Social Welfare Law Commons^™

Improving Fairness And Accuracy In Food Stamp Fraud Investigations: Advocating Reform Under Food Stamp Regulations, David A. Super

Faculty Scholarship

Some state food stamp agencies are overly aggressive in pursuing charges that claimants have committed intentional program violations. Just as failure to pursue allegations of fraud can undermine the Food Stamp Program’s goals, so can intimidation of claimants. States should take care to follow appropriate procedures in their investigations, and Food and Nutrition Service regulations offer ample grounds to advocate fair treatment of clients. Four key principles should guide states’ antifraud efforts.

Out Of Bounds: San Francisco's Homeless Policies, Alexandra Flynn

ExpressO

Homelessness, both a legal and public policy issue, has dominated the City of San Francisco government agenda for over fifteen years. Despite the front-and-center nature of homelessness, the policies enacted have done little to reduce the count. This paper, first, presents San Francisco’s new approach to the issue; namely, the creation of a new and far more limited class of “chronically homeless” persons. This first section includes an examination of the causes of homelessness, the physical alienation of homeless persons through “quality of life” laws, and recent policy initiatives used to social exclude the bulk of homeless persons by limiting …

The High School Attainment Credit: A Tax Credit Encouraging Students To Graduate From High School, David Richard Hansen

ExpressO

High school dropouts are a serious problem facing America today. High school dropouts are more likely to be unemployed, earn less money when employed, place a larger burden on the government by requiring public assistance (welfare), and are more likely to be prone to a life of crime and violence than high school completers. While government at all levels continues to focus on schools and teachers in solving the dropout problem, this paper shows how parents are where the focus should lie. This paper proposes a revolutionary tax credit, the High School Attainment Credit (“HSAC”), which would cost-effectively eradicate the …

Under-Intervention Versus Over-Intervention, Elizabeth Bartholet

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The article argues that the U.S. child protection system is characterized by under-intervention, failing to adequately protect children from abuse and neglect while also neglecting to provide sufficient support to families. The author advocates for a more interventionist approach, emphasizing both early support for families and the removal of children from dangerous environments when necessary. This stance contrasts with other countries, such as those adhering to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which places greater responsibility on the state to protect children. The author also highlights systemic issues of racial and socioeconomic disparities in foster care …

Brown’S Legacy: The Promises And Pitfalls Of Judicial Relief, Deborah Jones Merritt

The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law Working Paper Series

Brown v. Board of Education marked a turning point for both civil rights and judicial activism. During the half century since Brown, social activists of all kinds have sought policy changes from the courts rather than legislatures. That trend has produced social benefits but, over time, it has also shifted political power to elites. This essay explores the possibility of retaining Brown's promise for racial equality while reinvigorating an electoral politics that would better represent many of the people Brown intended to benefit.

The North Korean Nuclear Crisis: Past Failures And Present Solutions, Morse Tan

ExpressO

North Korea has recently announced that it has developed nuclear weapons and has pulled out of the six-party talks. These events do not emerge out of a vacuum, and this article lends perspective based on an interdisciplinary lens that seeks to grapple with the complexities and provide constructive approaches based on this well-researched understanding. This article analyzes political, military, historical, legal and other angles of this international crisis.

Past dealings with North Korea have been unfruitful because other nations do not recognize the ties between North Korean acts and its ideology and objectives. For a satisfactory resolution to the current …

Social Security, Generational Justice, And Long-Term Deficits, Neil H. Buchanan

Rutgers Law School (Newark) Faculty Papers

This paper assesses current methods for evaluating the long-term viability and desirability of government activities, especially Social Security and other big-ticket budget items. I reach four conclusions: (1) There are several simple ways to improve the current debate about fiscal policy by adjusting our crude deficit measures, improvements which ought not to be controversial, (2) Separately measuring Social Security’s long-term balance is inappropriate and misleading, (3) The methods available to measure very long-term government financing (Fiscal Gaps and their cousins, Generational Accounts) are of very limited value in setting public policy today, principally because there is no reliable baseline of …

Awakening An Empire Of Liberty: Exploring The Roots Of Socratic Inquiry And Political Nihilism In American Democracy, Maurice R. Dyson

ExpressO

This book review timely examines Cornel West’s latest sequel to his 1992 best seller, Race Matters. In Democracy Matters, West unflinchingly examines the waning of democratic energies and nihilistic practices of private and public sector in our present age of democracy. This review takes a critical examination of the logic underpinning West’s arguments, his nomenclature of various nihilism plaguing our society, the sometimes clumsy employment of literary devices and his thesis regarding the ‘niggerization’ of America after 9/11 that can serve as a basis for unifying collective action against imperialism. West makes a compelling argument that the public needs to …

Toward A More Expansive Welfare Devolution Debate, Steven Schwinn

Faculty Scholarship

Leading up to and in the wake of national welfare reform, commentators, scholars, and advocates debated one of the key ingredients in the 1996 legislation: devolution of responsibility for the design and administration of welfare from the federal government to the states. Pro-devolutionists argued that devolution would create 50 state welfare experiments, would result in welfare programs tailored to the unique needs of individual states, and would lead to a race to the top in the quality of welfare programs. Anti-devolutionists argued that devolution would encourage states to compete to repel welfare recipients, to avoid becoming welfare magnets, and, ultimately, …

World Trade Organization’S Identity Crisis: Institutional Legitimacy And Growth Potential In The Developing World, Jason Wiener

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Access To Justice For A New Century: The Way Forward, Julia H. Bass, W. A. Bogart, Frederick H. Zemans

Books

This book is a timely addition to the literature on access to justice. The book's essays address all aspects of the topic, including differing views on the meaning of access to justice; ways to improve access to legal services; litigation and its role in achieving social justice; and the roles of lawyers, citizens, and legal insitutions.

