Law Commons^™

The Deserving Poor, The Undeserving Poor, And Class-Based Affirmative Action, Khiara M. Bridges

Khiara M Bridges

This Article is a critique of class-based affirmative action. It begins by observing that many professed politically conservative individuals have championed class-based affirmative action. However, it observes that political conservatism is not typically identified as an ideology that generally approves of improving the poor’s well-being through the means that class-based affirmative action employs — that is, through redistributing wealth by taking wealth from a wealthy individual and giving it directly to a poor person. This is precisely what class-based affirmative action does: it takes a seat in an incoming class (a species of wealth) from a wealthy individual and gives …

The Women Feminism Forgot: Rural And Working-Class White Women In The Era Of Trump, Lisa R. Pruitt

Lisa R Pruitt

The Threat Of The Wandering Poor: Welfare Parochialism And Its Impact On The Use Of Housing Mobility As An Anti-Poverty Strategy, Susan Bennett

Susan D. Bennett

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.

Gideon's Servants And The Criminalization Of Poverty, Alexandra Natapoff

Alexandra Natapoff

Pareto Versus Welfare, Robert C. Hockett

Robert C. Hockett

Many normatively oriented economists, legal academics and other policy analysts appear to be "welfarist" and Paretian to at least moderate degree: They deem positive responsiveness to individual preferences, and satisfaction of one or more of the familiar Pareto criteria, to be reasonably undemanding and desirable attributes of any social welfare function (SWF) employed to formulate social evaluations. Some theorists and analysts go further than moderate welfarism or Paretianism, however: They argue that "the Pareto principle" requires the SWF be responsive to individual preferences alone - a position I label "strict" welfarism - and conclude that all social evaluation should in …

Intertwining Of Poverty, Gender, And Race: A Critical Analysis Of Welfare News Coverage From 1993-2000, Deseriee A. Kennedy

Deseriee A. Kennedy

Over the years, welfare has become highly intertwined with ideological beliefs involving gender, race, and poverty. As the nature of welfare transformed to include non-white recipients, the perception of welfare recipients as single "worthy white widows" was replaced by the "lazy African-American breeders." This study examined how television news may have appropriated this negative image in its coverage of the changes in the U.S. welfare system that took place during the 1990s. News stories presented by the major U.S. television networks from 1993 to 2000 were examined. The analysis showed that news stories tended to depict the typical welfare recipient …

Equal Protection: Immigrants' Access To Healthcare And Welfare Benefits, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

The adoption of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (hereinafter “PRWORA”) led to considerable litigation over immigrants’ rights to welfare benefits and access to health care. The approaches adopted by different courts (both federal and state) diverged significantly based on the various statutory schemes involved as well as distinct approaches to equal protection. However, no “on point” cases have reached the United States Supreme Court, so the “correct” approach remains unclear. Following the fiscal crisis of 2008, several states moved for increased exclusion of certain immigrants residing in the country legally from state healthcare or welfare …

Buying Time For Survivors Of Domestic Violence: A Proposal For Implementing An Exception To Welfare Time Limits, Jennifer Mason Mcaward

Jennifer Mason McAward

No abstract provided.

The Road From Welfare To Work: Informal Transportation And The Urban Poor, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Nicole Stelle Garnett

Individuals struggling to move from welfare to work face numerous obstacles. This Article addresses one of those obstacles: lack of transportation. Without reliable transportation, many welfare recipients are unable to find and maintain jobs located out of the reach of traditional forms of public transportation. Professor Garnett argues that lawmakers should remove restrictions on informal van or jitney services, allowing entrepreneurs to provide low-cost transportation to their communities. This reform would not only help people get to work, but it could also provide jobs for low-income people.

Welfare Magnets: The Race For The Top, F. H. Buckley, Margaret F. Brinig

Margaret F Brinig

Race to the bottom explanations of welfare policies suggest that the power to set welfare payouts should be assigned to the federal government. Such theories predict that states cut benefits levels when faced with an increased demand for welfare from welfare migrants. This Article's econometric study of the determinants of AFDC payouts finds no evidence that states react in this way. This suggests that states should be accorded the power to curtail welfare payments to new arrivals through residency requirements, an issue left as moot in Anderson v. Green.

Welfare Fraud And The Fourth Amendment , Erik Luna

Erik Luna

No abstract provided.

