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Full-Text Articles in Law
It Takes A Village: Designating "Tiny House" Villages As Transitional Housing Campgrounds, Ciara Turner
It Takes A Village: Designating "Tiny House" Villages As Transitional Housing Campgrounds, Ciara Turner
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
A relatively new proposal to reduce homelessness in the United States involves extraordinarily small dwellings. While the “tiny house” movement is intuitively appealing and has found sporadic success, strict housing codes, building codes, and zoning laws often destroy the movement before it can get off the ground. One possibility for getting around these zoning and building code challenges, without drastic overhauls to health and safety codes, is to create a new state-level zoning classification of “transitional campgrounds.” A new zoning classification would alleviate the issue because campgrounds are consistently subject to less strict building codes, which could permit tiny houses …
Penalizing Poverty: Making Criminal Defendants Pay For Their Court-Appointed Counsel Through Recoupment And Contribution, Helen A. Anderson
Penalizing Poverty: Making Criminal Defendants Pay For Their Court-Appointed Counsel Through Recoupment And Contribution, Helen A. Anderson
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Over thirty years ago the United States Supreme Court upheld an Oregon statute that allowed sentencing courts, with a number of important procedural safeguards, to impose on indigent criminal defendants the obligation to repay the cost of their court appointed attorneys. The practice of ordering recoupment or contribution (application fees or co-pays) of public defender attorney's fees is widespread, although collection rates are unsurprisingly low. Developments since the Court's decision in Fuller v. Oregon show that not only is recoupment not cost-effective, but it too easily becomes an aspect of punishment, rather than legitimate cost recovery. In a number of …
The Constitutional Right Of Poor People To Appeal Without Payment Of Fees: Convergence Of Due Process And Equal Protection In M.L.B. V. S.L.J, Lloyd C. Anderson
The Constitutional Right Of Poor People To Appeal Without Payment Of Fees: Convergence Of Due Process And Equal Protection In M.L.B. V. S.L.J, Lloyd C. Anderson
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In this Article, Professor Lloyd Anderson examines the recent decision M.L.B. v. S.L.J., in which the United States Supreme Court held that due process and equal protection converge to require that states cannot require indigent parents who seek to appeal decisions terminating their parental rights to pay court costs they cannot afford. Noting that this decision expands the constitutional right of cost-free appeal from criminal to civil cases for the first time, Professor Anderson discusses the characteristics a civil case should have in order to qualify for such a right. Professor Anderson proposes a number of other civil cases, …
Accelerated Education As A Remedy For High-Poverty Schools, William H. Clune
Accelerated Education As A Remedy For High-Poverty Schools, William H. Clune
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
High-poverty schools, and the students who attend them, have historically faced substantial challenges in providing and receiving, adequate education. Despite some relief from the courts, school finance remedies that require the redistribution of monetary aid to low-wealth districts have encountered strong political opposition. In this Article, Professor Clune makes a renewed claim for accelerated education as the primary focus of adequacy litigation in school reform cases. He describes the nation's educational condition, in which there exists a disturbing correlation between poverty and low educational outcomes. He then drafts a vision of a comprehensive, school reform remedy, one that emphasizes institutional …
Building Community Among Diversity: Legal Services For Impoverished Immigrants, Robert L. Bach
Building Community Among Diversity: Legal Services For Impoverished Immigrants, Robert L. Bach
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Part I of this Essay introduces the Immigrants' Legal Needs Study (ILNS), which provides most of the data for this Essay. Part II focuses on immigrants' access to legal assistance. It analyzes the problems and needs of recently arrived poor immigrants-both immigrants share with longer established poor residents as well as special needs related to immigrants' residency status. Part III addresses the present day demography of our urban communities, including the levels of new immigration. Parts IV and V detail the legal difficulties faced by poor immigrants, the ways they deal with these problems, and community responses to these needs. …
Foreword: The Many Contexts Of Welfare Reform, Jeffrey S. Lehman
Foreword: The Many Contexts Of Welfare Reform, Jeffrey S. Lehman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
To nourish the ongoing debate, the editors of the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform have drawn together contributions from four law professors who have substantial expertise concerning the American welfare state. All of the Articles that compose this Symposium are animated by a desire to broaden our frame of reference for evaluating welfare reform. I believe that their shared project is important. Efforts to change AFDC will send ripples through the multiple legal structures that buoy our public systems of income support and wealth redistribution.
