Syllabus: Law, Social Movements and Social Change

Winter Term 2007

Ganz, Guinier and Torres with Grinthal

 

Note: for course pack page numbers- first number is class number followed by –page number ex: 1-12

 

Class One   January 3 6-9 PM

What do we mean by social change and why are we talking about it?  

 

REQUIRED READING (in advance of Session One)

·       Thich Nhat Hanh, Thundering Silence: Sutra on Knowing the Better Way to Catch a Snake, The Raft is Not the Shore, (pp.30-33). (a reading about pedagogy) course pack pages………………………….1-3

·       Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics, Cambridge, 1998. (Intro through page 25)  course pack pages…………………………………………………………………4-17

·       Martha Minow, Law and Social Change, 62 UMKC L. Rev. 171 - 183 (1993) course pack pages……… 18-28

·       Michael W. McCann, Legal Mobilization and Social Reform Movements: Notes on Theory and its Application, 11 Studies in Law, Politics and Society 225-254 (1991) (Austin Sarat and Susan S. Silbey eds)

course pack pages…………………………………………………………………………………..………29-44

·       Eric Foner, The Story of American Freedom (1998) READ Table of Contents AND Chapters 6, 9 and 11 (pp 115 – 138; 195 – 218 and 249 – 262; (Liberty of Contract and Its Discontents; The New Deal and the Redefinition of Freedom; Cold War Freedom) OR Table of Contents and Chapters 11, 12 and 13 (pp 249 – 252; 275 – 332) (Cold War Freedom, Sixties Freedom and Conservative Freedom) course pack pages…45-113

·       Austin Sarat, Cause Lawyering and Social Movements (2006), Table of Contents (Review in preparation for choosing case study for Class Six) course pack pages……………..………………………………...114-115

·       Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (one page excerpt) course pack pages……………116

 

OTHER SOURCES (On Closed Reserve in Library)

·       Michael McCann, How Does Law Matter for Social Movements, in How Does Law Matter (edited by Bryant G. Garth and Austin Sarat 1998)

·       Austin Sarat, Looking Back at Law’s Century, (Cornell University Press 2002); Introductory Essay (Facilitating and Domesticating Change: Democracy, Capitalism and Law’s Double Role in the Twentieth Century)

·       Marshall Ganz, Left Behind: Social Movements, Parties and the Politics of Reform (August 2006)

·       Stuart A. Scheingold, The Politics of Rights: Lawyers, Public Policy and Political Change, Chapter One: Legal Rights and Political Action

·       Lucie White, To Learn and Teach:  Lessons from Driefontein on Lawyering and Power, 1988 Wis L. Rev. 699

·       William Forbath, Constitutional Change and the Politics of History, 108 Yale L.J 1817 (1999)

·       Gerald Torres, Critical Race Theory: The Decline of the Universalist Ideal and the Hope of Plural Justice, 75 Minn. L. Rev. 993 (1991)

 

Class Two  January 5, 2007 3-6 PM

What is the role of social movements in making social change in a democracy?

This class explores that question from an organizing perspective.

 

REQUIRED READING

·       Marshall Ganz, What is Organizing; selections from Organizing Notes on leadership, relationships, motivation, strategy, and action course pack pages………………………………………………………..1-80

·       John McKnight, Services are Bad for People, (pp.41-44) course pack pages……………………………81-84

·       The Bible, Exodus, Chapters 2-6, (pp.82-89) course pack pages……………………………….……….85-88

·       Marshall Ganz. Resources and Resourcefulness: Strategic Capacity in the Unionization of California Agriculture, 1959-1966, American Journal of Sociology, January 2000, (pp.1003-1005; 1019-1044)

       course pack pages………………………………………………………………………………………...89-148

·       Charles M. Payne, I’ve Got the Light of Freedom, Chapter 8: Slow and Respectful Wor” (p.236-264)

       course pack pages………………………………………………………………………………………149-164

·       Aldon Morris, Political Consciousness and Collective Action, in Frontiers in Social Movement Theory (Aldon Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller eds 1992) pp 351 – 373 course pack pages………………165-176

·       Thomas Rochon, Culture Moves: Ideas, Activism, and Changing Values, Princeton, 1998, Chapters One and Two (pp.3 -53) (specifically pp 14-19 (role of culture); pp 22-25; 30-32 (critical communities); 36-47 comparing elite intervention in EEOC enforcement procedures with ERA social and political movement; p. 53 – movements occur through union of critical discourse and collective action) course pack pages…..… 177-202

 

Class Three   January 8 6-9 PM
How do legal frameworks condition social movement organizing and strategy?
How does social movement discourse shape law?

