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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Poverty Law Education Of Charles Reich, Felicia Kornbluh, Karen M. Tani
The Poverty Law Education Of Charles Reich, Felicia Kornbluh, Karen M. Tani
Touro Law Review
No abstract provided.
Making The Case For A Right To A Healthy Environment For The Protection Of Vulnerable Communities: A Case Of Coal-Ash Disaster In Puerto Rico, Sarah Dávila-Ruhaak
Making The Case For A Right To A Healthy Environment For The Protection Of Vulnerable Communities: A Case Of Coal-Ash Disaster In Puerto Rico, Sarah Dávila-Ruhaak
Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law
The connection between the environment and human rights is not a surprising one. The enjoyment of human rights depends on a person’s ability to live free from interference and to have his or her rights protected. The interdependence of human rights and the protection of the environment is manifested in the full and effective enjoyment of the right to a healthy environment. This article argues that in order to protect vulnerable persons and communities facing environmental harm, a human rights framework—specifically the right to a healthy environment—must be applied. A human rights approach complements environmental justice work, recognizing that individuals …
Foreword, Michelle Lyon Drumbl
Foreword, Michelle Lyon Drumbl
Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice
Michelle L. Drumbl, Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Tax Clinic at W&L Law, introduces this issue of the Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice, which includes material presented at and inspired by the Journal's 2018 symposium, Always with Us? Poverty, Taxes, and Social Policy.
A Typology Of Place-Based Investment Tax Incentives, Michelle D. Layser
A Typology Of Place-Based Investment Tax Incentives, Michelle D. Layser
Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice
This Article makes several contributions to tax, poverty, and empirical legal literature. First, it defines the category of place-based investment tax incentives and identifies key elements of variation across the category. Despite their prevalence at all levels of government, place-based investment tax incentives remain undertheorized and largely undefined in the literature. The typology presented here reflects an analysis of three federal tax incentives (the New Markets Tax Credit, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, and the new Opportunity Zones law) and a detailed survey of tax incentives included in state enterprise zone laws. By defining this category of tax laws and …
Converging Welfare States: Symposium Keynote, Susannah Camic Tahk
Converging Welfare States: Symposium Keynote, Susannah Camic Tahk
Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice
Susannah Camic Tahk, Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, speaks to the Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice 2018 symposium, Always with Us? Poverty, Taxes, and Social Policy. She addresses the following questions: To what extent do the particular advantages of the tax antipoverty programs persist as the tax antipoverty programs take center stage? Can tax programs, once distinguished from their direct-spending counterparts on the grounds of relative popularity and legal and administrative ease of access maintain those hallmarks as the tax-based welfare state grows …
The Untold Story Of The Justice Gap: Integrating Poverty Law Into The Law School Curriculum, Vanita S. Snow
The Untold Story Of The Justice Gap: Integrating Poverty Law Into The Law School Curriculum, Vanita S. Snow
Pace Law Review
No abstract provided.
It Takes A Village: Designating "Tiny House" Villages As Transitional Housing Campgrounds, Ciara Turner
It Takes A Village: Designating "Tiny House" Villages As Transitional Housing Campgrounds, Ciara Turner
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
A relatively new proposal to reduce homelessness in the United States involves extraordinarily small dwellings. While the “tiny house” movement is intuitively appealing and has found sporadic success, strict housing codes, building codes, and zoning laws often destroy the movement before it can get off the ground. One possibility for getting around these zoning and building code challenges, without drastic overhauls to health and safety codes, is to create a new state-level zoning classification of “transitional campgrounds.” A new zoning classification would alleviate the issue because campgrounds are consistently subject to less strict building codes, which could permit tiny houses …
Flourishing Rights, Wendy A. Bach
Flourishing Rights, Wendy A. Bach
Michigan Law Review
There is something audacious at the heart of Clare Huntington’s Failure to Flourish. She insists that the state exists to ensure that families flourish. Not just that they survive, or not starve, or be able, somehow, to make ends meet—but that they flourish. She demands this not just for some families but, importantly, for all families. This simple, bold, and profoundly countercultural demand allows Huntington to make a tremendously convincing case that the state can begin to do precisely that. Failure to Flourish is a brave, rigorously produced, carefully researched, and politically astute book. Huntington seeks to persuade a wide …
Poverty Law 101: The Law And History Of The U.S. Welfare State, Karen M. Tani
Poverty Law 101: The Law And History Of The U.S. Welfare State, Karen M. Tani
Fordham Urban Law Journal
Poverty law will remain marginalized so long as we confine it to a population that we and our students understand as marginal. Tani discusses Professor Wax’s characterization of the “old welfare law framework,” as well as her account of what happened to it, and would not advocate a return to a court-centered, advocacy-oriented approach.
