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Full-Text Articles in Law

Is Groton The Next Evenwel?, Paul H. Edelman Oct 2018

Is Groton The Next Evenwel?, Paul H. Edelman

Michigan Law Review Online

In Evenwel v. Abbott the Supreme Court left open the question of whether states could employ population measures other than total population as a basis for drawing representative districts so as to meet the requirement of "one person, one vote" (OPOV). It was thought that there was little prospect of resolving this question soon as no appropriate instances of such behavior were known. That belief was mistaken. In this Essay I report on the Town of Groton, Connecticut, which uses registered voter data to apportion seats in its Representative Town Meeting and has done so since its incorporation in 1957. …


State Court Litigation: The New Front In The War Against Partisan Gerrymandering, Charlie Stewart Jun 2018

State Court Litigation: The New Front In The War Against Partisan Gerrymandering, Charlie Stewart

Michigan Law Review Online

Partisan gerrymandering is the process of drafting state and congressional districts in a manner that gives one political party an advantage over another. The end goal is simple: help your party win more seats or protect existing ones. The tactic is as old as the United States. In 1788, Patrick Henry convinced the Virginia state legislature to draw the 5th Congressional District to pit his rival James Madison against James Monroe. The term “gerrymander” itself is a hybrid: in 1810, democratic Governor Gerry signed a partisan redistricting plan into law—one that contained a district that infamously looked like a salamander. …


"Now For A Clean Sweep!": Smiley V. Holm, Partisan Gerrymandering, And At-Large Congressional Elections, Benedict J. Schweigert Jan 2008

"Now For A Clean Sweep!": Smiley V. Holm, Partisan Gerrymandering, And At-Large Congressional Elections, Benedict J. Schweigert

Michigan Law Review

The 1930 Census reduced Minnesota's apportionment in the U.S. House of Representatives from ten to nine, requiring the state to draw new congressional districts. The Republican-led state legislature passed a gerrymandered redistricting bill in an attempt to insulate its nine incumbents in the state's delegation from the party's expected loss of the statewide popular vote to the insurgent Farmer-Labor Party. When the Farmer-Labor Governor, Floyd B. Olson, vetoed the redistricting bill, the legislature claimed the bill could take effect without the governor's signature. In Smiley v. Holm, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the veto was effective and that …


The Disgorgement Interest In Contract Law, Melvin A. Eisenberg Dec 2006

The Disgorgement Interest In Contract Law, Melvin A. Eisenberg

Michigan Law Review

Restatement Second of Contracts provided that contract law serves to protect one or more of three interests: the expectation interest, the reliance interest, and the restitution interest. There is, however a fourth interest that contract law should and does protect: the disgorgement interest, which is the promisee's interest in requiring the promisor to disgorge a gain that was made possible by the promisor's breach, but did not consist of a benefit conferred on the promisor by the promisee. It is not clear why Restatement Second excluded the disgorgement interest. Perhaps the drafters believed that this position was compelled by positive …


Turning The Page On Section 5: The Implication Of Multiracial Coalition Districts On Section 5 Of The Voting Rights Act, Daniel A. Zibel Oct 2004

Turning The Page On Section 5: The Implication Of Multiracial Coalition Districts On Section 5 Of The Voting Rights Act, Daniel A. Zibel

Michigan Law Review

This Note analyzes the use of coalition districts in light of current section 5 and equal protection jurisprudence and argues that, in some circumstances, the Equal Protection Clause compels the use of coalition districts to achieve non retrogression under section 5. Part I examines the use of coalition districts, using the litigation in Page v. Bartels as an example. It then argues that the Supreme Court's opinion in Georgia v. Ashcroft permits jurisdictions to create viable racial coalition districts to comply with section 5. Part II argues that while Georgia v. Ashcroft permits the use of coalition districts to achieve …


The 2003 Revised Uniform Estate Tax Apportionment Act, Douglas A. Kahn Jan 2004

The 2003 Revised Uniform Estate Tax Apportionment Act, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

Editors' Synopsis: This Article describes the significant sections of the 2003 Uniform Estate Tax Apportionment Act (the "2003 Uniform Act'). The Article explains the purpose and operation of the 2003 Uniform Act's various sections and notes some of the differences between the 2003 Uniform Act and its prior version.


