To achieve justice and equal protection under the law, Latinos have turned to the U.S. court system to assert and defend their rights. Some of these cases have reached the United States Supreme Court, whose rulings over more than a century have both expanded and restricted the legal rights of Latinos, creating a complex terrain of power relations between the U.S. government and the country's now-largest ethnic minority. To map this legal landscape, Latinos and American Law examines fourteen landmark Supreme Court cases that have significantly affected Latino rights, from Botiller v. Dominguez in 1889 to Alexander v. Sandoval in 2001. Carlos Soltero organizes his study chronologically, looking at one or more decisions handed down by the Fuller Court (1888-1910), the Taft Court (1921-1930), the Warren Court (1953-1969), the Burger Court (1969-1986), and the Rehnquist Court (1986-2005). For each case, he opens with historical and legal background on the issues involved and then thoroughly discusses the opinion(s) rendered by the justices. He also offers an analysis of each decision's significance, as well as subsequent developments that have affected its impact. Through these case studies, Soltero demonstrates that in dealing with Latinos over issues such as education, the administration of criminal justice, voting rights, employment, and immigration, the Supreme Court has more often mirrored, rather than led, the attitudes and politics of the larger U.S. society.

The experience of Mexican Americans in the United States has been marked by oppression at the hands of the legal system—but it has also benefited from successful appeals to the same system. Mexican Americans and the Law illustrates how Mexican Americans have played crucial roles in mounting legal challenges regarding issues that directly affect their political, educational, and socioeconomic status. Each chapter highlights historical contexts, relevant laws, and policy concerns for a specific issue and features abridged versions of significant state and federal cases involving Mexican Americans. Beginning with People v. Zammora (1940), the trial that was a precursor to the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles during World War II, the authors lead students through some of the most important and precedent-setting cases in American law: - Educational equality: from segregation concerns in Méndez v. Westminster (1946) to unequal funding in San Antonio Independent School District vs. Rodríguez (1973) - Gender issues: reproductive rights in Madrigal v. Quilligan (1981), workplace discrimination in EEOC v. Hacienda Hotel (1989), sexual violence in Aguirre-Cervantes v. INS (2001) - Language rights: Ýñiguez v. Arizonans for Official English (1995), García v. Gloor (1980), Serna v. Portales Municipal Schools (1974) - Immigration-: search and seizure questions in U.S. v. Brignoni-Ponce (1975) and U.S. v. Martínez-Fuerte (1976); public benefits issues in Plyler v. Doe (1982) and League of United Latin American Citizens v. Wilson (1997) - Voting rights: redistricting in White v. Regester (1973) and Bush v. Vera (1996) - Affirmative action: Hopwood v. State of Texas (1996) and Coalition for Economic Equity v. Wilson (1997) - Criminal justice issues: equal protection in Hernández v. Texas (1954); jury service in Hernández v. New York (1991); self incrimination in Miranda v. Arizona (1966); access to legal counsel in Escobedo v. Illinois (1964) With coverage as timely as the 2003 Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, Mexican Americans and the Law offers invaluable insight into legal issues that have impacted Mexican Americans, other Latinos, other racial minorities, and all Americans. Discussion questions, suggested readings, and Internet sources help students better comprehend the intricacies of law.

The first casebook of its kind, Latinos and the Law: Cases and Materials addresses a rich array of topics that are relevant to the largest and most diverse ethnic minority group in the United States. Ranging from the legal and social construction of race, ethnicity, and gender, to language, education, immigration, stereotyping, workplace discrimination, and rebellious lawyering, the new edition highlights the Spanish colonization of Latin America to provide further context for the subsequent colonial treatment of its people and leaders by the United States. Beginning with sociolegal histories of the main Latino/a subgroups, early sections of the book contextualize the Latino/a condition within the United States' historical conquest of and hegemony over Latin American peoples, as well as their centurial immigration to the United States. Updated materials on immigration include recent border-control initiatives and rhetoric, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and the controversial separation of asylum-seeking families from Central America. New materials on the workplace feature attacks on unionization, struggles over the minimum wage and fair pay, and one-sided abuse of H-2 visas. The book also contains new coverage of racial insults, stereotypes, popular culture, and inter-group tensions, including an emerging theory of multi-group oppression. Throughout, Latinos and the Law utilizes theoretical approaches that have proven highly useful in understanding Latinos, such as the white-over-black (or black-white) binary of race in the United States, similar concepts of critical race theory and "LatCrit" theory, and the internal colony model of postcolonial theory. With a wide selection of cases, statutes, documents, notes, questions, and bibliographic references, Latinos and the Law updates a vital resource for scholars, teachers, and students interested in understanding the largest and most diverse ethnic minority group in the United States.

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR An NPR Best Book of the Year, exploring the impact of Latinos’ new collective racial identity on the way Americans understand race, with a new afterword by the author Who are Latinos and where do they fit in America’s racial order? In this “timely and important examination of Latinx identity” (Ms.), Laura E. Gómez, a leading critical race scholar, argues that it is only recently that Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, Central Americans, and others are seeing themselves (and being seen by others) under the banner of a cohesive racial identity. And the catalyst for this emergent identity, she argues, has been the ferocity of anti-Latino racism. In what Booklist calls “an incisive study of history, complex interrogation of racial construction, and sophisticated legal argument,” Gómez “packs a knockout punch” (Publishers Weekly), illuminating for readers the fascinating race-making, unmaking, and re-making processes that Latinos have undergone over time, indelibly changing the way race functions in this country. Building on the “insightful and well-researched” (Kirkus Reviews) material of the original, the paperback features a new afterword in which the author analyzes results of the 2020 Census, providing brilliant, timely insight about how Latinos have come to self-identify.

Now the most populous minority group in the United States, Latino/as increasingly need guidance on the everyday issues that affect their economic livelihood, their freedom, and their equal rights to dignity and opportunity. This comprehensive guide is organized around the three flashpoints that contribute to the unique legal treatment of Latino/as-immigration status, language regulation, and racial/ethnic discrimination. These points are examined in the venues of everyday life for Latino/as-from discrimination in housing to discrimination and language regulation in the workplace and lack of protection for immigrant labor, to classrooms where the bilingual education debate rages, to the voting booth and the criminal justice system where Latino/as confront racial profiling and language barriers.

A lawyer criticizes media portrayals of latino/as because it leads to unfair judgements in the court system.This is an important look at stereotyping in American culture.

A much-needed and thought-provoking examination of a significant and growing population within the United States, Latino/a Rights and Justice in the United States explores the inequalities and injustices that Latino/a communities confront in the United States. Author José Luis Morín provides a deeper understanding of the historical and contemporary Latino/a experience of discrimination and economic and social injustice and presents insights into the elusiveness of equality and fairness for Latinos/as in the United States. Offering ideas on how to reduce bias and other inequities within the justice system and the greater society, Morín calls for alternative approaches to working with Latino/a youths and families and a broadening of existing concepts of rights and justice in the United States. Drawing the link between the international and domestic dimensions of the Latino/a presence in the United States, Morín incorporates international human rights norms and principles of economic, social, and cultural rights to address the persistent inequalities and injustices that Latino/a communities confront in the United States. The second edition provides new and expanded coverage about racial and ethnic bias in law enforcement and the criminal justice system, citizenship rights, immigration and crime, Latinos/as and U.S. prisons, the contemporary street gang phenomenon, and Latinos/as in the post-9/11 era. Meticulous in presenting facts and research, Latino/a Rights and Justice in the United States often challenges conventional ideas and popular myths about Latinos/as on these and other topics.