Disentitling The Poor: Waivers And Welfare "Reform", Susan Bennett, Kathleen A. Sullivan
Disentitling The Poor: Waivers And Welfare "Reform", Susan Bennett, Kathleen A. Sullivan
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article examines the purposes underlying the statutory grant of authority to Health and Human Services (HHS) to exempt states from the requirements of the statute, the important role that the Social Security Act has played as a source of rights for welfare recipients, the current wave of exemptions granted by HHS, and the lack of standards for review of state waiver proposals. Finally, this Article recommends the development of procedures and standards for review by HHS and urges that adherence to the core values of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program is essential in evaluating the …
Reforming Welfare Through Social Security, Stephen D. Sugarman
Reforming Welfare Through Social Security, Stephen D. Sugarman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In this Article, I first want to illustrate the connection between Social Security and AFDC-to explain the Social Security program and to demonstrate how it contributes to the welfare problem. More importantly, I then want to offer a reform proposal that builds on Social Security as a way to begin to eliminate AFDC and the current welfare problem. Simply put, I propose that Social Security should provide benefits to children with absent parents on the same basic terms on which it now provides benefits to children with deceased, disabled, or retired parents.
The Income Tax Treatment Of Social Welfare Benefits, Jonathan Barry Forman
The Income Tax Treatment Of Social Welfare Benefits, Jonathan Barry Forman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Part I of this Article describes the major social welfare programs in the United States. Part II outlines the basic structure of the federal income tax and describes how social welfare benefits are treated by the income tax system. Finally, Part III surveys some recent proposals to tax particular social welfare benefits and considers the arguments for and against taxing such benefits. The Article concludes that the need for new revenue sources will push the federal government to reconsider the tax treatment of social welfare benefits.
The Impact Of Public Abortion Funding Decisions On Lndigent Women: A Proposal To Reform State Statutory And Constitutional Abortion Funding Provisions, Carole A. Corns
The Impact Of Public Abortion Funding Decisions On Lndigent Women: A Proposal To Reform State Statutory And Constitutional Abortion Funding Provisions, Carole A. Corns
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note argues that state legislatures should relax funding restrictions on abortions for indigent women and proposes specific mechanisms to ensure the equal protection of indigent women in the abortion context. Part I briefly recounts the history of federal funding for abortions, from the liberal post-Roe funding scheme to the restrictive funding arrangements that have prevailed since the early 1980s. Part II surveys the existing literature and discusses patterns of state funding and the impact of funding restrictions on indigent women seeking abortions. This literature shows that the tightening of state funding policies subsequent to the federal Medicaid restrictions has …
Tenants' Rights In Police Power Condemnations Under State Statutes And Procedural Due Process, Eric Wills Orts
Tenants' Rights In Police Power Condemnations Under State Statutes And Procedural Due Process, Eric Wills Orts
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note explores the legal arguments available to tenants who want to resist arbitrary or unjustified condemnations of their buildings. Part I provides an overview of the legal and constitutional structure of the police power to condemn buildings. Part II analyzes state statutes governing the condemnation of buildings. Focusing on the statutory rights to notice and opportunity for a hearing provided to tenants, Part II concludes that a majority of states provide inadequate protection for tenants facing eviction by condemnation. Part II then proposes statutory reform, based on an approach taken by a minority of states. Part III demonstrates that …
The Myth Of Sisyphus: Legal Services Efforts On Behalf Of The Poor, Lawrence E. Rothstein
The Myth Of Sisyphus: Legal Services Efforts On Behalf Of The Poor, Lawrence E. Rothstein
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In Greek mythology there is a story about the tyrant, Sisyphus, who is condemned to suffer everlasting anguish. Eternally, he rolls a huge rock up the steep side of a mountain only to have it roll down again just as he reaches the top. Such is the plight in which the poor person finds himself when confronting the legal system. If the poor individual is able to overcome the massive obstacles placed between him and full, fair litigation of his case, he finds that the rules to be applied to the case are stacked against him. This situation is not …