Fair Representation: Meeting The Ideal Of One Man, One Vote, Michigan Law Review Feb 1984

Fair Representation: Meeting The Ideal Of One Man, One Vote, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Fair Representation: Meeting the Ideal of One Man, One Vote by Michel L. Balinski and H. Peyton Young


A Territorial Approach To Representation For Illegal Aliens, Michigan Law Review May 1982

A Territorial Approach To Representation For Illegal Aliens, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note rejects these arguments in favor of the thesis that the census clause affirmatively requires including illegal aliens in the census figures used to apportion representatives among the states. Part I argues that the framers intended to allocate representation among the states based on a number of considerations, including wealth, and chose total population within the territory of each state as the best measure of those considerations. Part II contends that the requirement of individual equality in voting rights does not apply to interstate comparisons of voting power. Rather, a specific structural agreement reached by the states as sovereign …


The Courts And The 1980 Census Challenges: Tailoring Rights To Fit Remedies, David B. Tachau Oct 1981

The Courts And The 1980 Census Challenges: Tailoring Rights To Fit Remedies, David B. Tachau

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note thus presents a vivid illustration of how the recognition of legal rights sometimes may depend wholly upon the efficacy of awarding relief. Parts I and II survey the 1980 census challenges and explore whether the 1980 litigants presented sound grievances. Part III argues that the 1980 census challengers may have failed because the reviewing courts could envision no feasible remedies for their injuries, and not because the challengers presented flawed legal and constitutional arguments. Finally, part IV criticizes the courts for dismissing the census challenges without confronting or acknowledging the gravity of the constitutional injuries threatened by census …


A Proposal For Apportioning Damages In Fair Representation Suits, Kenneth B. Mcclain Apr 1981

A Proposal For Apportioning Damages In Fair Representation Suits, Kenneth B. Mcclain

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Apportionment of damages in fair representation suits represents one of the most unsettled issues in labor law today. Although the Supreme Court has attempted to establish a single "governing principle" for apportioning damages, lower courts have read this principle as authorizing two divergent standards for apportionments. Part I of this article traces the evolution from the Court's original standard presented in Vaca v. Sipes through two subsequent applications of that standard: the Czosek v. O'Mara standard, which interpreted Vaca as placing the bulk of damages on the employer, and Justice Stewart's standard taken from his concurrence in Hines v. Anchor …


Racial Vote Dilution In Multimember Districts: The Constitutional Standard After Washington V. Davis, Michigan Law Review Mar 1978

Racial Vote Dilution In Multimember Districts: The Constitutional Standard After Washington V. Davis, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that the effect-oriented standard for multimember-district vote-dilution claims is unaffected by the Washington intent requirement. Part I outlines the manner in which multimember districts can dilute minority voting strength. After summarizing Washington's intent requirement, Part II surveys the post-Washington vote dilution cases and demonstrates that the applicability of the intent standard to vote dilution claims is uncertain. Part III first suggests two ways in which White and Washington may be reconciled. That section then argues that White is unaffected by the intent requirement because the standard for vote dilution fits within a fundamental interest analysis …


Proportional Representation By Race: The Constitutionality Of Benign Racial Redistricting, Michigan Law Review Jan 1976

Proportional Representation By Race: The Constitutionality Of Benign Racial Redistricting, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Wilson raises two questions that are basic to the use of "benign" racial classifications in drawing legislative districts. First, is there a constitutional right to proportional representation and, second, if there is no such right, are there circumstances under which a scheme devised to provide proportional representation is constitutionally permissible. This Note will demonstrate that, while the Supreme Court recognizes the constitutional right of each individual to participate on an equal basis in the community's political process and to enjoy an undiluted vote, it denies any constitutional right of groups to proportional political representation. It will then show that the …


Federal Estate Tax Burden Borne By A Dissenting Widow, Douglas A. Kahn Jan 1966

Federal Estate Tax Burden Borne By A Dissenting Widow, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

Renunciation of her deceased husband's will entitles a widow to a specified percentage of the husband's net estate (or a dower interest) in lieu of any benefits she would otherwise have received under the will. The size of the dissenting widow's share differs among the several states, but the normal range is from one third to one half of her husband's net estate. In some jurisdictions the widow's share is determined, in whole or in part, according to the portion to which she would be entitled if her husband had died intestate, but in these jurisdictions the widow's share generally …


Court, Congress, And Reapportionment, Robert B. Mckay Dec 1964

Court, Congress, And Reapportionment, Robert B. Mckay

Michigan Law Review

In the United States, governmental power is divided vertically between nation and states and horizontally, at the national level, among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The Constitution leaves the lines of demarcation deliberately imprecise. Thus, from the beginning it was easy to predict that among those holders of power there would be tension (at least), conflict (probably), or total collapse (a possibility). The miracle of the American governmental system, with just this complexity and lack of definition, is the fact of its survival. It is not at all surprising that there have been a number of crises, some of …


Political Thickets And Crazy Quilts: Reapportionment And Equal Protection, Robert B. Mckay Feb 1963

Political Thickets And Crazy Quilts: Reapportionment And Equal Protection, Robert B. Mckay

Michigan Law Review

If asked to identify the two most important cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in the twentieth century, informed observers would be likely to name, in whichever order, Brown v. Board of Education and Baker v. Carr.


