Law Commons^™

The Quickly--Evolving Tax Filing Status For Same-Gender Couples, John Treu

John S. Treu

Discusses the evolving law regarding federal income tax filing status for same-gender couples.

Removing Nonconforming Child Support Payments From The Shadow Of The Rule Against Retroactive Modification: A Proposal For Judicial Discretion, J. Smithburn

J. Eric Smithburn

No abstract provided.

“The Pursuit Of Happiness” Comes Home To Roost? Same-Sex Union, The Summum Bonum, And Equality, Patrick Brennan

Patrick McKinley Brennan

John Locke understood human happiness to amount to the removal of "uneasiness." This paper argues that,to the extent that the United States is a nation dedicated to "the pursuit of happiness" understood as the removal of "uneasiness," same-sex unions or marriages should be given legal recognition. While Locke defended a variation on traditional marriage on the grounds of progenitiveness and care for dependent offspring, his more foundational commitment to the importance of the removal of uneasiness precludes, on pain of inconsistency, limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. This paper argues, furthermore, that conservatives and neo-conservatives who celebrate this nation's being …

Medical Paternalism And The Rule Of Law: A Reply To Dr. Relman, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

In this Article, Professor Baron challenges the position taken recently by Dr. Arnold Relman in this journal that the 1977 Saikewicz decision of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts was incorrect in calling for routine judicial resolution of decisions whether to provide life-prolonging treatment to terminally ill incompetent patients. First, Professor Baron argues that Dr. Relman's position that doctors should make such decisions is based upon an outmoded, paternalistic view of the doctor-patient relationship. Second, he points out the importance of guaranteeing to such decisions the special qualities of process which characterize decision making by courts and which are not …

Assuring "Detached But Passionate Investigation And Decision": The Role Of Guardians Ad Litem In Saikewicz-Type Cases, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

The author focuses this Article upon the aspect of the Saikewicz decision which determines that the kind of "proxy consent" question involved in that case required for its decision "the process of detached but passionate investigation and decision that forms the ideal on which the judicial branch of government was created." This aspect of the decision has drawn much criticism from the medical community on the ground that it embroils what doctors believe to be a medical question in the adversarial processes of the court system. The author criticizes the decision from an entirely opposite perspective, arguing that the court's …

Are Christians Fit To Be Parents And Guardians—The Case Of Johns V. Derby City Council, Robert Araujo

Robert J. Araujo S.J.

No abstract provided.

The Law Of The Land: Will Gay Marriage Change Marriage, And If So, How?, Martha Ertman

Martha M. Ertman

This panel, moderated by Naomi Cahn, included presentations by Martha Ertman, Liza Mundy, and Jonathan Rauch.

Termination Of Older Youth From Foster Care: A Protocol For Illinois, Laurene Heybach, Stacey Platt

Stacey E. Platt

No abstract provided.

Eliminate The Marriage Penalty, Melissa Murray, Dennis Ventry

Melissa Murray

No abstract provided.

Making Detention Reform Work For Girls: A Guide To Juvenile Detention Reform, Francine Sherman, Richard Mendel, Angela Irvine

Francine T. Sherman

Throughout the nation, court-involved girls frequently pose minimal risk to public safety but suffer with significant social service needs. Data on detention utilization show that girls are being disproportionately detained for misdemeanors, status offenses and technical violations of probation and parole. In short, many girls enter detention for the wrong reasons and many remain in detention for extended periods harmful to them and contrary to best practice.

This practice guide responds to a call from both mature and new sites from within the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) network, which continue to find that effectively serving and supervising girls is …

E-Mails, Statutes, And Personality Disorders: A Contextual Examination Of The Processes, Interventions, And Perspectives Of Parenting Coordinators, Sherrill Hayes, Melissa Grady, Helen Brantley

Sherrill W. Hayes

The current study uses a survey instrument to examine parenting coordination through the lens of Bronfenbrenner's Person, Process, Context, Time (PPCT) model. The survey focused on contextual factors such as statutes, local rules, interpersonal characteristics, dynamics of the clients, and background characteristics of parenting coordinators. Responses from a sample of PCs were obtained using list serves and a snowball sampling procedure. Results included the extent to which the parenting coordination process occurs through email and other technology rather than in-person sessions. Mental health disorders and inability to pay were primary barriers to the PC process.

New York Law Of Domestic Violence, Deseriee Kennedy

Deseriee A. Kennedy

NEW YORK LAW OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, 3rd ed., is a comprehensive 2-volume, 7-chapter, hardbound treatise published by West (Thomson-Reuters). The treatise is the seminal authority on domestic violence in New York State covering New York State laws and relevant U.S. Supreme Court cases. The authors of the book are Professor Breger (Albany Law School, Albany, NY), Professor Kennedy (Touro School of Law, Central Islip, NY), Jill M. Zuccardy, Esq. (New York City), and now retired Judge Lee Hand Elkins (formerly Brooklyn Family Court). The treatise and its authors have been cited as authority repeatedly by trial and appellate courts, as …

Lessons From Personhood’S Defeat: Abortion Restrictions And Side Effects On Women’S Health, Maya Manian

Maya Manian

State personhood laws pose a puzzle. These laws would establish fertilized eggs as persons and, by doing so, would ban all abortions. Many states have consistently supported laws restricting abortion care. Yet, thus far no personhood laws have passed. Why? This Article offers a possible explanation and draws lessons from that explanation for understanding and resisting abortion restrictions more broadly. I suggest that voters’ recognition of the implications of personhood legislation for health issues other than abortion may have led to personhood’s defeat. In other words, opponents of personhood proposals appear to have successfully reconnected abortion to pregnancy care, contraception, …