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Equal Protection: Immigrants' Access To Healthcare And Welfare Benefits, Mel Cousins
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 …
Equal Protection, Immigrants And Access To Health Care And Welfare Benefits – A 2014 Update, Mel Cousins
Equal Protection, Immigrants And Access To Health Care And Welfare Benefits – A 2014 Update, Mel Cousins
Mel Cousins
The introduction of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) led to considerable litigation on the rights of immigrants to welfare benefits and access to health care. There was significant divergence between the approaches adopted by the different courts (both federal and State) based, in part, on the different statutory schemes involved but also on different approaches to equal protection. However, none of the cases reached the Supreme Court so the ‘correct’ approach remained unclarified. In response to the Great Recession and subsequent budget crises, several States have again excluded certain legal immigrants from the scope …
Workers’ Compensation And The Right To Interstate Travel – Schatz V Interfaith Care Centre, Mel Cousins
Workers’ Compensation And The Right To Interstate Travel – Schatz V Interfaith Care Centre, Mel Cousins
Mel Cousins
In Schatz, the Minnesota supreme court considered the interesting question of the right to interstate travel as it affects workers’ compensation. While we know that durational residence requirements for welfare benefits and medical care are likely to be found to be unconstitutional, the US courts have to date not greatly explored where other conditions of social security, workers compensation or welfare schemes may impinge on the right to interstate travel. In order to set the groundwork, Part 1 of this note sets out the Supreme Court’s decisions concerning benefits and the right to travel, focusing on the aspects of most …
Farm Workers, Equal Treatment And Insurability: Griego V New Mexico Workers’ Compensation Administration, Mel Cousins
Farm Workers, Equal Treatment And Insurability: Griego V New Mexico Workers’ Compensation Administration, Mel Cousins
Mel Cousins
The US courts have considered a number of cases where a person has argued that his or her exclusion from insurability (either in social security, unemployment insurance or workers compensation) was in breach of the guarantee of equal protection in federal and/or state constitutions. The Social Security Act had originally entirely excluded domestic and agricultural workers. Early cases upholding the constitutionality of the Social Security Act had, inter alia, held that the exclusion of certain classes of worker from the scope of coverage did not render the legislation unconstitutional. However, these cases had not involved claims of racial, economic or …
Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis And Equal Protection In Kentucky – Cain V Lodestar Energy, Gardner V Vision Mining And Martinez V Peabody Coal, Mel Cousins
Mel Cousins
This note discusses a number of recent decisions of the Kentucky courts concerning coal workers pneumoconiosis and equal protection. The Kentucky Court of Appeals has recently found unconstitutional a special ‘consensus’ procedure by which coal workers affected by pneumoconiosis were required to prove their claim for workers compensation. The case is currently under appeal to the Kentucky Supreme Court.
Mental Stress, Workers Compensation And Equality: Plesner V British Columbia Hydro And Power Authority, Mel Cousins
Mental Stress, Workers Compensation And Equality: Plesner V British Columbia Hydro And Power Authority, Mel Cousins
Mel Cousins
This note discusses the decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal that restrictions on the right of a person affected by mental stress to recover compensation under the British Columbia workers compensation code were in breach of the equality provisions (s. 15) of the Canadian Charter of Rights. Although (because of the specific facts of the case) the result of the judgement was only that certain provisions of the relevant Policy (13.30) of the Workers Compensation Board were ‘read down’, the implications of the decision cast doubt on the wider restrictions on compensation for mental stress which remain in …