 

REQUIRED READING (excerpts from the following)

·       Mark Tushnet, The NAACP's Legal Strategy Against Segregated Education, 1925-1950 (2004) (Conclusion and Epilogue) course pack pages…..…………………………………….……………………1-26

·       Constitutional Symposium: The Role of Law in Social Change, Gerald Rosenberg, Courting Disaster: Looking for Change in All the Wrong Places, 54 Drake L. Rev. 795 and Gerald Torres, Some Observations On the Role of Social Change On the Courts, 54 Drake L. Rev. 895 (Summer 2006) course pack pages…….……27-63

·       Ken Mack, Rethinking Civil Rights Law and Politics in the Era Before Brown, 115 Yale L. Journal 256 (2005)

READ Intro (pp 258 -265); The Making of a Legal Liberal Interpretation ( 265 - 271); Legal Pluralism and Equal Citizenship (287-297); Citizenship Claims and Public Opinion (297-299); Social Engineering in Practice: An Alternative History of the Depression Era (299-302 and Parts B, C, and D pp 308-318, 318-331 and 331-342); Conclusion (pp 351 - end) course pack pages……...……..64-148

·       Jack M. Balkin and Reva B. Siegel, Principles, Practices and Social Movements, 154 U. Pa. L. Rev. 927 (April 2006) course pack pages…..……………………………………………………………………..149-175

·       Lani Guinier, From Racial Liberalism to Racial Literacy: Brown v Board of Education and the Interest-Divergence Dilemma, Journal of American History, 92-118 (June 2004) course pack pages…..……176-193

·       Francesca Polletta, The Structural Context of Novel Rights Claims: Southern Civil Rights Organizing, 1961-1966, 34 Law and Society Review 367-406 (2000) course pack pages…..…………………………..194-238

·       Adam Liptak, Brown v Board of Education, Second Round, New York Times, Dec. 10, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/weekinreview/10liptak.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

course pack pages…..……………………………………………………………………………………236-239

 

OTHER SOURCES

·       Orly Lobel, The Paradox of Extra-Legal Activism: Critical Legal Consciousness and Transformative Politics (forthcoming Harvard Law Review)

·       Thomas B.  Stoddard, Bleeding heart: Reflections on Using the Law to Make Social Change, 72 N. Y. U. L. Rev 976 (1997)

·       Karl E. Klare, Judicial Deradicalization of the Wagner Act and the Origins of Modern Legal Consciousness, 1937 – 1941, 62 Minnesota L. Rev. 265 – 339 (1977-78)

·       Willie Forbath, Law and the Shaping of the American Labor Movement (1991) (Ch 5: The Language of the Law and Remaking of Labor Rights Consciousness, pp 128-166;)

 

 

Class Four  January 10 3-6 PM

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

 

REQUIRED READING

·       Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters, American in the King Years; the Montgomery Bus Boycott. (pages 120-204) course pack pages………………………………………………………………………………1-44

·       Randall Kennedy, Martin Luther King’s Constitution: A Legal History of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 98 Yale L. J. 999 (April 1989) course pack pages……………………………………………………………45-80

·       Robert Jerome Glennon, The Role of Law in the Civil Rights Movement: The Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-1957, 9 Law & Hist. Rev. 59 (1991)/ Read pp 59 – 62 (Intro); 89 – 94 (section III). Skim pp 94 – 100 (sections IV and epilogue) course pack pages……………………………………………………………………….81-134

·       Aldon Morris, The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change (1984) pages 51 – 63 in Chapter Three: Movement Centers: MIA, ICC and ACMHR and pages 275-290 course pack pages……………………………………………………………………………………135-141

·       Steven E. Barkan, Legal Control of the Southern Civil Rights Movement, 49 American Sociological review 552-565 (August 1984) course pack pages……………………………………………………………….142-156

 

 

OTHER SOURCES

·       Randall Kennedy, Schoolings in Equality, The New Republic (review of Simple Justice by Richard Kluger and From Jim Crow to Civil Rights by Michael Klarman,) http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040705&s=kennedy070504. July 5, 2004.

