Joanna L. Grossman
Joanna L. Grossman

Joanna L. Grossman is the Ellen K. Solender Endowed Chair in Women and Law at SMU Dedman School of Law and is currently serving as the Herman Phleger Visiting Professor at Stanford Law School.  She is an expert in sex discrimination law. She is the author or editor of nine books, including The Walled Garden: Law and Privacy in Modern Society (2022) (with Lawrence Friedman); Nine to Five: How Gender, Sex and Sexuality Continue to Define the American Workplace (2016); and Inside the Castle: Law and the Family in 20th Century America (2011) (with Lawrence Friedman). She writes extensively on family law, especially on state regulation of marriage and parentage.

Columns by Joanna L. Grossman
Notorious P.I.G.: Rape Culture Meets Presidential Politics

SMU Dedman School of Law professor Joanna L. Grossman and University of Pittsburgh law professor Deborah L. Brake analyze the infamous video of Donald Trump boasting about what he can do to women, as well as the response of the Trump campaign. Grossman and Brake argue that Trump’s words in the video, and his non-apology following its release, epitomize the formula that creates rape-prone culture: deny harm, deflect responsibility, and normalize what happened.

Battle of the Sexist: The Implicit, Explicit, and Unrelenting Bias of Trump’s Presidential Campaign

SMU Dedman School of Law professor Joanna L. Grossman and Boston University law professor Linda C. McClain discuss the sexism that pervades Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Grossman and McClain comment not only on the presidential debates, but also on the bigger question whether (and how) a woman can be perceived as “presidential.”

Limits on Grandparent Visitation: The Continuing Ripples of Troxel v. Granville

SMU Dedman School of Law professor Joanna L. Grossman discusses the continuing impact of Troxel v. Granville, a seminal case in family law that addressed third-party visitation rights, particularly those of grandparents. Grossman lays out Troxel’s holding and explains how it relates to family law in a larger context, then analyzes a more recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court family law case with facts that the court held distinguished it from the broader statute addressed in Troxel. This decision, Grossman posits, was correct. The legislature in the Pennsylvania case had overstepped its bounds, to the significant detriment of parental rights.

Separated Spouses Beware: Post-Separation Adultery Bars Fault-Based Divorce

SMU Dedman School of Law professor Joanna L. Grossman comments on a recent decision by the New Hampshire Supreme Court in which it held that a man’s adultery after separating from his wife barred him from seeking a divorce on the grounds on her prior adultery. Grossman provides the historical background of fault and no-fault divorces and explains why the court reached this correct, albeit strange, conclusion.

The Broken Clock: The Illinois Supreme Court Affirms Misguided, 37-Year-Old Ban on Economic Rights for Cohabiting Couples

SMU Dedman School of Law Professor Joanna Grossman comments on a recent decision by the Illinois Supreme Court reaffirming a decades-old decision by the same court that seemed obsolete even at the time. Grossman argues that the recent decision unfairly withholds protections from nonmarital families and does not actually serve the purported public policy purpose of favoring marriage.

Midcourse Correction: Maryland Court Endorses De Facto Parentage Doctrine

SMU Dedman School of Law Professor Joanna Grossman discusses a decision by the highest court of Maryland reversing itself and allowing a claim of de facto parentage. Grossman describes the history of de facto parentage in the United States and explains how the court reached its decision.

The TRAP Door Closes: The Supreme Court Invalidates Texas’s HB 2, Which Unduly Burdens Access to Abortion

SMU Dedman School of Law Professor Joanna Grossman comments on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, in which the Court struck down certain restrictions on abortion clinics that imposed an undue burden on women’s constitutional right of access to abortion. Grossman describes the history of abortion access in the United States and how the Court’s decision in Whole Woman’s Health fits within that history.

Changing the World One Case at a Time: A Review of Gillian Thomas’s Because of Sex: One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years That Changed American Women’s Lives at Work

Hofstra University law professor Joanna Grossman praises Gillian Thomas’s new book Because of Sex: One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years That Changed American Women’s Lives at Work, which profiles ten of the most important Supreme Court cases to the advancement of women’s equality in the workplace.

