Law Commons^™

Delayed Synergy: Challenging Housing Discrimination In Chicago In The Streets And In The Courts, Leonard S. Rubinowitz, Michelle Shaw

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

During the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Montgomery Improvement Association combined a boycott with a successful constitutional challenge to bus segregation laws, producing more progress to desegregate the buses than either strategy could have brought about on its own. The Montgomery Improvement Association’s approach was a paradigm of the synergy between a social movement and social change litigation.

This Article argues for opportunities for synergy between social movements and social change litigation in three ways: 1) extending the time frame; 2) joining the forces of two separate organizations to produce change, unlike the single organization in Montgomery; and 3) creating an …

Environmental Justice In Little Village: A Case For Reforming Chicago’S Zoning Law, Charles Isaacs

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Chicago’s Little Village community bears the heavy burden of environmental injustice and racism. The residents are mostly immigrants and people of color who live with low levels of income, limited access to healthcare, and disproportionate levels of dangerous air pollution. Before its retirement, Little Village’s Crawford coal-burning power plant was the lead source of air pollution, contributing to 41 deaths, 550 emergency room visits, and 2,800 asthma attacks per year. After the plant’s retirement, community members wanted a say on the future use of the lot, only to be closed out when a corporation, Hilco Redevelopment Partners, bought the lot …

Stepping Into The Shoes Of The Department Of Justice: The Unusual, Necessary, And Hopeful Path The Illinois Attorney General Took To Require Police Reform In Chicago, Lisa Madigan, Cara Hendrickson, Karyn L. Bass Ehler

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Families Belong Together: The Path To Family Sanctity In Public Housing, Mckayla Stokes

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

In its 2015 landmark civil rights decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court finally held that the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the United States Constitution guarantee same-sex couples’ marital equality. The Court’s unprecedented declaration that the right to marry is a fundamental right under the Due Process Clause strengthened married couples’ right to privacy because it subjects government actions infringing on marital unions to heightened scrutiny. The Supreme Court has the option to minimize the impact of Obergefell by interpreting the right to marriage very narrowly—as only encompassing the right to enter into a state-recognized union …

Does The Privatization Of Publicly Owned Infrastructure Implicate The Public Trust Doctrine? Illinois Central And The Chicago Parking Meter Concession Agreement, Ivan Kaplan

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

During the nineteenth century, legislatures proved “excessively generous” in granting railroad corporations property rights in publicly owned, commercially vital municipal streets and harbors. Jacksonian jurists, suspicious of corporate influence, invoked the public trust doctrine to rescind grants of privilege inconsistent with the public interest. In Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Illinois, the “lodestar” of the modern doctrine, the Supreme Court refused to recognize the Illinois legislature’s authority to convey the submerged lands of the Chicago Harbor to a railroad corporation, a conveyance that empowered a private enterprise to “practically control . . . for its own profit” a publicly …

Seize The Little Moment: Justice For The Child 20 Years At The Children And Family Justice Center, Bernardine Dohrn

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Educating Undocumented Students: The Legacy Of Plyler V. Doe, Aarti Kohli

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This is a brief introduction to the symposium issue. The goal of this symposium issue is to decrease the significant knowledge gaps about the actual educational attainment of undocumented children after the Court's decision in . The research presented in this issue suggest that while children are integrated into public schools, changes in the law and social policies are needed in order to fulfill s promise to ensure the ability of innocent children to have the opportunity to contribute to American society.

Evaluating The Chicago Brownfields Initiative: The Effects Of City-Initiated Brownfield Redevelopment On Surrounding Communities, Jessica Higgins

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This article examines the Chicago Brownfields Initiative and its effect on the communities in which brownfield redevelopment has already occurred. After examining the many federal, state, and local brownfields programs, it critically examines both the successes and concerns of the Chicago Brownfields Initiative. The successes include job creation and retention, residential redevelopment, improvements to quality of life, services and amenities provided, encouragement of additional investment, increased tax revenues for local governments, and increased environmental health and safety. The concerns include whether the jobs generated benefit the members of the brownfield communities, whether the new services and improvements benefit members of …