Social Welfare Law Commons^™

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Thirteenth Amendment, Prison Labor Wages, And Interrupting The Intergenerational Cycle Of Subjugation, Josh Halladay

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment argues that meager or no compensation for prisoners, who are disproportionately black and other persons of color, entraps them and their children in a cycle of subjugation that dates back to the days of slavery, and this Comment proposes to interrupt this cycle by setting a minimum wage for prisoners and creating college savings accounts for their children. As part of the cycle, when people enter prisons and the doors behind them close, so do their families’ bank accounts and the doors to their children’s schools. At the same time, the cells next to them open, ready to …

A Prescription For Charity Care: How National Medical Debt Ills Can Be Alleviated By Integrating State Financial Assistance Policies Into The Nonprofit Tax Exemption, Margarita Kutsin

Seattle University Law Review

Despite having the most expensive healthcare system in the world, the United States has been consistently ranked as having the worst system in terms of equity, efficiency, and healthcare outcomes among industrialized nations. The effects of these systemic issues are grounded in the patient experience as nearly forty-four percent of individuals have forgone recommended treatments and thirty-two percent have reported that they were unable to afford a prescription due to the high cost, according to a study conducted in 2018. Health is sacred, and financial circumstances should not determine the difference between treatment and illness, or life and death. “Financial …

The Price Is Rights: Getting The United Arab Emirates Up To International Speed In The Labor Law Department, Janae C. Cummings

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Despite a rapidly growing economy and a tremendous accumulation of wealth, the United Arab Emirates has facilitated many human rights abuses against migrant workers from impoverished countries throughout the world. The UAE’s system of recruitment, payment and living conditions put already vulnerable populations in considerably worse economic conditions by exploiting their labor and creating significant barriers to challenging the unjust employment system. After being sold on the idea that migrating to the UAE would bring a semblance of economic advancement, many migrants find themselves in inhumane working conditions and debt from having to pay excessive amounts of money to recruitment …

Dads Are Parents, Too: Why Amending The Pregnancy Discrimination Act Is Necessary For Courts To Determine If A Parental Leave Policy Violates Title Vii, Krista Gay

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

To attract millennials desiring a work-life balance, large companies have begun to offer new parent leave to both male and female employees and commonly offer longer leave to women than men. Although a company may offer pregnancy disability leave to women without offering similar leave to men, if the company classifies the leave as parental bonding leave, it must be offered equally. If it is not, as highlighted by recent lawsuits against JP Morgan and Estée Lauder, a Title VII claim can arise. Historically, courts have had difficulty deciding if such a policy does in fact violate Title VII, because …

Workin’ 9:00–5:00 For Nine Months: Assessing Pregnancy Discrimination Laws In Georgia, Kaitlyn Pettet

Georgia State University Law Review

As demonstrated in this Note, there is still a considerable way to go before women are no longer forced to choose between pregnancy and keeping their career. Allegations of pregnancy discrimination in the workplace are also on the rise.

In 1997, 4,000 plaintiffs filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). By 2011, that number rose to 5,800. The EEOC won significant damages in pregnancy discrimination cases, demonstrating a greater tendency towards discrimination in the workplace. Additionally, this rise in claims and awards caught the attention of the nation’s media, placing new emphasis on the treatment of pregnant women …

Murray Energy Corporation V. Mccarthy, Sarah M. Danno

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Holding that the widespread effects of environmental regulation on the coal industry constituted sufficient importance, the Northern District of West Virginia ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct analysis on employment loss and plant reduction resulting from regulatory effects. In admonishing the EPA’s inaction, the court ruled that the Agency had a non-discretionary duty to evaluate employment and plant reduction. Furthermore, the court held that the EPA’s attempt to put forth general reports in place of required evaluations was an invalid attempt to circumvent its statutory duty.