“Say No to This”: Courts Must Stop Holding that Firing Attractive Women Is Not Sex Discrimination

Hofstra University law professor Joanna Grossman critiques a recent decision by a New York trial court holding that a woman who was allegedly fired by a male boss because she was “too cute” and causing the boss’s wife to be jealous had not alleged facts amounting to unlawful sex discrimination. Grossman explains why the ruling is based on unsound reasoning and misunderstands sex discrimination law.

The Thin Pink Line: Policing Gender at Every Corner

Hofstra University law professors Joanna L. Grossman and Grant M. Hayden explain how recent controversies over same-sex marriage, transgender use of bathroom, and differentiated high school graduation attire for males and females reflect a collective unwillingness to blur gender lines. Grossman and Hayden further describe how these controversies are really simply part of a larger game of gender oppression.

Blue for Boys, White With Flowers for Girls: When Commencement Is an Exercise in Discrimination

Hofstra University law professor Joanna L. Grossman and Duke law professor Katharine T. Bartlett explain why a high school policy prescribing one color of robes for boys and another color for girls violates both the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title IX. Grossman and Bartlett describe how this controversy could be easily resolved, as other schools have resolved other similar controversies.

A Room With a View: Federal Appeals Court Says School District Cannot Bar Transgender Boy from Using the Bathroom Aligned with His Gender Identity

Hofstra University law professor Joanna Grossman comments on a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit holding that a school district cannot bar a transgender boy from using the boys’ restroom. Grossman explains the reasoning behind the appellate court’s decision and calls into question the rhetoric that single-sex bathrooms are somehow “sacred”—in light of the many scandals that take place in these places.

A Safe Haven for Kody? Sister Wives Star Loses on Appeal, but Protected From Bigamy Prosecution in Utah

Hofstra University law professor Joanna Grossman comments on a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reinstating Utah’s criminal law banning bigamy. Grossman explains the facts leading up to the lawsuit, the holding of the district, and the reasoning behind the Tenth Circuit’s reversal.

North Carolina’s HB 2: Does Passing an Obviously Unconstitutional Law Make the Law Even More Unconstitutional?

Hofstra University law professor Joanna Grossman discusses North Carolina’s recent passage of House Bill 2 (HB 2), which purports to take away existing anti-discrimination rights from LGBT people. Grossman explains why the law is unconstitutional and considers whether, in light of the law’s patent unconstitutionality, the law reflects even greater animus by those who passed it.

Alabama: The U.S. Constitution Applies to You, Too

Hofstra University law professor Joanna Grossman comments on a recent per curiam opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court in which it instructed the Alabama Supreme Court to obey the U.S. Constitution and give full effect to a lesbian couple’s adoption decree from Georgia. Grossman describes the facts leading up to the case and explains why the High Court ruled firmly as it did, and why the Alabama court was incorrect.

Protection Against Sexual Harassment Is Alive and Well in the Sixth Circuit

Hofstra University law professor Joanna Grossman comments on a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in which the court affirmed a jury verdict in favor of a sexual harassment plaintiff. Grossman describes the facts leading up to the case and explains why the jury and the appellate court came to the correct conclusion as a matter of fact and law.

Course Correction: Young v. United Parcel Service Makes Courts Focus on Right Issues, but Also Reveals Limits of PDA

Hofstra University law professor Joanna Grossman discusses the effect that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Young v. United Parcel Service has had on cases arising under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), as well as the limitations of that decision. Grossman argues that while the decision helped give effect to the intended purpose of the PDA, it did not and could not expand the scope of the statute, which is what is now needed to adequately protect pregnant workers.

You Made Your (Marital) Bed, Now Lie in It

Hofstra University law professor Joanna Grossman comments on a recent decision by an appellate court in New York holding that a harsh but voluntary prenuptial agreement could be enforced as written. Grossman points out that the decision is consistent with a larger trend of courts enforcing prenuptial agreements, even when their terms might seem objectively one-sided or unfair.

One Surrogate Birth for Man May Mean Nothing for Mankind

Hofstra University law professor Joanna Grossman discusses a surrogacy dispute filed by a California woman against a man in Georgia. Grossman points out that the facts giving rise to the dispute are highly unusual and that it would be a mistake to draw a conclusion about surrogacy in general from this particular case.