of New York:
The rights revolution in the United States consisted of both sweeping changes in constitutional doctrines and landmark legislative reform, followed by decades of innovative implementation in every branch of the federal government - Congress, agencies, and the courts. In recent years, a growing number of political scientists have sought to integrate studies of the rights revolution into accounts of the contemporary American state. In The Rights Revolution Revisited, a distinguished group of political scientists and legal scholars explore the institutional dynamics, scope, and durability of the rights revolution. By offering an inter-branch analysis of the development of civil rights laws and policies that features the role of private enforcement, this volume enriches our understanding of the rise of the 'civil rights state' and its fate in the current era.
Here’s the TOC:
Part I. Introduction:
1. Reassessing the rights revolution Lynda G. Dodd
Part II. Implementing the Rights Revolution:
2. Approaches to enforcing the rights revolution: private civil rights litigation and the American bureaucracy Quinn Mulroy
3. Mobilizing rights at the agency level: the first interpretations of Title VII's sex provision Jennifer Woodward
4. Motivating litigants to enforce public goods: evidence from employment, housing, and voting discrimination policy Paul Gardner
5. Regulatory rights: civil rights agencies, courts, and the entrenchment of language rights Ming Hsu Chen
6. Sexual harassment and the evolving civil rights state R. Shep Melnick
7. The civil rights template and the Americans with Disabilities Act: a socio-legal perspective on the promise and limits of individual rights Thomas F. Burke and Jeb Barnes
Part III. Rights and Retrenchment:
8. Retrenching civil rights litigation: why the court succeeded where congress failed Stephen Burbank and Sean Farhang
9. The contours of the Supreme Court's civil rights counterrevolution Lynda G. Dodd
10. Constraining aid, retrenching access: legal services after the rights revolution Sarah Staszak
Part IV. The Future of the Rights Revolution:
11. Rationalizing rights: political control of litigation David Freeman Engstrom
12. The future of private enforcement of civil rights Lynda G. Dodd.
The chapter is by
Ming Hsu Chen, University of Colorado Law School:
Regulatory Rights: Civil Rights Agencies, Courts, and the Entrenchment of Language Rights:
Shortly after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, policymakers recognized the need to transform the aspirations of civil rights rhetoric into concrete solutions for new immigrants and non- English speakers whose presence dramatically increased following passage of the Hart-Cellar Act in 1965. The Hart-Cellar Act lifted national origin quotas on Asian and Latin American countries, ushering in an unprecedented amount of racial and ethnic diversity. Asian and Hispanic immigrants faced many of the same barriers as African Americans, whose pioneering efforts culminated in sweeping civil rights reforms in many areas of public life. The new immigrants additionally faced language barriers. Many Asian and Hispanic immigrants lacked the language skills to fully participate in mainstream institutions where English predominated. Generations of neglect also meant that some Asians and Hispanics lacked English language competency despite years of residence in ethnic enclaves in cities. In both schools and workplaces, the achievements of the civil rights movement eluded language minorities. This chapter explains how civil rights laws evolved to incorporate the needs of LEP speakers after 1965 and shows how federal civil rights agencies served as the engine of civil rights expansions on behalf of language minorities in the years following the passage of the Civil Rights Act and Hart-Cellar Act.
