Law Commons^™

A Seat At Whose Table? Analyzing Detroit’S Community Benefit Ordinance As A Tool For Environmental Justice, Sarah Draughn Gargaro

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as the “just treatment and meaningful involvement” of all people in the decisionmaking that affects the environment and human health. Since the origins of the modern American environmental justice movement in the 1980s, activists have emphasized the importance of self-determination. Environmental justice requires that decision making processes center the voices of the individuals impacted by decisions made about the distributions of environmental assets and harms. There is a significant challenge, however, in designing community engagement practices that meaningfully involve community members. Since the 1990s, community benefits agreements have been heralded as an effective …

Third-Party Beneficiaries Of Government Contracts: Imagining An Equitable Approach And Applying It To Broken Promises In Detroit, Gabe Chess

Michigan Law Review

Courts have widely adopted a heightened standard for recognizing third-party beneficiaries of government contracts. But the justifications offered for the heightened standard do not withstand scrutiny. Instead, courts should apply a series of equitable factors to produce results consistent with the concern for “manifest justice” that animates third-party beneficiary doctrine. Governments make contracts frequently, often to address issues of huge importance to their citizens, including housing, economic development, and healthcare. In each of these areas, third-party beneficiary doctrine may be an important avenue of relief to citizens harmed by broken promises and may encourage the government and its contracting partners …

Dispossessing Resident Voice: Municipal Receiverships And The Public Trust, Juliet M. Moringiello

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The residents of struggling cities suffer property dispossessions both as individual owners and as municipal residents. Their individual dispossessions are part of a cycle that often begins with industrial decline. In Detroit, for example, more than 100,000 residents have lost their homes to tax foreclosure over a four-year period that bracketed the city’s bankruptcy filing. Falling property values, job losses, and foreclosures affect municipal budgets by reducing tax revenues. As individual dispossessions exacerbate municipal financial crises, residents can also face the loss of municipal property. Struggling cities and towns often sell publicly owned property—from parks to parking systems—to balance municipal …

Dispossessing Detroit: How The Law Takes Property, Mary Kathlin Sickel

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Introduction for the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform's Symposium “Dispossessing Detroit: How the Law Takes Property,” hosted on November 9 and 10, 2019.

Path To Destruction: Cook County's Property Tax System Is A Cause For Concern As It Mimics The Defunct Taxing Procedures That Led To The Detroit Foreclosure Crisis, Robert Romano

Chicago-Kent Law Review

For decades, Cook County, Illinois, has had one of the highest property tax rates in the country, and as a result the County has begun to experience unprecedented foreclosure rates which has contributed, in part, to the State’s significant population decline. Residents are forced to endure a property tax system that disproportionately burdens low-income homeowners, while providing tax breaks to higher-income individuals and commercial owners. The primary causes and characteristics of Cook County’s defunct property tax system are strikingly similar to those that sent the City of Detroit spiraling into bankruptcy in 2013.

This note provides a comparative analysis of …

The Detroit Frontier: Urban Agriculture In A Legal Vacuum, Jacqueline Hand, Amanda Gregory

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Organizing In Detroit Soup Kitchens For Power And Justice, Gregory B. Markus

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Democratic Dissolution: Radical Experimentation In State Takeovers Of Local Governments, Michelle Wilde-Anderson

Fordham Urban Law Journal

While state interventions to stabilize the finances of struggling municipalities date back to the Great Depression, the current fiscal crisis has brought a startling escalation in the powers granted to state intervention authorities. Aptly observed by Abby Goodnough in The New York Times, cities and states have tried “myriad ways of righting their fiscal ships as the recession plods on,” but until very recently, “locking the mayor out of City Hall [was] generally not one of them.” In 2010 and 2011, Michigan and Rhode Island, which have been watched closely by other states, dramatically reformed their laws governing state receiverships …

From Wreckage Comes Reason: How Detroit’S Chapter 9 Filing Helps Develop A Practicable And Principled “Good Faith” Standard, Scott A. Krystiniak