On The Fringe: Rethinking The Link Between Wages And Benefits, Mary O'Connell

Mary E. O'Connell

This is an Article about economic security and the curious, and often perverse, mechanisms through which it is distributed in contemporary American society. It is about the long-standing tension between the desire to protect the needy and the need to reward the productive. And it is about the way in which systems presently in effect fail on both scores. The Article examines a variety of devices designed to enhance economic security. These include income for the disabled, funds to defray the costs of medical care, and income for those who have no employment due to age (whether young or old) …

The Genesis Of Rluipa And Federalism: Evaluating The Creation Of A Federal Statutory Right And Its Impact On Local Government, Patricia Salkin, Amy Lavine

Patricia E. Salkin

In 2000, Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), designed to provide protection from discrimination for the exercise of religion for incarcerated individuals and for those in need of various municipal permits or approvals in order to exercise their religion. With seven years of experience in the courts, this article examines the impact of RLUIPA on local governments across the country through an analysis of how the courts have been interpreting and applying statutory ambiguities and creating inconsistent doctrine in an effort to define terms and implement RLUIPA's protections. Whether an appropriate …

Ethical Issues In The Respresentation Of Parents In Child Welfare Cases, Bruce A. Boyer

Bruce A. Boyer

No abstract provided.

Equal Protection, Immigrants And Access To Health Care And Welfare Benefits, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

The Developing Concept Of European Citizenship: Residence And Welfare Rights In Eu Law, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

The developing case law on European Union citizenship has attracted much attention in recent years. One of the most important aspects of this case law has been the implications of citizenship for the right of residence and, in particular, the relationship between the right of residence and access to social security benefits. This issue is particularly sensitive because of the concerns of Member States in relation to the potential costs involved arising from greatly extended residence rights for non-nationals. This article looks at a number of interrelated issues concerning the relationship between access to social security and (rights of) residence. …

Spatial Inequality As Constitutional Infirmity: Equal Protection, Child Poverty And Place, Lisa R. Pruitt

Lisa R Pruitt

This is the first in a series of articles that maps legal conceptions of (in)equality onto the socio-geographical concept of spatial inequality, with a view to generating legal remedies for those living in places marked by socioeconomic disadvantage. Written for a symposium on “rural law,” this article considers in particular whether the funding and delivery of government services at the county level in the state of Montana violate the state’s constitution because of the grossly disparate abilities among Montana counties to finance and provide such services. Pruitt’s analysis focuses on children as a particularly vulnerable and immobile population, many of …

Language Matters: Designing State And County Contracts For Services Under Temporary Assistance For Needy Families, Eileen Sweeney, Barbara L. Bezdek, Sharon Parrott, Carol W. Medaris, Cary Lacheen

Barbara L Bezdek

No abstract provided.

Missing The Mark: Welfare Reform And Rural Poverty, Lisa Pruitt

Lisa R Pruitt

This article, written for a symposium assessing the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) a decade after its passage, considers welfare reform’s impact in rural America. Professor Pruitt asserts that federal welfare reform legislation reflects an urban political agenda that failed to consider rural realities. Based on her analysis of two particular populations—those living in persistent poverty and those in female-headed households—she concludes that PRWORA has exacerbated rural poverty. While PRWORA’s focus was on work and time limits on assistance, it gave individual states latitude to design and implement programs tailored to their economic and demographic circumstances. Pruitt …

Social Welfare Reform: An Analysis Of Germany's Agenda 2010 Labor Market Reforms And The United States' Personal Responsibility And Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (Prwora) Of 1996, Jennifer Allison

Jennifer Allison

This 2006 student comment presents a historical view of the social welfare systems in the United States and Germany. It then explains and analyzes recent large-scale reforms made to each country's social welfare system - the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 in the United States, which profoundly impacted the availability of welfare benefits to poor Americans, and Germany's Agenda 2010 campaign, which, in accordance with the recommendations of the Hartz Commission, reformed Germany's legislative system of providing benefits to the long-term unemployed.

Protecting Economic, Social And Cultural Rights, Connie De La Vega

Connie de la Vega

This article reviews the international human rights standards relevant to protecting and promoting economic, social, and cultural rights in the United States, focusing particularly on those norms that would assist advocates of welfare and education rights. It discusses three ways in which these norms can be used in litigation before federal and state courts in the United States and argues that, in order to make more effective use of these standards, parties should raise the standards themselves, and not rely solely on amici curiae briefs or on courts' raising the standards sua sponte. This article also asserts that civil rights …