Table Of Contents

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Thirteenth Amendment At The Intersection Of Class And Gender: Robertson V. Baldwin’S Exclusion Of Infants, Lunatics, Women, And Seamen, James Gray Pope

Seattle University Law Review

In Robertson v. Baldwin, the Supreme Court held that merchant seamen under contract could be legally compelled to work notwithstanding the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition on slavery and involuntary servitude. According to the Court, seamen were “deficient in that full and intelligent responsibility for their acts which is accredited to ordinary adults,” and therefore could—along with children and wards—be deprived of liberty. Over the past few years, however, several courts have applied statutory bans on “involuntary servitude” and “forced labor” (a “species of involuntary servitude”) to protect women and children in domestic settings. These cases suggest that Robertson’s categorical exclusion is …

The Last Legally Beaten Servant In America: From Compulsion To Coercion In The American Workplace, Lea Vandervelde

Seattle University Law Review

Historically, the law of master-servant allowed corporal punishment. Today it seems strange to contemplate that intentionally inflicted violence was ever an acceptable method of compelling workers to labor in America. Strange as it seems, the practice of striking servants to discipline them was considered a legitimate, implicit part of the relationship between masters and servants. Servants, as well as slaves, could be subjected to cuffings and even severe beatings as means of “correction” and compulsion to labor. Menial servants, apprentices, and domestic servants could be beaten with hands, fists, straps, sticks, and sometimes whips, all in the name of correction …

A New Peonage?: Pay, Work, Or Go To Jail In Contemporary Child Support Enforcement And Beyond, Noah D. Zatz

Seattle University Law Review

Child support enforcement is one of several contemporary contexts in which the state threatens to incarcerate people if they fail to work. This symposium essay explores whether this practice violates the Thirteenth Amendment’s ban on involuntary servitude. At first glance, such threats fall squarely within the ambit of the early 20th century peonage cases. There, the Supreme Court struck down criminal enforcement of legal obligations to work off a debt. Several modern courts have declined to reach a similar conclusion when child support enforcement puts obligors to a choice between paying, working, and going to jail. To do so, these …

The Constitution And Slavery Overseas, George Rutherglen

Seattle University Law Review

This Article examines the resources available under American law to address the issues raised by extraterritorial enforcement of one of the most widely recognized human rights—to be free from physical coercion and the loss of liberty. Part I reviews the history of adoption, interpretation, and enforcement of the Thirteenth Amendment. The scope of the Amendment gradually expanded through the joint efforts of Congress and the Supreme Court, resulting in a prohibition that now goes beyond involuntary servitude to all forms of peonage, whether supported by state or private action. Part II then looks to other sources of congressional power—the Commerce …

A Positive Right To Free Labor, Rebecca E. Zietlow

Seattle University Law Review

This Article seeks to resurrect a lost thread in our civil rights tradition: the idea that workers have a positive right to free labor. A positive right to free labor includes the right to work for a living wage free of undue coercion and free from discrimination based on immutable characteristics. Not merely the negative guarantee against the state’s infringement on individual equality and liberty, a positive right to free labor is immediately enforceable against state and private parties. A positive right to free labor is rooted in the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude …

Introduction: The Thirteenth Amendment Through The Lens Of Class And Labor, Maria L. Ontiveros

Seattle University Law Review

The articles in this Symposium are arranged in three clusters. One cluster focuses on the definition of slavery and involuntary servitude and the reach of the Thirteenth Amendment in prohibiting oppressive labor relationships. Another cluster analyzes several positive class-based rights that emanate from the Thirteenth Amendment. The final cluster examines contemporary examples of oppressive labor that could violate the Thirteenth Amendment’s proscription against slavery and involuntary servitude.

Living Under The Boot: Militarization And Peaceful Protest, Charlotte Guerra

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

His Feminist Facade: The Neoliberal Co-Option Of The Feminist Movement, Anjilee Dodge, Myani Gilbert

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Prostitution Policy: Legalization, Decriminalization And The Nordic Model, Ane Mathieson, Easton Branam, Anya Noble

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Don’T Risk It; Wait Until She’S Sober, Patrick John White

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Let’S Talk About Sex: A Call For Guardianship Reform In Washington State, Sage Graves

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Let’S Invest In People, Not Prisons: How Washington State Should Address Its Ex-Offender Unemployment Rate, Sara Taboada

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

In Her Words: Recognizing And Preventing Abusive Litigation Against Domestic Violence Survivors, David Ward

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Persistence And Resistance: Women’S Leadership And Ending Gender-Based Violence In Guatemala, Serena Cosgrove, Kristi Lee

