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Full-Text Articles in Law

Applying Indices Post-Grutter To Monitor Progress Toward Attaining A Diverse Student Body, Roger W. Reinsch, Sonia Goltz, Hong Chen, Joel C. Tuoriniemi Apr 2012

Applying Indices Post-Grutter To Monitor Progress Toward Attaining A Diverse Student Body, Roger W. Reinsch, Sonia Goltz, Hong Chen, Joel C. Tuoriniemi

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

The Supreme Court decision in Grutter v. Bollinger provided more definitive guidance for institutions of higher education desiring to use racial preferences in an effort to achieve a diverse student body. This Article first examines Grutter and other relevant cases to set forth the parameters established by the Supreme Court concerning how university preferences, including but not limited to race, may be used in an admissions policy. This Article then provides a framework for creating and using diversity indices that can help institutions implement the guidelines found in these court decisions and monitor whether or not the goal of diversity …


An Inconvenient Lie: Big Tobacco Was Put On Trial For Denying The Effects Of Smoking; Is Climate Change Denial Off-Limits?, Elizabeth Dubats Apr 2012

An Inconvenient Lie: Big Tobacco Was Put On Trial For Denying The Effects Of Smoking; Is Climate Change Denial Off-Limits?, Elizabeth Dubats

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Plaintiffs have made several notable attempts to bring nuisance, trespass, and negligence suits against major sources of greenhouse gas emissions for climate change related injuries. While climate change is a widely recognized environmental issue, courts have refused to recognize it as a basis for a valid cause of action in tort, finding either petitioners lack standing to bring the claim, or that the claim raises political questions that should not be addressed by the judiciary. Some more recent climate change tort claims have also included allegations of fraud on the part of the hydrocarbon industry for actively perpetuating misinformation about …


Foreclosing Foreclosure: Escaping The Yawning Abyss Of The Deep Mortgage And Housing Crisis, Aleatra P. Williams Apr 2012

Foreclosing Foreclosure: Escaping The Yawning Abyss Of The Deep Mortgage And Housing Crisis, Aleatra P. Williams

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

In 2007, Rick Sharga, vice president of marketing at RealtyTrac, stated that with more stringent lending and underwriting standards, “we will likely see a significant foreclosure decrease” within the next three years. However, a sustained and considerable decrease in foreclosures has yet to occur. In fact, the real estate market downfall and resulting mortgage and housing crisis have proven to be wider, deeper, and more serious than first anticipated. Since 2007, millions of homeowners faced, and continue to face, foreclosure proceedings. To provide protections for homeowners, federal and state actors have attempted regulatory and legislative solutions to stem the foreclosure …


Exposing The Traditional Marriage Agenda, Jessica Feinberg Apr 2012

Exposing The Traditional Marriage Agenda, Jessica Feinberg

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

The success of a social justice movement, especially with regard to issues upon which the public will be voting, depends in significant part on how the issues are defined or framed. Anti-same-sex marriage campaigns frequently urge voters to vote in favor of laws defining marriage as between a man and a woman in order to “protect traditional marriage.” Instead of framing the issue as a question of whether individuals of the same sex should be banned from marrying, anti-same-sex marriage campaigns often frame the issue as a question of whether traditional marriage should be protected from redefinition. This strategy has …


Fitness Tax Credits: Costs, Benefits, And Viability, Daniel M. Reach Apr 2012

Fitness Tax Credits: Costs, Benefits, And Viability, Daniel M. Reach

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

As the number of overweight and obese Americans rises, it becomes increasingly clear that Americans need further incentives to stimulate lasting lifestyle changes. Tax incentives focused on exercise, which have been largely unexplored to this point, are an effective response to the growing obesity problem in the United States that would largely avoid the political opposition that tax policies focused on diet have encountered. In addition, they would also provide a more palatable solution for the taxpayer beneficiaries with a relatively low impact on government revenues. Viable tax incentives to encourage greater fitness include tax credits and sales tax breaks, …


High Expectations And Some Wounded Hopes: The Policy And Politics Of A Uniform Statute On Videotaping Custodial Interrogations, Andrew E. Taslitz Apr 2012

High Expectations And Some Wounded Hopes: The Policy And Politics Of A Uniform Statute On Videotaping Custodial Interrogations, Andrew E. Taslitz

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Much has been written about the need to videotape the entire process of police interrogation of suspects. Videotaping discourages abusive interrogation techniques, improves police training in proper techniques, reduces frivolous suppression motions, and improves jury decision making about the voluntariness and accuracy of a confession. Despite these benefits, only a small number of states have adopted legislation mandating electronic recording of the entire interrogation process. In the hope of accelerating legislative adoption of this procedure and of improving the quality of such legislation, the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) ratified a uniform recording statute for consideration by the states. I was …


Legislating A Family-Friendly Workplace: Should It Be Done In The United States?, Marianne Delpo Kulow Jan 2012

Legislating A Family-Friendly Workplace: Should It Be Done In The United States?, Marianne Delpo Kulow

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article reviews both domestic and international efforts to legislate a more family-friendly workplace, with an eye toward measuring the impact of these various initiatives and predicting both their future success and the likelihood of more widespread adoption. In particular, the Article reviews federal, state, and international legislative efforts to mandate: paid parental leaves; paid sick days; and flexible work arrangements. The Article then attempts to measure the effectiveness of such legislatively required, family-friendly policies by suggesting ways to measure and to predict the impact of U.S. legislative efforts to reconcile the conflicting responsibilities of work and parenthood. The Article …


Does The Privatization Of Publicly Owned Infrastructure Implicate The Public Trust Doctrine? Illinois Central And The Chicago Parking Meter Concession Agreement, Ivan Kaplan Jan 2012

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 …