Civil Rights Legislation and Litigation

The goal of this book is to provide law students with an understanding of the major federal civil rights statutes. We begin with the Reconstruction Era laws, passed shortly after the Civil War, that remain an important part of the civil rights landscape even after Congress enacted additional statutes, beginning with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The materials include Titles II and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Equal Pay Act, as well as three federal funding statutes that prohibit discrimination - the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Some of the statutes overlap and we explore the advantages and disadvantages of each, looking at the enforcement options, remedies, including damages and attorney fees, defenses, and limitations on the power of Congress to pass such acts. More than thirty problems provide the students with an opportunity to apply the statutes they study. The authors, Rosalie Berger Levinson and Ivan E. Bodensteiner, have taught a civil rights course, as well as Constitutional Law, for many years and have several years of experience litigating civil rights claims. They are the authors of a four-volume civil rights treatise, which is supplemented annually.