Land Use Law Commons^™

Response To The Influence Of Exile: Three Stories, Bill Quigley

Maryland Law Review Online

When I read Professor Sara Rankin’s article, The Influence of Exile,[I was reminded of three recent stories of how law, government, and business worked together to try to exile the homeless in our community. Though all parties continuously profess to be concerned only with the well-being of homeless people themselves, the laws transparently marginalize them. Though the following three stories about the impact of these laws are local to New Orleans, Louisiana, I am absolutely sure there are similar stories of similar happenings in most communities across the nation.

Professor Rankin’s article examines the very big picture …

The Influence Of Exile, Sara K. Rankin

Maryland Law Review

Belonging is a fundamental human need, but human instincts are Janus-faced and equally strong is the drive to exclude. This exclusive impulse, which this Article calls “the influence of exile,” reaches beyond interpersonal dynamics when empowered groups use laws and policies to restrict marginalized groups’ access to public space. Jim Crow, Anti-Okie, and Sundown Town laws are among many notorious examples. But the influence of exile perseveres today: it has found a new incarnation in the stigmatization and spatial regulation of visible poverty, as laws that criminalize and eject visibly poor people from public space proliferate across the nation. These …