50212 - Legitimacy, Punishment, and Language Dynamics in the Law

Description

This panel examines how law reflects and reinforces power dynamics across social spheres. The first paper explores how democratic elections of prosecutors affect perceptions of legitimacy and the punitiveness of the criminal justice system. The second paper shifts focus to the historical transformation of child welfare laws, showing how racialized and gendered narratives about Black and Puerto Rican families influenced state intervention in parental rights. The third paper examines how metaphors in U.S. Supreme Court abortion rulings shape legal reasoning and public discourse, demonstrating how judicial language entrenches ideological divides. Together, these studies reveal how law functions as both a tool for social control and a means of legitimizing power, highlighting how race, gender, and civic engagement shape legal systems and their impact on inequality.

Sub Unit

• Law

Presider

• Ian Robert Carrillo, University of Oklahoma

Individual Presentations

• Legitimacy, Punitiveness, and the Election of Prosecutors - Ángela Zorro Medina, University of Chicago; Fernando Bracaccini; Carlos De la Rossa Xochitiotzi

• ‘Nobody’s Children’: The Racial History of Parental Rights Law in Foster Care - Michaela Christy Simmons, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Shifting Grounds: Metaphors and Their Role in the Supreme Court’s Reasoning on Abortion - Kelly Shea Jones, UC San Diego

Discussant

• Diana Reddy, University of California Berkeley

Session Organizer

• Theresa Rocha Beardall, University of Washington