·       Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past, Journal of American History 1233- 1263 (March 2005)

·       Fredrick C. Harris, It takes a Tragedy to Arouse Them: Collective Memory and Collective Action during the Civil Rights Movement, 5 social Movement Studies, 19 – 43 (May 2006)

·       Audio: An Interview With Nicholas Lemann (listen in conjunction with review of Lemann’s book, A Less Than Perfect Union, on Reconstruction at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/books/review/Wilentz.t.html?pagewanted=3&ei=5070&en=9f35144c37a49e54&ex=1164690000

·       David Bernstein and Ilys Somin, Judicial Power and Civil Rights Reconsidered, 114 Yale L. J. 591. Read pp 591-598 at http://www.yalelawjournal.org/pdf/114-3/Bernstein.11.30.pdf, (Review of Michael Klarman, From Jim Crow to Civil Rights).

 

Class Five   January 12 3-6 PM

Two Contemporary Case Studies

What is the difference between Cause Lawyering and Social Movement Lawyering?

 

REQUIRED READING for all students (Overview pieces)

·       Lani Guinier, Lift  Every Voice (chapters 7 and 8) SKIM

·       Austin Sarat, Cause Lawyering and Social Movements (introduction) 2006

·        Derrick Bell, Serving Two Masters (excerpts)

·       William Simon, Visions of Practice in Legal Thought, 36 Stan. L. Rev., 469-507 (1984).

 

Two Case Studies (one half of class assigned to each in advance)

 

I.               UNITED FARM WORKERS

 

REQUIRED READING for Case Study I

·       Jennifer Gordon, Law, Lawyers and Labor: The United Farmworkers Legal Strategy in the 1960s and 70s and the Role of Law in Union Organizing Today, 8 Penn. J. Lab.& Emp. 1 (Feb. 2006)

·       Gary Bellow, Lawyers for a Political Movement,  Lawyer Roles, California Rural Legal Assistance pp 22-48, (Lawyering for Good)

 

II. CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT pre and post 1970/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION- 21st Century Views of “Equality” and the changing meaning of race.

 

REQUIRED READING for Case Study II

·       Fredrick C. Harris, It takes a Tragedy to Arouse Them: Collective Memory and Collective Action during the Civil Rights Movement, 5 social Movement Studies, 19 – 43 (May 2006).

·       Jia Cobb, 3L Paper, Resurrecting Civil Rights Litigation as a “problem solving” Tool: The Lawyers’ Role in Garrett v Board of Education, May 2005 re ACLU and NOW LDF case challenging all male immersion schools in Detroit

·       MICHIGAN CIVIL RIGHTS INITIATIVE October 31, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/us/31michigan.html?em&ex=1162530000&en=b12a3fa7f69609df&ei=5087%0A
Race Preferences Vote Splits Michigan

·       Tomiko Brown Nagin, Elites, Social Movements, and the Law: The Case of Affirmative Action, 105 Colum. L. Rev. 1436 (June 2005)

·       Nancy MacLean, Freedom Is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace (Harvard Press 2005) (pp 232-260) Guinier, L. & Torres, G., The Miner’s Canary, Chapter 7.(Whiteness of a Different Color).

 

 

OTHER SOURCES:

·       Stanley Fish, At The Federalist Society, in THE TROUBLE WITH PRINCIPLE (1999) at pp 19-33

·       Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1 (1971)

 

Class Six   january 17 6-9 p.m.

Law and Social Movements

Producing Case studies: What is the iterative relationship between social movements, organizing  and the law?

