CONSTITUTIONAL LAW II
Prof Moskovitz
October 14, 1999
Afternoon Class
MIDTERM EXAMINATION
One Hour
To: My law clerk
From: Golda N. Bear, General Counsel, University of California
I just received the following memo from the Dean of our School of Engineering:
"Dear Golda:
As you know, we have always had trouble attracting and keeping
women students
in our School of Engineering. Recent studies show that
some women tend not to go
into science or technology unless they have
emotional and intellectual support from
other women peers and authority
figures.
Therefore, we are considering a proposal to establish a University
dormitory for
women engineering students only. Undergraduates would
live with, eat with, study
with, and "hang out" with students like
themselves and with the few graduate student
women who have succeeded
in our school thus far, to show that women can make
it in engineering.
One section of this dormitory would be set aside for black women
engineering
students only, because studies show that many black women
students tend to feel
especially isolated unless able to associate with other
black women. We hope to
lower the drop-out rate among these women.
No lesbian engineering students will be allowed to live in this
dormitory. Some of
our "straight" women students come from rather
conservative communities and
families, and they tend to be fearful or
anxious about lesbians - especially in Berkeley,
where lesbians tend to be
rather outspoken. We want our students to focus on
studying engineering
(one of the most demanding disciplines) with a minimum of
distractions.
Lesbians are welcome, of course, in other University dormitories.
One of our professors flunked out of law school before becoming
an engineer, so he
thinks he knows some law. He said that all or part of
this dormitory proposal violates
the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S.
Constitution, and might be successfully
challenged by non-engineering
students, males, non-blacks, and/or lesbians. Is he right?
Dean Dan Dean"
Please draft a letter for me to send to the Dean in response to his question.
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW II
Prof Moskovitz
October 14, 1999
Afternoon Class
MIDTERM EXAMINATION
One Hour
To: My law clerk
From: Oly O. Margarine, Esq,
I represent Rob R. Baron (B), who owns "Baronville" - a 20-story building in Orange
County containing
500 apartments above 20 retail stores, all patrolled by security guards hired by
Baron. While Baron himself
is homosexual, he refuses to rent any apartment to a homosexual,
because Orange County is very conservative
and his other tenants might move out if they know
homosexuals are in the building, and they might harass or
attack tenants who appeared to be
homosexual. Baron also refuses to rent any apartment to any blind person,
because all of the
apartments are above the first floor and he fears that a blind person might be unable to find a
stairway and get out of the building quickly in case of fire.
Baron has a contract with a federal agency (the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban
Development) that requires
Baron to rent 20 of his apartments to low-income tenants at $700 per
month per apartment. The contract provides
that each tenant will pay Baron rent equal to 25% of
the tenant's monthly income. If this comes to less than $700,
the feds pay Baron the amount needed
to bring to total to $700. Baron likes the federal guarantee of part of the rent.
The federal money
comes from a fund established by a Congressional statute that says that the program is intended
"to
provide more housing for low-income people."
Baron would like to apply his "no homosexuals" policy and "no blind" policy to these 20
apartments. He is worried,
however, that some low-income homosexual or blind person might sue
him to invalidate the policies, insofar as they
apply to the 20 apartments. Please advise me re
whether a lawsuit based on the Equal Protection Clause of the 10
Amendment would succeed.