Social Welfare Law Commons^™

The Brady Act: Shot Down By The Tenth Amendment, Patricia A. Rooney

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Desegregating The Adoptive Family: In Support Of The Adoption Antidiscrimination Act Of 1955, 30 J. Marshall L. Rev. 593 (1997), Rebecca Varan

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ex Post Facto Laws: Supreme Court New York County People V. Griffin (Decided December 5, 1996

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reinventing Human Services In America, David Stoesz

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWOA) of 1996 presents an opportunity to reinvent human services in America. For more than a decade, the welfare bureaucracy and public assistance programs of state welfare have been in crisis. The clients who depend on welfare detest it, finding and keeping qualified professionals to work in the public social services has become an administrative headache, and taxpayers perceive welfare as a fiscal black hole that perpetuates immorality. The recent decision to "devolve" welfare in a block grant to states underscores the urgency to rethink public assistance to poor families. There …

Ending Welfare, Leaving The Poor To Face New Risk, Jeffrey S. Lehman, Sheldon Danziger

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Reinventing Human Services In America, David Stoesz

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

Passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWOA) of 1996 presents an opportunity to reinvent human services in America. For more than a decade, the welfare bureaucracy and public assistance programs of state welfare have been in crisis. The clients who depend on welfare detest it, finding and keeping qualified professionals to work in the public social services has become an administrative headache, and taxpayers perceive welfare as a fiscal black hole that perpetuates immorality. The recent decision to "devolve" welfare in a block grant to states underscores the urgency to rethink public assistance to poor families. There …

Historical Perspectives On Fair Housing, 29 J. Marshall L. Rev. 315 (1996), Julian Bond

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Unemployment Compensation Eligibility, Cheryl A. Leanza

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Introduction will review the Symposium sessions which dealt with eligibility issues. Many of the statements made by the panel participants and audience members highlighted the contemporary problems of a system established over sixty years ago. Thus, this Introduction seeks to record the main points made during these sessions in an effort to contribute to the debate regarding reform of the unemployment compensation system.

A Case For Pregnancy-Based Unemployment Insurance, Mark R. Brown

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Professor Brown argues that unemployment insurance laws should be amended to provide coverage to otherwise eligible, pregnant claimants. Under current law, women who quit because of pregnancy are either disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits altogether or qualify only after childbirth. Those who are fired, meanwhile, often either cannot prove the motivation for their discharge or discover that they are disqualified because of their unavailability for work. Professor Brown uses a case study to illustrate the problems posed by pregnancy and unemployment insurance. He proposes model legislation that extends coverage to all pregnant claimants who temporarily separate from their employment.

Clarifying Conditions For Nonmonetary Eligibility In The Unemployment Insurance System, Amy B. Chasanov

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article explores the nonmonetary eligibility requirements that unemployed individuals must meet in order to receive Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits. These eligibility criteria, which are decided by the states, vary significantly. Because states often have relatively vague statutes regarding their specific nonmonetary eligibility criteria, state rules, regulations, and case law interpret these statutes and better define the criteria. The author discusses the results of a recent survey of UI nonmonetary eligibility criteria which provides information on the status of criteria across the nation than has been available previously. The author concludes that policy reform in this area should be focused …

Introduction: The Federal-State Partnership Of Unemployment Compensation, Richard W. Fanning Jr.

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Federal and state governments jointly administer the unemployment compensation system. Many participants at the Symposium addressed this aspect of unemployment compensation, and it is the topic of the four Articles that follow. This Introduction discusses three broad areas in order to provide a framework for issues concerning federal-state relations in unemployment compensation. This Introduction also will highlight some of the points made by Symposium participants in response to the ideas expressed in the following Articles. Part I addresses how the federal-state partnership operates and defines areas of responsibility for both the states and the federal government. Part I also discusses …

Unemployment Compensation For Employees Of Educational Institutions: How State Courts Have Created Variations On Federally Mandated Statutory Language, Maribeth Wilt-Seibert

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Over the past sixty years, Congress has enacted a system of unemployment insurance for workers who have become unemployed through no fault of their own. While the Social Security Act of 1935 created much of the statutory framework for this system of insurance, Congress did not include employees of educational institutions within its system of unemployment insurance until 1970, when it amended the Federal Unemployment Tax Act of 1954 (FUTA). Since Congress enacted those amendments, each of the fifty states has passed legislation that substantially conforms to the FUTA amendments. Yet, despite the uniformity of state statutory language, state appellate …

Procedural Reform In The Unemployment Insurance System, Marla D. Clark, Jesse S. Reyes

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In the 1990s, we have witnessed a political movement toward smaller governament and reduced federal funding for social benefits programs. At the same time, evidence suggests that the unemployment insurance (UI) system as it works today still may not benefit all of its intended recipients. The need for improved UI services and the scarcity of resources available to meet this need create a tension between political pressures and constitutional considerations of fairness and due process. While constitutional considerations always override political pressures, the real issue is where to strike the appropriate balance between fundamental fairness and economic reality.