Legislative Apportionment And Representative Government: The Meaning Of Baker V. Carr, Jo Desha Lucas Feb 1963

Legislative Apportionment And Representative Government: The Meaning Of Baker V. Carr, Jo Desha Lucas

Michigan Law Review

In three recent cases the Supreme Court has reopened the question of the extent to which federal courts will review the general fairness of state schemes of legislative apportionment. It is a question on which the Court has had nothing to say for over a decade, leaving the bar to patch together the current state of the law from the outcome of cases disposed of without opinion considered against a backdrop of language used in earlier decisions.


Trust Administration - Apportionment And Other Remedies Of An Income Beneficiary When The Trustee's Retention Of Unproductive Property Causes A Loss Or Termination Of Income, Bruce M. Stiglitz S. Ed. May 1960

Trust Administration - Apportionment And Other Remedies Of An Income Beneficiary When The Trustee's Retention Of Unproductive Property Causes A Loss Or Termination Of Income, Bruce M. Stiglitz S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this comment is to examine apportionment and other remedies of a beneficiary who has been deprived of his income by the retention of unproductive property, and especially to examine the problems which arise when the trustee's retention of such assets constitutes a breach of trust.


Constitutional Law-State Taxation Of Gross Receipts From Interstate Commerce, John C. Walker Feb 1949

Constitutional Law-State Taxation Of Gross Receipts From Interstate Commerce, John C. Walker

Michigan Law Review

A New York statute imposed a tax of two per cent on the gross receipts of all utilities doing business within the state. The State Tax Commission construed this statute as applicable to the total receipts of petitioner derived from transporting passengers for hire from a point within New York to another point within the same state over a route which passed through New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The state courts affirmed the determination of the commission, and the petitioner appealed. Held, reversed and remanded. The transportation was interstate, and an unapportioned tax on the gross receipts derived therefrom was …


Some Aspects Of Intangibles Taxation In Michigan, Robert S. Ford Apr 1939

Some Aspects Of Intangibles Taxation In Michigan, Robert S. Ford

Michigan Law Review

If any new form of taxation is adopted at the present session of the Michigan legislature, it is likely to be a low rate tax on intangible personal property. Several bills authorizing such a tax have been introduced at legislative sessions in the past, but public sentiment is probably more favorable now than at any other time. Just recently the Tax Study Commission, which was appointed last year by Governor Murphy, recommended that "appropriate legislation" be enacted for the imposition of a low rate tax on intangibles. It is the purpose in this article to analyze briefly some of the …


Taxation - State Income Tax On Interstate Railway - Constitutionality Jun 1936

Taxation - State Income Tax On Interstate Railway - Constitutionality

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff railway, doing local and interstate business, brought suit to recover payment made under a state net income tax measured by the difference between gross operating revenues for the whole business proportioned by the ratio of track mileage within and outside the state and operating expenses similarly proportioned. Held, such a formula for taxing the local income of a concern doing both intrastate and interstate business was not on its face invalid and the mere showing that the plaintiff's local costs were higher than the system average without also showing that intrastate revenues were not correspondingly greater did …


Some Legal Aspects Of Special Assessments, Frank L. Sage Jan 1904

Some Legal Aspects Of Special Assessments, Frank L. Sage

Articles

Taxes have been defined as "the enforced proportional contributions from persons and property levied by the state by virtue of its sovereignty for the support of the government and all public needs." The essential elements that we will notice particularly are two; first, that the contributions are proportional, that is, levied upon all in the same class according to some impartial standard, and second, that taxes can be levied for public purposes only.


Remedies Of Illegal Taxation, Thomas M. Cooley Dec 1880

Remedies Of Illegal Taxation, Thomas M. Cooley

Articles

Taxation is to a nation what the circulation of the blood is to he individual; absolutely essential to life. In ordinary times it is the chief burden which government imposes upon the people, and is likely, therefore, to be the greatest source of discontent. This renders it of the utmost importance that taxation should as nearly as possible be just, and also that it should appear to those who pay it to be just. Absolute justice, however, is unattainable.


Principles That Should Govern In The Framing Of Tax Laws, Thomas M. Cooley Dec 1877

Principles That Should Govern In The Framing Of Tax Laws, Thomas M. Cooley

Other Publications

"The foregoing paper was prepared for, and read before, the American Social Science Association, at its meeting in Cincinnati on April 22, 1878. It is not, as will be seen, a discussion of legal questions, but of questions in political economy. Still, at this time, when attention is very generally being directed to the principles of taxation, it will be found not wanting in practice interest to the legal profession." Professor Cooley takes on the problem of suitable and just taxation, a problem "forever demanding solution, but never solved." How do we set equitable rates based on personal valuation for …