Penalizing Poverty: Making Criminal Defendants Pay For Their Court-Appointed Counsel Through Recoupment And Contribution, Helen A. Anderson
Penalizing Poverty: Making Criminal Defendants Pay For Their Court-Appointed Counsel Through Recoupment And Contribution, Helen A. Anderson
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Over thirty years ago the United States Supreme Court upheld an Oregon statute that allowed sentencing courts, with a number of important procedural safeguards, to impose on indigent criminal defendants the obligation to repay the cost of their court appointed attorneys. The practice of ordering recoupment or contribution (application fees or co-pays) of public defender attorney's fees is widespread, although collection rates are unsurprisingly low. Developments since the Court's decision in Fuller v. Oregon show that not only is recoupment not cost-effective, but it too easily becomes an aspect of punishment, rather than legitimate cost recovery. In a number of …
Religious Values, Legal Ethics, And Poverty Law: A Response To Thomas Shaffer, Stephen Wizner
Religious Values, Legal Ethics, And Poverty Law: A Response To Thomas Shaffer, Stephen Wizner
Fordham Urban Law Journal
Stephen Wizner provides a response to Thomas Shaffer's article on his pursuit of social justice through using religious figures as role models. Wizner argues that Shaffer is clearly right in asserting that there is much in the prophetic literature, and, indeed, in the entire Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, that could serve as a moral impetus for social justice lawyering. One can find considerable support for Shaffer's religious thesis in the texts that he cites, and in the words of the prophets he looks to as role models. Nevertheless, Wizner presents a skeptical response to Professor Shaffer's thoughtful essay. …
The Sexual Regulation Dimension Of Contemporary Welfare Law: A Fifty State Overview, Anna Marie Smith
The Sexual Regulation Dimension Of Contemporary Welfare Law: A Fifty State Overview, Anna Marie Smith
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
In this article, Smith will attempt to demonstrate that welfare policy has become a prominent site of sexual regulation; that the rights of poor single mothers are at stake in this respect; and that given the precise structure of contemporary American welfare reform, we must pay especially close attention to the laws and regulations adopted at the state level. First, Smith will place contemporary sexual regulation-oriented welfare law in an historical context by considering its precedents in English and American public policy traditions (Part I). Using original qualitative analyses of the states' statutory codes and administrative regulations, Smith will then …
Building On Foundational Myths: Feminism And The Recovery Of "Human Nature": A Response To Martha Fineman , Peter M. Cicchino
Building On Foundational Myths: Feminism And The Recovery Of "Human Nature": A Response To Martha Fineman , Peter M. Cicchino
American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law
No abstract provided.
Building On Foundational Myths: Feminism And The Recovery Of "Human Nature": A Response To Martha Fineman , Peter M. Cicchino
Building On Foundational Myths: Feminism And The Recovery Of "Human Nature": A Response To Martha Fineman , Peter M. Cicchino
American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law
No abstract provided.
