Law Commons^™

The Minnesota Commitment Act Of 1982 Summary And Analysis, Eric S. Janus, Richard M. Wolfson

Faculty Scholarship

Minnesota law governing commitments has been substantially

revised and recodified in the Minnesota Commitment Act of 1982.

The prior law is repealed and the new law is substituted for it effective

August 1, 1982.

This article has three purposes. First, the significant changes in

the civil commitment law are identified and their implications explored.

Second, where appropriate, the legal background underlying

the changes is explored in order to place the changes in context.

Third, the article identifies ambiguities and inconsistencies in the

Act, posits resolutions, and suggests areas for legislative attention.

Legality, Bureaucracy, And Class In The Welfare System, William H. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

When lawyers confronted the welfare system in the 1960's, they charged it with oppressive moralism, personal manipulation, and invasion of privacy. They focused attention on the "man-in-the-house" rules that disqualified families on the basis of the mother's sexual conduct and the "midnight raids" in which welfare workers forced their way into recipients' homes searching for evidence of cohabitation.

When I represented welfare recipients from 1979 to 1981, the workers showed little interest in policing their morals or intruding on their private lives. The "man-in-the-house" rule and the practice of unannounced or nighttime visits had been repudiated. Yet the pathologies emphasized …