The Law And Politics Of The Enforcement Of Federal Standards For The Administration Of Unemployment Insurance Hearings, John C. Gray Jr., Jane Greengold Stevens

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Unemployment insurance claimants are entitled to have state unemployment programs administered in accordance with federal standards, which include the provision of prompt and fair hearings for claimants if their applications for benefits are denied. Violations of these rights are widespread, but the United States Department of Labor's Unemployment Insurance Service has never brought a formal proceeding to enforce the federal standards of administration. This Article explains why enforcement of the federal standards is needed and why it has not been provided and suggests methods by which advocates for claimants can seek to enforce federal standards in the face of this …

Unemployment Compensation: Continuity, Change, And The Prospects For Reform, Jerry L. Mashaw

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Symposium proceedings for which this Introduction provides an overview had a decidedly reformative impulse and focus. Authors and discussants came together not just to ruminate about the future, but to grapple with concrete problems that are both a legacy of the past and the product of relatively recent changes. Reformers found much to criticize and to suggest, whether their focus was on stable structures or newly emerging issues. The purpose of this Introduction is to synthesize the views expressed and to reflect on them from the perspective of a student of benefits administration, but one not expert in the …

Interstate Claims: Their History And Their Challenges, Mark D. Esterle

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article provides an overview of the cases and statutes relating to interstate claims for unemployment compensation. The author suggests that the current federal statutes and regulations are inadequate on the grounds that they are ambiguous, lead to inconsistent results in different states, and may fail to ensure due process in claims determinations. The author highlights these problems with regard to interstate fact finders, attorney representation, witness subpoenas, and access to judicial review. Finally, he points to regulations that cover interstate unemployment compensation claims by federal employees and military servicemembers as models for new regulations of uniform application.

Unemployment Compensation In A Time Of Increasing Work-Family Conflicts, Martin H. Malin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The demographics of the workplace have changed substantially since the nation's unemployment insurance system was enacted in the 1930s. The number of dual-earner and single-parent families has increased dramatically. Yet, the basic requirements for eligibility for unemployment compensation have not varied much since their initial enactment. In this Article, Professor Malin explores the availability of benefits to individuals who lose their jobs because of conflicts between work and family responsibilities and to unemployed individuals whose family responsibilities restrict the types of jobs that they are able to take. He finds that the states have differed greatly concerning the degree to …

Federal Law Requirements For The Federal-State Unemployment Compensation System: Interpretation And Application, Gerard Hildebrand

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The benefits provided to states by federal unemployment compensation law are conditioned on meeting several requirements. This Article examines some of these requirements, how they came about, how the United States Department of Labor and the federal courts have interpreted them, and how conflicts between the states and the federal government have been resolved. The Article concludes that certain types of requirements work best within this federal-state system.

Stepping Into The Projects: Lawmaking, Storytelling, And Practicing The Politics Of Identification, Lisa A. Crooms

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

In her article, "The Black Community," Its Lawbreakers, and a Politics of Identification, Professor Regina Austin proposes a paradigm to move the Black community beyond a "manifestation of a nostalgic longing for a time when blacks were clearly distinguishable from whites and concern about the welfare of the poor was more natural than our hairdos.” Austin's politics of identification provides the conceptual framework through which the Black community can reconstitute itself in accordance with its own principles, which may or may not be those embraced by the mainstream. This article considers Professor Regina Austin’s politics of identification as practiced by …

Social Legislation In The European Community And In The Member States-A Case Of Subsidiarity?, Reinhard Rack

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The article examines the principle of subsidiarity within the European Community (EC), highlighting its role in balancing power between the EC and its Member States. While subsidiarity, formalized in the Maastricht Treaty, aims to ensure decision-making occurs at the most effective level, its application often serves political rather than legal purposes, particularly in social legislation. The article critiques the ambiguity of subsidiarity, questioning whether it effectively limits EC power or remains a political tool influenced by public opinion and referendums. It also explores the integration of non-Member States, such as EFTA countries, into the EC framework, emphasizing the challenges of …

Solutions To The Affordable Housing Crisis: Perspectives On Privatization, 28 J. Marshall L. Rev. 263 (1995), Peter W. Salsich Jr.