William & Mary Business Law Review

The city of Detroit is beginning to rise from the ashes following decades of fiscal ineptitude, social failure, and corruption. Bolstered by protections under Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code, Detroit has eliminated billions of dollars in debt and established a feasible plan for municipal reorganization. Now, Detroit is even considered an American “comeback story.” However, Detroit’s revitalization began on a tenuous foundation. The city’s creditors objected vigorously to the bankruptcy petition by claiming that Detroit had not filed its bankruptcy petition in good faith under § 921(c). Despite the relatively scarce and imprecise case law and jurisprudence surrounding § …

Superiority Of Remediation Liens: A Cure To The Virus Of Blight, Marilyn Uzdavines

University of Baltimore Law Review

Blight in a neighborhood is like a virus that spreads throughout the community. If left unchecked, that virus will destroy the community. In cities like Detroit, the spread of blight has ruined the economy and led to a dramatic plunge in population and the underfunding of city services. Blighted communities have transformed into vast swathes of abandoned properties that attract crime and create hazardous conditions to anyone who dares to remain in them. Although cities like Detroit have received exceptional media attention due to their overwhelming problems, blight continues to affect Detroit and communities in many states across the United …

Pensions Or Paintings? The Detroit Institute Of Arts From Bankruptcy To Grand Bargain, Maureen B. Collins

University of Miami Business Law Review

This article examines the issues faced by the City of Detroit and the Detroit Institute of Arts when Detroit filed for municipal bankruptcy. Creditors called for the sale of the highly esteemed DIA art collection to pay outstanding municipal pension obligations. The DIA and the Michigan Attorney General viewed the collection not as an asset, but as a charitable public trust. Simply put, the City faced the question of what mattered most – pensions or paintings? Along the way, the parties and courts struggled with valuation of the art collection, a history of judicial decisions and lawmaking regarding charitable trusts …

Utilizing Michigan Brownfield Policies To Incentivize Community-Based Urban Agriculture In Detroit, Nicholas Leonard

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

As residents have increasingly moved from urban centers to suburbs, several cities have not been able to create effective solutions to the problems that such population loss has presented. Abandoned properties have proven to be the primary problem, and nowhere is that problem more pronounced than in Detroit. Urban agriculture has been widely embraced on a grassroots level as a potential solution to the pervasive problems that abandoned properties present and that cities have been unable to solve. While urban agriculture networks have largely arisen outside of municipal control, several cities are beginning to recognize urban agriculture as a potential …

An Assessment Of Crime Volume Following Casino Gaming Development In The City Of Detroit, Omar Moufakkir

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Debates surrounding casino gaming development in the US often are based on the assumption that the opening of a casino is followed by an increase in crime in the host community and surrounding areas. This paper examined crime volume in Detroit, Michigan and neighboring communities before, during and after the three Detroit casinos opened. Findings indicated that total Index Crime offenses did not increase in Detroit. However, it appeared that the volume of certain types of crime slightly increased while others decreased. Based on the analysis, this paper concluded that there is no alarming indication to suggest that the volume …

Creating A Plug-In Electric Vehicle Industry Cluster In Michigan: Prospects And Policy Options, Thomas P. Lyon, Russell A. Baruffi Jr.

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

This Article seeks to examine how policy can be used strategically to foster the development of a plug-in electric vehicle ("PEV") industry cluster in Michigan. The tendency for certain industries to localize in particular regions has captured the interest of much economic research and policy discussion in recent years. The trend toward the clustering of new industries has stayed strong despite the acceleration of globalization. Attention to clusters has proven to be an enduring theme in economic development circles for nearly thirty years. Clusters generate synergies that make industrial activity greater than the sum of contributions by individual players. In …

The Wholesale Decommissioning Of Vacant Urban Neighborhoods: Smart Decline, Public-Purpose Takings, And The Legality Of Shrinking Cities, Ben Beckman

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note is principally concerned with those takings that arise from the State's exercise of eminent domain, either directly or through the State's designee. To put a finer point on it, this Note addresses the distinction that property-rights advocates have developed to delegitimize certain types of takings. This distinction divides condemnations into disfavored-yet-legitimate takings-the direct-government-use and common-carrier takings-and ostensibly illegitimate public-purpose takings. The property-rights movement unequivocally places economic-development takings in the illegitimate category. The status of blight-remediation takings is ambiguous but tends toward legitimacy.