Access to Justice for a New Century is based on papers given at an international symposium presented by the Law Society of Upper Canada, sponsored by the Law Foundation of Ontario.

For The Well-Being Of Minnesota’S Foster Children: What Federal Legislation Requires, Gail Chang Bohr

William Mitchell Law Review

This article will discuss the federal legislation and regulations—ASFA and CFSR—that hold the states accountable for the health and well-being of children and adolescents in foster care. This article will also discuss how the Early Periodic Screening Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) program, the comprehensive health care services that states are required to provide through Medicaid, is used to address the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents in foster care. Critical to a discussion on the well-being of foster youth is the Chafee Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 that emphasized the states’ responsibility to ensure that youth in foster …

Detroit Area Study On Financial Services: What? Why? How?, Michael S. Barr

Articles

The following article is based on a talk give by Assistant Professor of Law Michael S. Barr to the University of Texas Law School-Harvard Law School Joint Conference on Commercial Law Realities in Austin, Texas, in April. Barr was selected by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, Survey Research Center to be the faculty investigator for the Detroit Area Study, which the University has conducted for more than 50 years. Barr is using the study to explore the financial services needs of low- and moderate-income households, building on his groundbreaking analysis in Banking the Poor. Barr raised a …

Credit Where It Counts: The Community Reinvestment Act And Its Critics, Michael S. Barr

Articles

Despite the depth and breadth of U.S. credit markets, low- and moderate-income communities and minority borrowers have not historically enjoyed full access to credit. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was enacted in 1977 to help overcome barriers to credit that these groups faced. Scholars have long leveled numerous critiques against CRA as unnecessary, ineffectual, costly, and lawless. Many have argued that CRA should be eliminated. By contrast, I contend that market failures and discrimination justify governmental intervention and that CRA is a reasonable policy response to these problems. Using recent empirical evidence, I demonstrate that over the last decade CRA …

Making Work Pay: Promoting Employment And Better Child Support Outcomes For Low-Income And Incarcerated Parents, Ann Cammett

Scholarly Works

The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice prepared this report in response to concerns about child support debt—in particular as it creates a barrier to employment for low-income parents and works at cross-purposes with the goals of the child support program. Drawing on examples from other states, this report identifies a range of policies that inform child support practice in New Jersey and offers administrative, legislative, and programmatic solutions to address child support arrears owed by low-income and incarcerated parents.

Does The Tax Law Discriminate Against The Majority Of American Children: The Downside Of Our Progressive Rate Structure And Unbalanced Incentives For Higher Education?, Lester B. Snyder

University of San Diego Law and Economics Research Paper Series

Our graduate income tax structure provides an incentive to shift income to lower-bracket family members. However, some parents have much more latitude to shift income to their children than do others. Income derived from services and private business-by far the majority of American income-is less favored than income derived from publicly traded securities. The rationale given for this discrimination is that parents in services or private business, as opposed to those in securities, do not actually part with control of their property. This article explores these tax broader (yet subtle) tax benefits and their impact on the majority of children …

Mental Disorder And The Civil/Criminal Distinction, Grant H. Morris

University of San Diego Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series

This essay, written as part of a symposium issue to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the University of San Diego Law School, discusses the evaporating distinction between sentence-serving convicts and mentally disordered nonconvicts who are involved in, or who were involved in, the criminal process–people we label as both bad and mad. By examining one Supreme Court case from each of the decades that follow the opening of the University of San Diego School of Law, the essay demonstrates how the promise that nonconvict mentally disordered persons would be treated equally with other civilly committed mental patients was made and …

Income, Work And Freedom, Philip L. Harvey

ExpressO

The ability of public policies to secure the economic and social rights recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is proposed as a trumping supplement to the utility-maximization criterion of neo-classical welfare economics. Two progressive proposals for ending poverty and promoting personal development and freedom are then compared using this assessment criterion. The first proposal is that society guarantee everyone an unconditional basic income (BI) without imposing work requirements in exchange for the guarantee. The second proposal is that society use direct job creation to provide employment assurance (EA) for anyone who is unable to find decent work in …

A State's Power To Enter Into A Consent Decree That Violates State Law Provisions: What "Findings" Of A Federal Violation Are Sufficient To Justify A Consent Decree That Trumps State Law?, David W. Swift

ExpressO

In the last forty years federal courts have played a prominent role in reshaping our public institutions. And while some scholars question the efficacy of these structural injuctions, the authority of federal courts to order such relief is generally unquestioned. What is open to debate, however, is whether state officials can agree to a remedy they would not have had the authority to order themselves; and if so, to what extent must an underlying constitutional violation be proved so as to justify the remedy?