 

REQUIRED READING FOR ALL STUDENTS:

·       Mike Grinthal, Lawyers and Relational Organizing, (3L paper), May 15, 2006

 

OTHER SOURCES (for each case study)

Environmentalism, and Environmental Justice, and Global Warming;

·       Benjamin Kline, First Along the River: A Brief History of the US Environmental Movement, Acada, 2000

·       Cary Coglianese, Social Movements, Law and Society: The Institutionalization of the Environmental Movement, 150 Univ of Penn L. Rev. 85-118 (Nov. 2001)

·       Luke Cole, Macho Law Brains, Public Citizens, and Grassroots Activists: Three Models of Environmental Advocacy, 14 Va. Envtl. L.J. 687 (1995)

·       Gerald Torres, Who Owns the Sky?, 18 Pace Environmental Law Review 227 (2001) (See: Vermont H.860 (passed by Committee 11-0 on 2/16/06 --Conservation; Regional greenhouse gas initiative (RGGI))

 

OTHER SOURCES:

·       Sam Hays, Conservation and the Gospel of Sam Hays, Beauty, Health and Permanence: Environmental Politics in the U.S. 1955 – 1985  The Urban Parks Movement (Browning the Green movement; Center for Law in the Public Interests; Lewis Steele complaint in NYC)

·       California Campaign on Global Warming

 

Conservative Movement: Race, Taxes, Right to Life, Guns and Private Morality.

·       John Micklethwait & Adrian Wolldridege, The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America, Penguin, 2004.

·       Donald Critchlow, Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservativism: A Woman’s Crusade, Princeton, 2005.

·       Suburban Warriors, Lisa McGirr

·       Nancy MacLean, Conservative Shift from Massive Resistance to Colorblindness, Freedom is Not Enough at 225-264

 

Community Organizing, Community Development and School Reform.

·       Robert Fisher, Let the People Decide, Twayne, 1994.

·       Mark Warren, Dry Bones Rattling, Princeton, 2001.

·       Kristina Smock, Democracy in Action: Community Organizing and Urban Change, Columbia, 2004.

·       Jacqueline B. Mondros and Scott M. Wilson, Organizing for Power and Empowerment, New York, Columbia University Press, 1994;

·       William Simon, Solving Problems v. Claiming Rights: The Pragmatist Challenge to Legal Liberalism, (Columbia Law School Public Law and Legal Theory Working Group Working Paper No. 03-58, 2003)

·       Susan D. Bennett, Little Engines that Could: Community Clients, Their Lawyers and Training in the arts of Democracy, 2002 Wisc L Rev. 469

·       Lawyering for a New Democracy: Symposium Issue (Wisconsin Law review 2002) (foreword by Louise G. Trubek at 271; The Community Economic Development Movement by William Simon at 377)

·       Community Organizing for Urban School Reform by Dennis Shirley

·       Paul Tough, What it Takes to Make a Student, New York Times Magazine, Nov. 26, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/magazine/26tough.html?em&ex=1164690000&en=996a8a48d175d21e&ei=5087%0A

 

Modern Feminism and the ERA

 

OVERVIEW PIECES:

·       Reva Siegel, Constitutional Culture, Social Movement Conflict and Constitutional Change: The Case of the de facto ERA,  94 Cal. L. Rev, 1323 (Oct. 2006)

·       Jane Mansbridge, How We Lost the ERA, University of Chicago, 1986.

 

PICK ONE: FEMINISM IN THE RACE MOVEMENT (American Indian, Chicana, Blacks) or FEMINISM IN THE LABOR MOVEMENT

 Immigration, Citizenship, Human Rights.

·       Ian Haney-Lopez, A Nation of Minorities (forthcoming in Stanford Law Review)

·       Willy Forbath, Class, Caste and Citizenship, 98 Mich. L. Rev. 1 (1999).

 

Economic justice, workers rights, and globalization.

·       Jennifer Gordon, Suburban Sweatshops (2005)

 

Class Seven   JANUARY 19 3 –6 PM

What Have We Learned?

Are social movements organic (natural and constitutive) participants in democracy?

 

REQUIRED READING

·       Scott L. Cummings and Ingrid V. Eagly, A Critical Reflection on Law and Organizing, , 48 UCLA LR 443   (February 2001).

·       Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres, Draft on Demosprudence (Frederick Douglass Lectures, University of Rochester)