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Full-Text Articles in Law
Utilitarianism And Wealth Transfer Taxation, Jennifer Bird-Pollan
Utilitarianism And Wealth Transfer Taxation, Jennifer Bird-Pollan
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
This article is the third in a series examining the continued relevance and philosophical legitimacy of the United States wealth transfer tax system from within a particular philosophical perspective. The article examines the utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill and his philosophical progeny and distinguishes the philosophical approach of utilitarianism from contemporary welfare economics, primarily on the basis of the concept of "utility" in each approach. After explicating the utilitarian criteria for ethical action, the article goes on to think through what Mill's utilitarianism says about the taxation of wealth and wealth transfers, the United States federal wealth transfer tax system …
Health Care And The Myth Of Self-Reliance, Nicole Huberfeld, Jessica L. Roberts
Health Care And The Myth Of Self-Reliance, Nicole Huberfeld, Jessica L. Roberts
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
King v. Burwell asked the Supreme Court to decide if, in providing assistance to purchase insurance “through an Exchange established by the State,” Congress meant to subsidize policies bought on the federally run exchange. With its ruling, the Court saved the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s low-income subsidy. But King is only part of a longer, more complex story about health care access for the poor. In a move toward universal coverage, two pillars of the ACA facilitate health insurance coverage for low-income Americans, one private and one public: (1) the subsidy and (2) Medicaid expansion. Although both have …
Why Tax Wealth Transfers?: A Philosophical Analysis, Jennifer Bird-Pollan
Why Tax Wealth Transfers?: A Philosophical Analysis, Jennifer Bird-Pollan
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
The one-hundredth anniversary of the estate tax provides an ideal moment to reflect on the role of wealth transfer taxation in the larger scheme of the U.S. tax system. Wealth and income inequality are at historically high levels, and the responses to these issues are often reduced to a simplistic political dichotomy of “right” versus “left.” The multitude of views of the American people cannot be reduced to such simple generalities without losing important nuances. This Article identifies three general categories of political philosophical viewpoints that are commonly endorsed by both politicians and everyday Americans, and then examines the current …
Keeping Up With New Legal Titles, Franklin L. Runge
Keeping Up With New Legal Titles, Franklin L. Runge
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
In this book review, Franklin L. Runge discusses In Food We Trust: The Politics of Purity in American Food Regulation by Courtney I. P. Thomas.
An Empirical Perspective On Medicaid As Social Insurance, Nicole Huberfeld, Jessica L. Roberts
An Empirical Perspective On Medicaid As Social Insurance, Nicole Huberfeld, Jessica L. Roberts
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
This Essay begins to explore how Medicaid, after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, metamorphoses from exclusion and limitations in access and benefits to a form of social insurance that implicates theories of social justice. The social justice aspect of universality provides an important lens for understanding these numbers, both in terms of the states that are expanding and the states that are opting out. States that refuse to expand their Medicaid programs are denying millions of Americans the benefit of a precious legal entitlement. It is essential that the states understand the power—and the potential—of this evolving social …
The Universality Of Medicaid At Fifty, Nicole Huberfeld
The Universality Of Medicaid At Fifty, Nicole Huberfeld
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
This essay explores how the law of Medicaid after fifty years creates a meaningful principle of universalism by shifting from fragmentation and exclusivity to universality and inclusivity. The universality principle provides a new trajectory for all of American health care, one that is not based on individual qualities that are unrelated to medical care but rather grounded in non-judgmental principles of unification and equalization (if not outright solidarity). To that end, this Essay first will study the legislative reformation that led to universality and its quantifiable effects. The Essay then will assess and evaluate Medicaid’s new universality across four dimensions, …
Medicaid Expansion As Completion Of The Great Society, Nicole Huberfeld, Jessica L. Roberts
Medicaid Expansion As Completion Of The Great Society, Nicole Huberfeld, Jessica L. Roberts
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
