Law Commons^™

Maximizing Inclusionary Zoning’S Contributions To Both Affordable Housing And Residential Integration, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

Inclusionary zoning is a popular policy that can uniquely serve both affordable housing and fair housing goals at the same time. Assuming the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development finalizes its proposed “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” regulation, inclusionary zoning will become more broadly used. But more extensive use of inclusionary zoning poses both opportunities and risks for housing advocates because of the following three issues: (1) Unacknowledged tradeoffs between affordable housing and fair housing goals in inclusionary zoning design and implementation; (2) Conflicting concepts of residential integration; and (3) Legal challenges to inclusionary zoning. The challenge facing inclusionary zoning …

Desert, Responsibility, And Justification, Manuel R. Vargas

Manuel Vargas

The idea of moral responsibility is central to a wide range of our moral, social, and legal practices. It underpins our basic notion of culpability. Yet the idea of moral responsibility is regarded with considerable skepticism by researchers and scholars in psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and the law. So, it is a social practice in want of justification.

This article defends the picture of moral responsibility first presented in BUILDING BETTER BEINGS: A THEORY OF MORAL RESPONSIBILITY (Oxford University Press, 2013). On that account, the normative basis for moral responsibility depends on the effects that participation in the practice has upon …

Does Fair Housing Law Apply To “Shared Living Situations”? Or, The Trouble With Roommates, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

In 2012, the Ninth Circuit held that to avoid a constitutional conflict with the right to freedom of association neither the federal Fair Housing Act nor California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act apply to persons seeking roommates or to other shared living situations. This article criticizes the opinion as poorly reasoned and overly broad and then offers a more targeted legislative solution to the problem.

Amicus Brief On Behalf Of The Leo T. Mccarthy Center For Public Service And The Common Good And 44 Housing Scholars To California Supreme Court In California Building Industry Association V. City Of San Jose (S212072), Tim Iglesias, David Rusk, Jan Breidenbach, Nico Calavita, Steven Menendian, John Powell, Ofurhe Igbinedion, Samir Gambhir, Eli Moore

Tim Iglesias

The briefs of other parties in the litigation emphasized inclusionary zoning’s goal of increasing the supply of affordable housing. This brief focuses on inclusionary zoning’s goal of promoting social inclusion and integration by locating affordable housing in the right location. The brief explains how economic and racial segregation deny equality of opportunity to low and moderate income families because segregation limits their potential for economic and social mobility by restricting access to the primary means of mobility, e.g. employment and education. Drawing from a wide array of empirical and other studies the brief demonstrates how inclusionary zoning is an effective …

Towards Engaged Scholarship, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

In response to widespread criticism of legal education and profound changes in the legal services market, law teaching is evolving toward embracing skills, values, and professionalism in legal practice. Should legal scholarship also become more engaged in the practice of law? This article contains the reflections on this question of sixteen law professors who gathered for a one day symposium. After a brief introduction, Part II of the article synthesizes the critical issues presented by the question. Part III contains the reflections of the symposium participants. Part IV concludes with several themes participants recommend for their colleagues’ consideration as they …

Exclusionary Zoning Enforcement: Passe Or Alive And Kicking?, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

This newsletter article analyzes four recent exclusionary zoning cases in which courts ruled against the government. Based upon the analysis, it offers recommendations to local governments on avoiding exclusionary zoning liability.

Housing Paradigms, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

This article introduces the housing paradigm perspective, a relatively new field of housing theory and comparative housing studies. The housing paradigm perspective identifies housing paradigms and uses them as tools for understanding and analyzing housing law and policy. Housing paradigms are value-laden organizing principles that shape the whole range of housing issues (viz. financing, production, location, and the use of housing) at all levels of government through an ongoing social dialogue. They primary U.S. housing paradigms are: (1) Housing as an Economic Good, (2) Housing as Home, (3) Housing as a Human Right, (4) Housing as Providing Social Order, and …

The 30% Rule, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

This article explains a teaching technique to manage classroom discussion that balances student participation with course coverage goals through student self-regulation. Before they ask a question in class students are required to consider whether 30% or more of their classmates would be interested in the answer. If not, they should ask the question outside of class.

The Physician Payments Sunshine Act And The Problem Of Pharmaceutical Companies' Influence Over Prescribing Physicians, Andrew L. Younkins

Andrew L Younkins

Recently, concerns over physicians' conflict of interest have increased as the details of some doctors' consulting relationships with pharmaceutical companies surface. In an effort to cleanse medicine of egregiously conflicted doctors, Senator Grassley proposed of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act ("PPSA") in the Senate last year. The Act mandates reporting of uncommonly large payments by drug companies to doctors, but does not confront the panoply of more subtle yet more powerful methods the drug industry uses to influence prescriber behavior. This paper argues that industry-sponsored CME, small gifts, drug samples and drug detailers unconsciously influence physician prescribing behavior, and that …

Inconsistent Ethical Models: Abortion Opposition Ignores Foster Care, Michael Katz

Michael Katz

Not all pro-life movements are equivalent. Some states are pushing harder to ban abortion than others. These states are focal points for the pro-life movement, and are therefore most telling as to the ethics of the movement as a whole. To gauge the ethical basis for pro-life legislation, this paper takes a closer look at the nine states that form the locus of the country’s pro-life movement. Possible ethical models are posited as foundations for state legislation opposing abortion, and then used as the analytical basis to test the ethical consistency of the pro-life movement. Specifically, this paper considers whether …

Housing Impact Assessments: Opening New Doors For State Housing Regulation While Localism Persists, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

America’s housing crisis is serious, pervasive and chronic. It burdens people of color and low-income households most severely, but is now recognized to hinder millions of moderate-income households and full-time workers in mainstream occupations. Past and current housing policies have not solved our chronic housing crisis. This article seeks to open up states’ housing policy to new possibilities through the application of a regulatory regime that helped turn around America’s environmental policies.

The fundamental problem underlying our housing crisis is the failure of local governments to consistently integrate housing concerns into the full range of land use policies and decisions …

Managing Local Opposition To Affordable Housing: A New Approach To Nimby, Tim Iglesias

Tim Iglesias

The development of affordable housing and services for low and moderate income households has been plagued by “local opposition” (commonly referred to as the not-in-my-back-yard or “NIMBY” syndrome) for decades. Many affordable housing developers view local opposition is the most important barrier to development after insufficient subsidy. A hardening of racial and economic attitudes and increasing opposition to growth and development of all kinds suggest that local opposition is likely to remain and even get worse. Based upon the experience of two successful multi-year regional projects to confront local opposition in the San Francisco Bay Area, this article proposes a …