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Disentitling The Poor: Waivers And Welfare "Reform", Susan Bennett, Kathleen A. Sullivan

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article examines the purposes underlying the statutory grant of authority to Health and Human Services (HHS) to exempt states from the requirements of the statute, the important role that the Social Security Act has played as a source of rights for welfare recipients, the current wave of exemptions granted by HHS, and the lack of standards for review of state waiver proposals. Finally, this Article recommends the development of procedures and standards for review by HHS and urges that adherence to the core values of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program is essential in evaluating the …

Reforming Welfare Through Social Security, Stephen D. Sugarman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this Article, I first want to illustrate the connection between Social Security and AFDC-to explain the Social Security program and to demonstrate how it contributes to the welfare problem. More importantly, I then want to offer a reform proposal that builds on Social Security as a way to begin to eliminate AFDC and the current welfare problem. Simply put, I propose that Social Security should provide benefits to children with absent parents on the same basic terms on which it now provides benefits to children with deceased, disabled, or retired parents.

The Many Contexts Of Welfare Reform, Jeffrey S. Lehman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The War On Poverty: A Civilian Perspective, Edgar S. Cahn, Jean C. Cahn

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

This article does two things: it articulates a vision and it lays out a specific blueprint. The core of the vision regards legal representation as "a form of enfranchisement, as an attempt to institutionalize the functions of dissent and criticism, and as a means of revitalizing the democratic process." This explains why the article triggered a movement that was perceived as going beyond the orthodox delivery of legal aid. While others legislate or purport to breath life into the democratic process, lawyers, in their unique role as advocates, discharge a constitutionally protected role. And in light of the retaliation to …

America's Misunderstood Welfare State: Persistent Myths, Enduring Realities, Rachel D. Godsil

Michigan Law Review

A Review of America's Misunderstood Welfare State: Persistent Myths, Enduring Realities by Theodore R. Marmor, Jerry L. Mashaw, and Philip L. Harvey

Homelessness: A Historical Perspective On Modern Legislation, Mark Peters

Michigan Law Review

This Note will demonstrate how current legislative responses to homelessness are bound and crippled by the social reform theories of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Before legislators can devise more efficient remedies to tackle current problems, they must identify and transcend earlier, ineffective thinking. This requires viewing the homelessness problem· in historical perspective. Specifically, legislatures must (1) examine the origins of the legal system's underlying conceptions about homelessness, (2) understand how these conceptions undermined earlier legislation designed to deal with the crisis, and (3) isolate, and escape, the modem manifestations of these conceptions.

This Note examines the early twentieth …

Surrogate Parenting After Baby M: The Ball Moves To The Legislature’S Court, John R. Dunne, Gregory V. Serio

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Hope For Atomic Vets: The Proposed Veterans' Administration Adjudication Procedure And Judicial Review Act, Karen Lee Hochstein

Antioch Law Journal

This Comment will discuss the judicial review'3 and rulemaking14 provisions of the bill and their possible impact on efforts by atomic veterans to obtain benefits from the Veterans Administration. Part II will provide an overview of the Veterans Administration's claims procedures, describing the criteria currently applied to claims of atomic veterans and the changes contained in the bill. Part III will discuss the critical sections of the bill, including the unique standard of review'5 for factual determinations made in adjudicating individual claims for benefits. In particular, Part III will discuss potential problems posed to reviewing courts applying the standard of …

The Treatment Of Mandatory Tax Withholdings In Calculating Afdc Benefits: Fairness As A Relevant Inference In Ascertaining Congressional Intent, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note contends that the more appropriate construction of the statute is to view mandatory tax withholdings as nonincome and nonwork expense items. Part I traces the pre-OBRA legislative and administrative history and examines the judicial interpretations of 42 U.S.C. section 602(a)(7) "income" and section 602(a)(8) "earned income." It concludes that under the "availability" principle, tax withholdings have always been regarded as nonincome items distinct from work expenses. It contends that, notwithstanding contradictory language in the regulations implementing section 602(a)(8), the status of tax withholdings as nonincome items under section 602(a)(7) is controlling. Part II considers the legislative history and …