Housing Law Commons^™

Love You Madly: The Life And Times Of The Neighborhood Legal Services Program Of Washington, D.C., Brian Gilmore

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

This article is a brief historical examination of the origins of the Neighborhood Legal Services Program and an analysis of the work of the program as a federally-funded legal services program for forty years. Part I of this article examines the history of the program in the early years and the birth of the "neighborhood" concept in legal services. Part II analyzes the key precedent-setting housing cases the program litigated in the 1960's and 1970's. Part III addresses the criticisms of the program and reviews legal services in general. For instance, almost immediately from its inception, the idea of neighborhood-based …

Thompson V. Hud: Groundbreaking Housing Desegregation Litigation, And The Significant Task Ahead Of Achieving An Effective Desegregation Remedy Without Engendering New Social Harms, Gina Kline

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Don't You Be My Neighbor: Restrictive Housing Ordinances As The New Jim Crow , Marisa Bono

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Is Chicago's Plan For Transformation Promoting Integration Or Reinforcing Segregation?, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 249 (2007), Joe O'Brien

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Beloved Community: The Influence And Legacy Of Personalism In The Quest For Housing And Tenants' Rights, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 513 (2007), Lloyd T. Wilson Jr.

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Protecting Gay And Lesbian Families From Eviction From Their Homes: The Quest For Equality For Gay And Lesbian Families In Braschi V. Stahl Associates, Paris R. Baldacci

Articles

No abstract provided.

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Corporations And Social Costs: The Wal-Mart Case Study, Benedict Sheehy

ExpressO

This article examines the role of the corporate vehicle in the creation of social costs. The article identifies some of the political commitments and philosophies behind the differing notions of corporations. Social costs are those activities which result from business activity and cause uncompensated harm to society. The founding contribution to the law and economics discussion by Ronald Coase is given a thorough treatment. The paper next, turns to the dominant explanation of corporate structure, namely the law and economics model developed expounded by Easterbrook and Fischel. It then applies the theoretical discussion in a case study of the world’s …

The Restitutionary Approach To Just Compensation, Tim Kowal

ExpressO

In the wake of the Court’s near-total refusal to impose a check on the legislature through the public use clause, this paper discusses whether any confidence in our property rights be restored through the just compensation clause in the form of restitutionary compensation, rather than the traditional, and myopic, “fair market value” standard. This paper discusses the historical presumption against restitution, elucidated through Bauman v. Ross over a century ago, is founded upon (1) the idea that the public should not be made to pay any more than necessary to effect a public project, and (2) the idea that the …

"Five Myths About Sprawl", Michael E Lewyn

ExpressO

The article reviews a recent book about suburban sprawl (Robert Bruegmann’s “Sprawl: A Compact History”), and shows how the book exemplifies a wide variety of misconceptions about the causes and effects of suburban sprawl. For example, Bruegmann argues that the near-universal existence of some suburban development means that sprawl is inevitable in a free society. My article responds that there is a huge difference between fundamentally pedestrian-friendly cities with some suburban development and regions where an automobile is a necessity even for city-dwellers. The article goes on to show how, by promoting auto-oriented sprawl, government made the latter situation common.

Disability Discrimination In Long-Term Care: Using The Fair Housing Act To Prevent Illegal Screening In Admissions To Nursing Homes And Assisted Living Facilities, Eric M. Carlson

ExpressO

Nursing homes and assisted living facilities routinely require applicants to disclose an extensive amount of medical information. Not infrequently, these long-term care facilities use the information to deny admission to those applicants with relatively greater care needs. These denials constitute illegal discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, but generally consumers are unaware of these protections or find litigation too expensive and time-consuming under their generally difficult circumstances.

These illegal denials of service could be limited by active enforcement of the Fair Housing Act’s no-inquiry regulation, which prohibits a housing provider from inquiring into an applicant’s …

Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.

Who Will Redevelop Redevelopment?, Tim Kowal

ExpressO

Although California’s redevelopment law is among the strictest in the nation, from a layperson’s perspective, redevelopment agencies (RDAs) appear to be no more obstructed from their projects in California as they would be in, say, Connecticut. This article addresses a sort of “tragedy of the commons” problem applied to redevelopment: If redevelopment powers are “over-harvested” such as to instigate serious political revolt against them, they will become barren and useless, and will no longer be available for the purposes for which they were intended and for which they are still needed. Even assuming that redevelopment is efficacious and necessary, redevelopment …

Zoning And Eminent Domain Under The New Minimum Scrutiny, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

Recently the Supreme Court has made it clearer that minimum scrutiny is a factual analysis. Whether in any government action there is a rational relation to a legitimate interest is a matter of determining whether there is a policy maintaining important facts. This has come about in the Court’s emerging emphasis on developing fact-based criteria for determining government purpose. Thus, those who want to affect zoning and eminent domain outcomes should look to what the Court sees as important facts, and whether government action is maintaining those facts with its proposed land use or eminent domain action.