On the doorstep of its fiftieth anniversary, Medicaid at last could achieve the ambitious goals President Lyndon B. Johnson enunciated for the Great Society upon signing Medicare and Medicaid into law in 1965. Although the spotlight shone on Medicare at the time, Medicaid was the “sleeper program” that caught America’s neediest in its safety net—but only some of them. Medicaid’s exclusion of childless adults and other “undeserving poor” loaned an air of “otherness” to enrollees, contributing to its stigma and seeming political fragility. Now, Medicaid touches every American life. One in five Americans benefits from Medicaid’s healthcare coverage, and that …
Plunging Into Endless Difficulties: Medicaid And Coercion In National Federation Of Independent Business V. Sebelius, Nicole Huberfeld, Elizabeth Weeks Leonard, Kevin Outterson
Plunging Into Endless Difficulties: Medicaid And Coercion In National Federation Of Independent Business V. Sebelius, Nicole Huberfeld, Elizabeth Weeks Leonard, Kevin Outterson
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Until the 2011 Term, no Supreme Court decision since the New Deal had struck down an act of Congress as exceeding the federal spending power. The question of unconstitutionally coercive conditions was also novel. Indeed, no federal court had ever found any legislation to be an unconstitutionally coercive exercise of the spending power until the Court decided National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (NFIB) on June 28, 2012. This Article proceeds as follows: Part I discusses the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion in the context of the history and purpose of the Medicaid Act, paying particular attention to facts …
Where There Is A Right, There Must Be A Remedy (Even In Medicaid), Nicole Huberfeld
Where There Is A Right, There Must Be A Remedy (Even In Medicaid), Nicole Huberfeld
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
This Article will explore the power struggle that Medicaid invites and its potential elevation due to the pressures that will follow the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) expansion. Part I of this Article will describe the three phases of private enforcement litigation and how they have affected Medicaid reimbursement rates. This Part also will highlight the deceptive stability that has taken root in the lower federal courts by describing the recent state attempts to end private enforcement actions. The first Part will conclude by briefly considering the nature of the federalism arguments that states are making. Part II …
Book Review | The Politics Of Medicaid By Laura Katz Olson, Nicole Huberfeld
Book Review | The Politics Of Medicaid By Laura Katz Olson, Nicole Huberfeld
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
In this book review, Professor Nicole Huberfeld examines The Politics of Medicaid, by Laura Katz Olson, which was published in 2010 by Columbia University Press.
The Constitutionality Of An Executive Spending Plan, Paul E. Salamanca
The Constitutionality Of An Executive Spending Plan, Paul E. Salamanca
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Operation of government in the absence of appropriations has become relatively common in the United States, particularly when projected expenses exceed projected revenue, making adoption of a budget a difficult task for the legislature. This Article focuses on the budget crisis in the Commonwealth of Kentucky from 2002 through 2003. In Part I, this Article recapitulates the history of the spending plan, including the action filed in Franklin Circuit Court to affirm its constitutionality. In Part II, this Article discusses certain theoretical, historical, and legal principles that inform analysis of the plan. In Part III, it considers certain deviations and …
Book Review Of Policy Making In An Era Of Global Environmental Change (R. E. Munn, J. W. M. La Riviere & N. Van Lookeren Campagne Eds., 1996), Michael P. Healy
Book Review Of Policy Making In An Era Of Global Environmental Change (R. E. Munn, J. W. M. La Riviere & N. Van Lookeren Campagne Eds., 1996), Michael P. Healy
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
In this book review, Michael P. Healy examines Policy Making in an Era of Global Environmental Change (R. E. Munn, J. W. M. la Riviere & N. van Lookeren Campagne eds., 1996).
Confessions Of An Ethics Chairman, Richard H. Underwood
Confessions Of An Ethics Chairman, Richard H. Underwood
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
This article responds to the critics of state bar ethics committees. Indirectly, it raises some questions about the need, or at least the extent of the need, for yet another law-related cottage industry (the for hire legal ethics consultant). It also provides some friendly advice for those well-meaning types in every jurisdiction who are perennially "reforming" or "energizing" their bar associations and demanding for the "membership" a dazzling new array of services. It discusses practical problems that have gone unmentioned in the limited literature, just as it takes issue with many of the assertions that have been made in that …