Law Commons^™

The New Massachusetts Health Law: Preemption And Experimentation, Edward A. Zelinsky

Faculty Articles

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) preempts major features of the new Massachusetts health law. Although regrettable, this conclusion is mandated by ERISA's statutory terminology and the controlling case law. Other states, in fashioning their health care policies, are looking at elements of the new Massachusetts law. Just as ERISA preempts the individual and business contribution mandates of the Massachusetts statute, ERISA will preempt any similar provisions adopted by other states.

Because state experimentation with health care is particularly desirable today, Congress should, at a minimum, amend ERISA to validate the new Massachusetts health law. More comprehensively, …

Voting Rights In California: 1982-2006, Joaquin G. Avila, Eugene Lee, Terry Ao

Faculty Articles

The article provides a comprehensive description of voting discrimination in California from 1982 to 2006. This article was presented as a report to Congress during the 2006 reauthorization and amendments to the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1973, et seq. The authors focus on the continued necessity for Section 5 review of changes affecting voting and for a bilingual election process in selected jurisdictions. In effect since 1965, Section 5 requires covered jurisdictions to submit all voting changes for approval to either the United States Attorney General or the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The …