Finding New Constitutional Rights Through The Supreme Court’S Evolving “Government Purpose” Test Under Minimum Scrutiny, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

By now we all are familiar with the litany of cases which refused to find elevated scrutiny for so-called “affirmative” or “social” rights such as education, welfare or housing: Lindsey v. Normet, San Antonio School District v. Rodriguez, Dandridge v. Williams, DeShaney v. Winnebago County. There didn’t seem to be anything in minimum scrutiny which could protect such facts as education or housing, from government action. However, unobtrusively and over the years, the Supreme Court has clarified and articulated one aspect of minimum scrutiny which holds promise for vindicating facts. You will recall that under minimum scrutiny government’s action is …

Using Capture Theory And Chronology In Eminent Domain Proceedings, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

Capture theory--in which private purpose is substituted for government purpose--sheds light on a technique which is coming into greater use post-Kelo v. New London. That case affirmed that eminent domain use need only be rationally related to a legitimate government purpose. Capture theory focuses litigators' attention on "government purpose." That is a question of fact for the trier of fact. This article shows how to use civil discovery in order to show the Court that private purpose has been substituted for government purpose. If it has, the eminent domain use fails, because the use does not meet minimum scrutiny. This …

Barriers To Accessible Housing: Enforcement Issues In "Design And Construction" Cases Under The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Section 1983 Cases In The October 2004 Term, Martin A. Schwartz

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Home As A Legal Concept, Benjamin Barros

ExpressO

This article, which is the first comprehensive discussion of the American legal concept of home, makes two major contributions. First, the article systematically examines how homes are treated more favorably than other types of property in a wide range of legal contexts, including criminal law and procedure, torts, privacy, landlord-tenant, debtor-creditor, family law, and income taxation. Second, the article considers the normative issue of whether this favorable treatment is justified. The article draws from material on the psychological concept of home and the cultural history of home throughout this analysis, providing insight into the interests at stake in various legal …

Democratizing Capital: The History, Law, And Reform Of The Community Reinvestment Act, Richard D. Marsico

Articles & Chapters

The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA) has made great progress in achieving its dual purposes: eliminating bank redlining and promoting reinvestment in previously redlined neighborhoods. In doing so, the CRA has helped to democratize capital by giving more people a voice in bank lending decisions and including more people in the economic mainstream by influencing banks to make loans to them to buy homes or open small businesses. Despite the CRA's success, the CRA has not reached its full potential. One of the main reasons for this is that the federal agencies that enforce the CRA are so fearful …

The "No Property" Problem: Understanding Poverty By Understanding Wealth, Jane Baron

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Across The Borders: Immigrant Status And Identity In Law And Latcrit Theory, Ruben J. Garcia

Scholarly Works

Immigrants make up a large and increasing portion of the American community. The recent census found an unprecedented number of immigrants within the United States. Immigrants, however, have fewer legal protections than almost any other individuals within our borders. This lack of protection is especially disconcerting given that immigrants are often the most subordinated members of our communities. Particularly after the events of September 11, 2001, the rights and protections available to immigrants—whether they are documented or not—are tenuous. As LatCrit scholars have pointed out, immigration law is intensely racialized, and yet other bodies of law, such as civil rights …

Evaluating The Sex Discrimination Argument For Lesbian And Gay Rights, Edward D. Stein

Articles

The sex discrimination argument for lesbian and gay rights analyzes laws that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in terms of sex discrimination. For example, sodomy laws that prohibit only same-sex sexual activities are analyzed as discriminating on the basis of sex because they prohibit women from doing something men are permitted to do, that is, have sex with women. This argument has been championed by some scholars and litigators, and it has persuaded some judges. Edward Stein shows that there are sociological, theoretical, moral, and practical problems facing the sex discrimination argument. He suggests that there are better …

Middle-Class Black Suburbs And The State Of Integration: A Post-Integrationist Vision For Metropolitan America, Sheryll Cashin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Despite the gradual move towards integration in the United States, segregated communities, divided along socio-economic and racial lines, continue to exist, and indeed have taken on new forms. Given the choice between racial segregation and integration as minority members of a community, some middle-class African Americans have chosen to create their own communities, thus forming the modern day middle-class black suburb. Now, majority African-American suburbs rest adjacent to majority-white suburbs, but the segregated communities share little but the town line.

In this Article, Professor Cashin addresses the timely and difficult question of whether the middle-class black suburb is a new …

Voluntary Bonds: The Impact Of Habitat Ii On U.S. Housing Policy, Janet Stearns

Articles

No abstract provided.

A Constitutional Right Of Religious Exemption: An Historical Perspective, Philip A. Hamburger

Faculty Scholarship

Did late eighteenth-century Americans understand the Free Exercise Clause of the United States Constitution to provide individuals a right of exemption from civil laws to which they had religious objections? Claims of exemption based on the Free Exercise Clause have prompted some of the Supreme Court's most prominent free exercise decisions, and therefore this historical inquiry about a right of exemption may have implications for our constitutional jurisprudence. Even if the Court does not adopt late eighteenth-century ideas about the free exercise of religion, we may, nonetheless, find that the history of such ideas can contribute to our contemporary analysis. …

Hud And Housing In The 1990s: Crises In Affordability And Accountability, Michael Allan Wolf

Law Faculty Publications

America is increasingly becoming a nation of housing haves and have-nots. While the majority of American homeowners are well housed and have significant equity in their homes, the prosperity of these homeowners does not reflect the plight of the nation's growing number of low- and moderate-income households.

[D]uring the tenure of Secretary Pierce HUD was an agency in total disarray and was woefully mismanaged. Housing programs established to benefit the poor were abused. During much of the 1980's, HUD was enveloped by influence peddling, favoritism, abuse, greed, fraud, embezzlement and theft. In many housing problems objective criteria gave way to …

The Fixed-Price Preemptive Right In The Community Land Trust Lease: A Valid Response To The Housing Crisis Or An Invalid Restraint On Alienation?, Christopher A. Seeger

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Toward A New Theory Of Roman Law, David F. Pugsley

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Landlords and Tenants in Imperial Rome by Bruce W. Frier