The Constitutional Right Of Poor People To Appeal Without Payment Of Fees: Convergence Of Due Process And Equal Protection In M.L.B. V. S.L.J, Lloyd C. Anderson
The Constitutional Right Of Poor People To Appeal Without Payment Of Fees: Convergence Of Due Process And Equal Protection In M.L.B. V. S.L.J, Lloyd C. Anderson
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In this Article, Professor Lloyd Anderson examines the recent decision M.L.B. v. S.L.J., in which the United States Supreme Court held that due process and equal protection converge to require that states cannot require indigent parents who seek to appeal decisions terminating their parental rights to pay court costs they cannot afford. Noting that this decision expands the constitutional right of cost-free appeal from criminal to civil cases for the first time, Professor Anderson discusses the characteristics a civil case should have in order to qualify for such a right. Professor Anderson proposes a number of other civil cases, …
An "Age Of [Im]Possibility": Rhetoric, Welfare Reform, And Poverty, Lisa A. Crooms
An "Age Of [Im]Possibility": Rhetoric, Welfare Reform, And Poverty, Lisa A. Crooms
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Joel F. Handler, The Poverty of Welfare Reform and Mark Robert Rank, Living on the Edge: The Realities of Welfare in America
Accelerated Education As A Remedy For High-Poverty Schools, William H. Clune
Accelerated Education As A Remedy For High-Poverty Schools, William H. Clune
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
High-poverty schools, and the students who attend them, have historically faced substantial challenges in providing and receiving, adequate education. Despite some relief from the courts, school finance remedies that require the redistribution of monetary aid to low-wealth districts have encountered strong political opposition. In this Article, Professor Clune makes a renewed claim for accelerated education as the primary focus of adequacy litigation in school reform cases. He describes the nation's educational condition, in which there exists a disturbing correlation between poverty and low educational outcomes. He then drafts a vision of a comprehensive, school reform remedy, one that emphasizes institutional …
Poverty Lawyering In The Golden Age, Matthew Diller
Poverty Lawyering In The Golden Age, Matthew Diller
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Brutal Need: Lawyers and the Welfare Rights Movement, 1960-1973 by Martha F. Davis
The Worst Of Times . . . And The Best Of Times: Lawyering For Poor Clients Today, Louise G. Trubek
The Worst Of Times . . . And The Best Of Times: Lawyering For Poor Clients Today, Louise G. Trubek
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This Essay describes three areas in which advocates have developed new models of practice and new forms of advocacy. It examines ways that lawyers and clients are collaborating to create more effective advocacy for battered women, low-income entrepreneurs and nonprofit community-based organizations that serve the poor. It describes how, why and where the new practices operate and analyzes the roots of the new approaches, showing that they can be traced to changes in lawyering theory and new visions of the lawyer-client relationship. The Essay assesses whether these models can be sustained and generalized, concluding that although the new approaches are …
The Threat Of The Wandering Poor: Welfare Parochialism And Its Impact On The Use Of Housing Mobility As An Anti-Poverty Strategy, Susan Bennett
The Threat Of The Wandering Poor: Welfare Parochialism And Its Impact On The Use Of Housing Mobility As An Anti-Poverty Strategy, Susan Bennett
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This Essay discusses how, if one accepts the premises of mobility-based anti-poverty strategies, the geographical parochialism and structural rigidity of the welfare system undermine mobility goals. The Essay also examines the possibility that current trends in housing policy will undercut anti-poverty goals.
Building Community Among Diversity: Legal Services For Impoverished Immigrants, Robert L. Bach
Building Community Among Diversity: Legal Services For Impoverished Immigrants, Robert L. Bach
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Part I of this Essay introduces the Immigrants' Legal Needs Study (ILNS), which provides most of the data for this Essay. Part II focuses on immigrants' access to legal assistance. It analyzes the problems and needs of recently arrived poor immigrants-both immigrants share with longer established poor residents as well as special needs related to immigrants' residency status. Part III addresses the present day demography of our urban communities, including the levels of new immigration. Parts IV and V detail the legal difficulties faced by poor immigrants, the ways they deal with these problems, and community responses to these needs. …
Social Welfare And Section 7 Of The Charter: Conrad V. Halifax (County Of), Teresa Scassa
Social Welfare And Section 7 Of The Charter: Conrad V. Halifax (County Of), Teresa Scassa
Dalhousie Law Journal
The recent case of Conrad v. Halifax (County of) arose as as. 7 Charter challenge to the County regarding the manner in which the plaintiff was treated as a recipient of municipal social assistance. The case raises a number of interesting issues at the intersection of the Charter and administrative law including the scope of the right to "security of the person"; the scope of the principles of fundamental justice; issues of access to justice and the Charter; and the relationship between the finding of a Charter right and the treatment of the plaintiff in the fact-finding process. This case …
Foreword: The Many Contexts Of Welfare Reform, Jeffrey S. Lehman
Foreword: The Many Contexts Of Welfare Reform, Jeffrey S. Lehman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
To nourish the ongoing debate, the editors of the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform have drawn together contributions from four law professors who have substantial expertise concerning the American welfare state. All of the Articles that compose this Symposium are animated by a desire to broaden our frame of reference for evaluating welfare reform. I believe that their shared project is important. Efforts to change AFDC will send ripples through the multiple legal structures that buoy our public systems of income support and wealth redistribution.