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Modifying Or Terminating Pension Plans Through Chapter 9 Bankruptcies With A Focus On California, Joanne Lau

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Three Out Of Four Economists Recommend Raising The Minimum Wage! A Closer Look At The Debate Surrounding Seattle's Minimum Wage Ordinance, Erica Bergmann

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will discuss the implications of a high minimum wage by examining the debate around the Seattle Ordinance with a particular focus on the IFA lawsuit. To analyze the possible impacts of the Seattle Ordinance, current and historical arguments both in support of and in opposition to minimum wage laws are considered. This Note ultimately concludes that the U.S. District Court rightly denied the IFA’s motion for a preliminary injunction, which would have frustrated Seattle’s experiment before it began. Seattle’s plan to implement a $15 minimum wage, and similar experiments, should be permitted to proceed because the problem of …

The Lawyer's Obligation To Correct Social Injustice!, James F. Gill

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Will Work For Free: The Legality Of Unpaid Internships, Nicole M. Klinger

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

This Note addresses the current ambiguity in the law regarding if unpaid interns are employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Note explores relevant case law throughout the circuit courts, but primarily focuses on the Second Circuit’s recent decision in Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures. It argues that the primary benefits test created by the Second Circuit in Glatt does not adequately protect unpaid interns nor does it inform employers of the standards they need to meet in order to adopt legal unpaid internship programs. Instead, courts should adopt a clearer, more rigid test that finds an intern not …

Allowing States To Help Workers Safe For Retirement: Department Of Labor's Proposed Rulemaking That Provides A Safe Harbor For State Savings Programs Under Erisa, William A. Nelson

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

There is a “retirement crisis” in America. Contributing to

this crisis is the fact that millions of Americans do not have

access to a retirement savings plan through their employers.

States, concerned with the economic stability of their citizens,

have created laws that require private sector employers to

implement state-administered payroll deduction IRA programs

in their workplaces. Even though many states are currently

debating whether to adopt state payroll deduction programs,

this Article will focus on Oregon, Illinois, and California, which

have enacted laws along those lines.

One obstruction to wider adoption of such state measures

has been uncertainty about …

Comment: Transgender Employment Discrimination Equality In Wisconsin: The Demise Of A Former Lgbtiq+ Rights Trailblazer, Alexandra A. Klimko

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

Wisconsin, once known as “The Gay Rights State” and a

pioneer of the LGBTIQ+ civil rights movement, has

disappointingly failed to create transgender-inclusive

employment discrimination legislation, much like the majority of

American states. As a result, Wisconsin transgender employees

face shocking workplace discrimination with saddening

repercussions felt by transgender individuals who call Wisconsin

home. This Comment identifies the federal, state, and city

approaches that have extended equal employment

discrimination legal protections to transgender workers in the

United States. Further, this Comment urges the Wisconsin

legislature to incorporate “gender identity or expression” to

Wisconsin’s Fair Employment Act as a non-discrimination

category, …

Protective Plan Provisions For Employer-Sponsored Employee Benefit Plans, Kathryn J. Kennedy

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

Federal case law has provided plan sponsors of the

Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA)

covered plans with the ability to insert plan provisions that are

more favorable to the plan sponsor rather than the plan

participant or beneficiary (so-called “protective plan provisions”).

This Article first examines what is the “plan document” for

purposes of ERISA and what protective plan provisions should

be considered for insertion into the plan document and its

related “instruments.”

Essay: Understanding Employment Discrimination Litigation In China Through The Notion Of "Rights Apathy", Sheera Chan, Mimi Zou

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

The psycho-legal concept of “rights apathy” is developed in

this Essay as an underlying factor of the very low rate of

incidence of workplace discrimination lawsuits filed in China,

despite an increasingly elaborate legal framework “on paper”

and workers’ rising awareness of their legal rights under

anti-discrimination laws. “Rights apathy” is underpinned by the

notions of “frustration” and “learned helplessness,” depicting the

indifference of workers in exercising their legal rights before a

tribunal or court. A number of institutional problems, namely

defects in existing anti-discrimination provisions, judicial

practices, and contradictions in other laws, policies, and

practices, can contribute to the …