Permitting Under The Clean Air Act: How Current Standards Impose Obstacles To Achieving Environmental Justice, Annise Katherine Maguire

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Most studies about the environmental justice movement focus on the disproportionate share of environmental burdens minority and low-income populations bear, the negative effects of an unequal distribution of undesirable land uses, and how industry contributes to the adverse impacts suffered by the communities. Unfortunately, trying to prove that an injury was caused by actions of a nearby facility is difficult, and this approach has yielded few legal victories for environmental justice communities. While it is important to remain focused on how environmental justice communities are disproportionately impacted by undesirable land uses, the analysis must shift if the law is to …

Community Development Banking Strategy For Revitalizing Our Communities, Rochelle E. Lento

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

CDCUs and CDLFs may outnumber CDBs, but their scope of lending activity pales in comparison. Despite CDBs' relatively small number, their impact on their respective communities warrants an in-depth discussion of their structures and formulas for success. This Article will provide an overview of the CDBs in the United States. Part I first sets forth the legal structure and purpose of CDBs, and then reviews the history and current status of mature CDBs and emerging CDBs. Part II considers community development credit unions, after which Part III gives community development loan funds similar treatment. Finally, Part IV analyzes the potential …

Trial And Error: The Detroit School Segregation Case, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Trial and Error: The Detroit School Segregation Case by Eleanor P. Wolf

Frank Murphy: The Detroit Years, George Edwards

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Frank Murphy: The Detroit Years by Sidney Fine

Some Observations On The Disposition Of Ccw Cases In Detroit, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Part I of this Note details the disposition of cases alleging violations of the Michigan CCW statute that were brought in the Detroit recorder's court during 1973. Although the statute is only part of the current scheme of gun control in Michigan, it is the principal weapon available to the police and prosecutor in the preventive battle against the illegal use of firearms. To give meaning to the dispositional statistics and to aid in perceiving the over-all judicial attitude toward CCW cases, the statistical results of the study are compared with statistics on the disposition of cases involving felonies similar …

State Management Of The Environment Part Two: A Continuing Evaluation Of The Michigan Experience, Geoffrey J. Lanning

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In Part One of this article, the author outlined the scope and character of Michigan's environmental problems and suggested some of the factors underlying the state's weak and bureaucratic decisionmaking process. Part Two concludes the author's analysis of the fundamental obstacles to effective environmental decisionmaking in Michigan, and Part Three will contain recommendations for reform.

Constitutional Law--Equal Protection--Minimum Age Requirement For Candidates For Detroit Common Council Violates Equal Protection Clause Of Fourteenth Amendment--Manson V. Edwards*, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Recent Development will discuss the validity and potential impact of the court's selection of the compelling interest test to measure the compliance of Detroit's age restriction on candidacy with the fourteenth amendment. It will also explore the possible state goals sought to be achieved by requiring a minimum age for candidates and examine whether these goals can be viewed as "compelling governmental interests."

Modern Legislation, Metropolitan Court, Miniscule Results: A Study Of Detroit's Landlord-Tenant Court, Marilyn Miller Mosier, Richard A. Soble

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article is a description of a study of cases filed and tried in the Detroit, Michigan, Common Pleas Court, Landlord-Tenant Division, during 1970 and 1971. The court is in a large urban center and handles a high volume of cases, in most of which one or both parties appear without an attorney. The impetus for the study was Michigan legislation passed in 1968, which gave tenants additional defenses to summary eviction procedures. The main goal of the study was to observe the effects of the legislation on tenants who were subject to summary proceedings in Detroit. The purpose of …

Detroit Housing Code Enforcement And Community Renewal: A Study In Futility, Brett R. Dick, John S. Pfarr Jr.