Disentitling The Poor: Waivers And Welfare "Reform", Susan Bennett, Kathleen A. Sullivan
Disentitling The Poor: Waivers And Welfare "Reform", Susan Bennett, Kathleen A. Sullivan
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article examines the purposes underlying the statutory grant of authority to Health and Human Services (HHS) to exempt states from the requirements of the statute, the important role that the Social Security Act has played as a source of rights for welfare recipients, the current wave of exemptions granted by HHS, and the lack of standards for review of state waiver proposals. Finally, this Article recommends the development of procedures and standards for review by HHS and urges that adherence to the core values of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program is essential in evaluating the …
Reforming Welfare Through Social Security, Stephen D. Sugarman
Reforming Welfare Through Social Security, Stephen D. Sugarman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In this Article, I first want to illustrate the connection between Social Security and AFDC-to explain the Social Security program and to demonstrate how it contributes to the welfare problem. More importantly, I then want to offer a reform proposal that builds on Social Security as a way to begin to eliminate AFDC and the current welfare problem. Simply put, I propose that Social Security should provide benefits to children with absent parents on the same basic terms on which it now provides benefits to children with deceased, disabled, or retired parents.
The Income Tax Treatment Of Social Welfare Benefits, Jonathan Barry Forman
The Income Tax Treatment Of Social Welfare Benefits, Jonathan Barry Forman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Part I of this Article describes the major social welfare programs in the United States. Part II outlines the basic structure of the federal income tax and describes how social welfare benefits are treated by the income tax system. Finally, Part III surveys some recent proposals to tax particular social welfare benefits and considers the arguments for and against taxing such benefits. The Article concludes that the need for new revenue sources will push the federal government to reconsider the tax treatment of social welfare benefits.
Repossession: Of History, Poverty, And Dissent, Martha Minow
Repossession: Of History, Poverty, And Dissent, Martha Minow
Michigan Law Review
A Review of The Dispossessed: America's Underclasses from the Civil War to the Present by Jacqueline Jones
America's Misunderstood Welfare State: Persistent Myths, Enduring Realities, Rachel D. Godsil
America's Misunderstood Welfare State: Persistent Myths, Enduring Realities, Rachel D. Godsil
Michigan Law Review
A Review of America's Misunderstood Welfare State: Persistent Myths, Enduring Realities by Theodore R. Marmor, Jerry L. Mashaw, and Philip L. Harvey
The Impact Of Public Abortion Funding Decisions On Lndigent Women: A Proposal To Reform State Statutory And Constitutional Abortion Funding Provisions, Carole A. Corns
The Impact Of Public Abortion Funding Decisions On Lndigent Women: A Proposal To Reform State Statutory And Constitutional Abortion Funding Provisions, Carole A. Corns
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note argues that state legislatures should relax funding restrictions on abortions for indigent women and proposes specific mechanisms to ensure the equal protection of indigent women in the abortion context. Part I briefly recounts the history of federal funding for abortions, from the liberal post-Roe funding scheme to the restrictive funding arrangements that have prevailed since the early 1980s. Part II surveys the existing literature and discusses patterns of state funding and the impact of funding restrictions on indigent women seeking abortions. This literature shows that the tightening of state funding policies subsequent to the federal Medicaid restrictions has …
Tenants' Rights In Police Power Condemnations Under State Statutes And Procedural Due Process, Eric Wills Orts
Tenants' Rights In Police Power Condemnations Under State Statutes And Procedural Due Process, Eric Wills Orts
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note explores the legal arguments available to tenants who want to resist arbitrary or unjustified condemnations of their buildings. Part I provides an overview of the legal and constitutional structure of the police power to condemn buildings. Part II analyzes state statutes governing the condemnation of buildings. Focusing on the statutory rights to notice and opportunity for a hearing provided to tenants, Part II concludes that a majority of states provide inadequate protection for tenants facing eviction by condemnation. Part II then proposes statutory reform, based on an approach taken by a minority of states. Part III demonstrates that …