Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/theodore_mccombs Recent documents in Theodore A.B. McCombs en-us Sun, 31 May 2009 12:44:24 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/theodore_mccombs/2 http://works.bepress.com/theodore_mccombs/2 Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:22:14 PDT Monstrous by Law explores two famous legal texts of antebellum American slavery--THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER, regarding the 1831 slave rebellion; and the notorious trial of Margaret Garner, the fugitive slave who murdered her children to prevent them from being taken back into slavery. Using theories developed by Toni Morrison and Judith Halberstam, the essay examines how these two texts make use of a particular "Gothic technology," by which the black defendants are portrayed as monstrous figures that help define and reinforce white identity by contrast. The essay then turns to Herman Melville's novella Benito Cereno, which was inspired in part by the Nat Turner revolt, and Toni Morrison's BELOVED, which was inspired by Margaret Garner's story, to trace how these two literary texts respond, critique, and attempt to dismantle such technology. The analysis underscores the important role of literature, particularly the literature of American law, in creating an anti-racist society. Theodore A.B. McCombs Arts and Literature Law and Society Legal History Social Welfare http://works.bepress.com/theodore_mccombs/1 http://works.bepress.com/theodore_mccombs/1 Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:37:12 PDT Since 2003, the Oakland unit of Social Security's Cooperative Disability Investigations ("CDI") program has targeted certain Cambodian refugee applicants with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Depression for fraud investigations. The practices of Social Security's anti-fraud program in Oakland reveal disturbing disadvantages to Cambodian refugee applicants in particular, including institutional prejudices in Social Security's rules and CDI agents' gross insensitivity to claimants' impairments and cultural realities. This Note examines these disadvantages under the legal norms of national origin discrimination, disability discrimination, and due process, and concludes with a policy proposal on how Social Security might better protect claimants' rights and interests while ensuring the integrity of its anti-fraud efforts. Theodore A.B. McCombs Administrative Law Civil Rights Constitutional Law Psychology and Psychiatry Social Welfare