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article will demonstrate that the inconsistency is, to a large extent, more apparent than real and results from the application of two different conceptions of the purpose of the program to the same facts. Furthermore, it will be demonstrated that Detroit's Building (housing) Code has failed in its attempt to force rehabilitation of residential structures through Code enforcement. Although it can be made to work more efficiently, the Code will never serve as an effective solution to the housing problem.

The Administration Of Justice In The Wake Of The Detroit Civil Disorder Of July 1967, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Early Sunday morning, July 23, 1967, the Detroit Police Department raided a "blind pig" at the corner of Twelfth Street and Clairmont Street. An unexpectedly large number of patrons were present at the after-hours drinking establishment, and it took the police over an hour to remove them all from the scene. The weather was warm and humid-despite the time, many people were still on the streets. A crowd of about two hundred gathered while the police were occupied with the individuals arrested in the raid. The last of the arrestees were removed shortly after 5:00 a.m. At that moment an …

Civil Procedure On The American Frontier, William Wirt Blume

Michigan Law Review

The Treaty of Greenville (1795) by which Indian tribes of the Northwest Territory ceded to the United States the eastern and southern parts of the area which later became the state of Ohio, provided that certain small areas north and west of the treaty line should also be ceded.

Equity-Injunction-Nonconformance Of Lustron House To Building Restrictions, Stephen A. Bryant S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs, as landowners in a restricted Detroit subdivision, sought to restrain the defendants from erecting a Lustron house in violation of restrictions limiting construction to full basement, one-family dwellings, costing a minimum of $6,000 and composed of brick, brick veneer, hollow tile or stucco. These restrictions were imposed on all lots in the subdivision by the original owner in 1925. The Lustron house, although costing approximately $7,500, had no basement and was constructed entirely of steel. After agreeing to remove it should the court enforce the restrictions, defendants erected the house. On appeal from a decree granting an injunction, held …

Municipal Corporations-Circumventing Municipal Debt Limitations, Joseph F. Gricar S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Since municipalities are frequently indebted to the permissible extent of the constitutional, statutory, and charter debt limitations, they are constantly seeking methods of finance which avoid the debt limits. Three devices have received judicial sanction. First: Where a separate and distinct. corporation such as a school or drain district has been created it may operate with a separate debt limit over the same territory as the governing municipality. Second: Where the project to be financed is income-producing, the financing bond issue, if made self-liquidating, will not Gome within the debt limitations. Although incorporated authorities have been extensively used to administer …

The Influence Of Mr. Justice Murphy On Labor Law, Archibald Cox

Michigan Law Review

When Mr. Justice Murphy took his place on the Supreme Court in 1940, a period of major development in labor law was beginning. In 1935 Congress had laid one of the two principal foundation stones by enacting the Wagner Act. But the NLRA did not become effective in any practical sense until after its constitutionality was upheld in 1937, and it was in the next decade that the farthest reaching questions of interpretation and application were to be decided. The second stone was laid in 1938 when passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act committed the nation to the policy …

Right Of Privacy-Status Of The Law In Michigan-Liability For Commercial Use Of Photograph, Thomas L. Waterbury

Michigan Law Review

Defendant published plaintiff's photograph in connection with a cosmetics advertisement in a Detroit newspaper. Plaintiff sought damages, alleging that she neither knew of nor assented to the publication of the photograph, that the publication constituted an invasion of her right to be free from offensive publicity, and that she had suffered consequential damages. The trial court sustained defendant's motion to dismiss on the ground that the complaint stated no cause of action. On appeal, held, reversed and remanded. Plaintiff stated a cause of action for invasion of her right of privacy. Pallas v. Crowley, Milner & Co., 322 …