This article discusses the competing theories and concludes that a remedy that violates state law may …

Evaluating Work: Enforcing Occupational Safety And Health Standards In The United States, Canada And Sweden, Daniel B. Klaff

ExpressO

The United States’ occupational safety and health enforcement system is breaking down. Klaff argues that much of this breakdown has to do with a fundamental lack of worker participation in the United States’ safety and health system. Klaff makes his case by comparing and contrasting the history and enforcement schemes of the United States, Canada, and Sweden. After arguing for economic rights as human rights, Klaff concludes by offering a set of recommendations for the United States’ occupational safety and health system based upon his value-centered analysis.

What Is Fiscal Responsibility? Long-Term Deficits, Generational Accounting, And Capital Budgeting, Neil H. Buchanan

Rutgers Law School (Newark) Faculty Papers

This article assesses three basic approaches to assessing the future effects of the government’s fiscal policies: traditional measures of the deficit, measures associated with Generational Accounting, and measures derived from applying Capital Budgeting to the federal accounts. I conclude that Capital Budgeting is the best of the three approaches and that Generational Accounting is the least helpful. Acknowledging that there might be some value in learning what we can from a variety of approaches to analyzing fiscal policy, I nevertheless conclude that Generational Accounting is actually a misleading or--at best--empty measure of future fiscal developments. The best approach to providing …

The Cocaine Vaccine, Dru Stevenson

ExpressO

The controversial new cocaine vaccine (TA-CD) has the potential to be an extremely effective treatment tool for recovering addicts, but it also presents opportunities for non-therapeutic uses, such as preventing cocaine use in the first place. It is foreseeable that the cocaine vaccine could become a condition of parole or probation, or receiving welfare payments, or for employment in certain occupations. Universal vaccination is also a possibility but less likely for political reasons. This article investigates each of these areas of potential use. Any setting where mandatory drug testing is currently in place could become a venue for the vaccination. …

Foster Care Placement: Reducing The Risk Of Sibling Incest, David J. Herring

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Is The End Of The War In Sight: An Analysis Of Canada’S Decriminalization Of Marijuana And The Implications For The United States “War On Drugs”, Kara Godbehere Goodwin

ExpressO

Discussion of marijuana decriminalization efforts by Canadian government and comparison of United States/Canadian drug legislation and healthcare. Public policy justifications are discussed as well as medical marijuana and effects of drug use on the two countries' prison and healthcare systems.

Consular Absolutism: The Need For Judicial Review In The Adjudication Of Immigrant Visas For Permanent Residence, 37 J. Marshall L. Rev. 577 (2004), Maria Zas

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Welfare Law, Welfare Fraud And The Moral Regulation Of The 'Never Deserving' Poor, Shelley A. M. Gavigan, Dorothy E. Chunn

Articles & Book Chapters

The dismantling and restructuring of Keynesian social security programmes have impacted disproportionately on women, especially lone parent mothers, and shifted public discourse and social images from welfare fraud to welfare as fraud, thereby linking poverty, welfare and crime. This article analyzes the current, inordinate focus on 'welfare cheats'. The criminalization of poverty raises theoretical and empirical questions related to regulation, control, and the relationship between them at particular historical moments. Moral regulation scholars working within post-structuralist and post-modern frameworks have developed an influential approach to these issues,however, we situate ourselves in a different stream of critical socio-legal studies that takes …

Banking The Poor, Michael S. Barr

Articles

Low-income households often lack access to banking accounts and face high costs for transacting basic financial services through check cashers and other alternative financial service providers. These families find it more difficult to save and plan financially for the future. Living paycheck to paycheck leaves them vulnerable to medical or job emergencies that may endanger their financial stability, and lack of longer-term savings undermines their ability to improve skills, purchase a home, or send their children to college. Additionally, high cost financial services and inadequate access to bank accounts may undermine widely shared societal goals of reducing poverty, moving families …

Progressivist Origins Of The 2003 California Gubernatorial Recall, Kira L. Klatchko

ExpressO

Progressivist Origins of the 2003 California Gubernatorial Recall, was written in Sacramento in the midst of the first statewide recall of an elected official in California. The paper explores the nature of the recall procedure and its implementation in the state, and is chiefly an inquiry into the relatedness of the current incarnation and its Progressivist root. It focuses particularly on the recall of Governor Gray Davis, and details how shifting attitudes towards public participation have altered the procedure over time.

Booze, Drugs, And Rock & Roll: Crime During The College Years, Paul S. Gutman

ExpressO

In this Article, the author examines the predilection of college and university students towards certain types of illegal behaviors. Specifically, the Article considers the widespread instances of drug use, under-age alcohol use, and "file-sharing" using Napster and its progeny. The Article's main focus is on why such illegal behaviors are rampant among college students who might otherwise be

The Philadelphia Story: The Rhetoric Of School Reform, Susan Dejarnatt

ExpressO

No abstract provided.