Social Welfare Law Commons^™

Legal Services Corp. V. Velazquez: A Problematic Commingling Of Unconstitutional Conditions And Public Fora Analyses Yields A New Grey Area For Free Speech, Christopher A. Gozdor

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Empathy, Spring, And The Fervorino, Susan Bennett

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Access To Financial Services In The 21st Century: Five Opportunities For The Bush Administration And The 107th Congress (Symposium On Poverty And The Law)., Michael S. Barr

Articles

Noticeably absent from debate over President Bush's agenda is any discussion of a central question for equality of opportunity in the 21st century. Access to financial services is the "passport" to our modem economy, as former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers oft said, but despite the enormous progress that has been made over the last decade, too many families in the United States still are left out of the financial services mainstream. There are five key opportunities that the Bush Administration, working with Congress and the private sector, can seize in order to continue to democratize access to financial services: …

Tanf Reauthorization: Is Congress Acting On What We Have Learned?, Peter B. Edelman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

There is only one sure way to make something happen in public policy and in politics, and that is to organize. Sometimes external events-the Great Depression, World War II, Vietnam, Watergate, September 11th, Enron, and MCI WorldCom-will make things happen of their own accord. But we can't wait for events to create opportunity, and many such stimuli are in fact things we don't want to happen. So it is up to us. And the time for organizing is not just when an issue is at the forefront. Organizing is needed to build interest and support on issues over a longer …

A Goldilocks Account Of Judicial Review?, Mark V. Tushnet

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

According to Professor Christopher Eisgruber, judicial review of the sort embedded in United States constitutional practice is a practical mechanism for implementing the Constitution's commitment to self-government. "The justices ... make a distinctive contribution to representative democracy" because they are "better positioned [than elected officials] to represent the people's convictions about what is right." Judges can articulate "a conception of justice with which Americans in general [can] plausibly identify themselves. "

I will focus here on two themes in Professor Eisgruber's argument. The first theme can be found in many works of constitutional theory - the construction of a strong …

Book Review Of The English Poor Laws, 1700-1930, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Undeserving Addicts: Ssi/Ssd And The Penalties Of Poverty, Dean Spade

Faculty Articles

Since the late 1980's, American media and politicians have produced and participated in a moral panic around the issue of illegal drug use. This panic has generated vivid pictures in the American imagination of drug users as a morally depraved, irresponsible, and willfully criminal underclass. Such images have fueled the "war on drugs," a multi-faceted rhetoric and policy approach to drug use that focuses on incarceration, interdiction, and other criminal justice strategies. The punitive approach of the war on drugs has bled into poverty and disability policy with alarming persistence. The trend has influenced numerous poverty alleviation and disability programs …

Serving Market Needs, Not People's Needs: The Indignity Of Welfare Reform , Muneer Ahmad

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

An Inspiration For Political Lawyering: Welfare Reform Activism In The District Of Columbia , Erin M. Loubier

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Reshaping The Welfare Debate: The Poor People's Labor Movement , Kevin M. Ryan

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Welfare Entitlements In The Era Of Devolution, Christine N. Cimini

Articles

In 1996, the Republican Congress and Democratic President enacted the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), ushering in a new era of public benefits. This 1996 act’s fundamental change to the administration and substance of public benefits called into question the applicability of a substantial body of procedural due process doctrine. As a result, unanswered questions remain regarding the applicability of established due process doctrine in the welfare reform context. This Article analyzes whether public law entitlements exist in the context of PRWORA’s first order devolution from the federal to state governments as well as some states’ second …

The New Contract: Welfare Reform, Devolution, And Due Process, Christine N. Cimini

Articles

This Article analyzes the due process implications of the change in welfare administration from a federal statutory entitlement model to the devolved contractual model and posits that, despite the changes, due process protections still exist. These protections arise from the private law of contracts on two different levels. The first level is the macro, or implied, contract, that I refer to as the social contract between the government and the populace. The existence of this social contract is evidenced in numerous sources including: political theories that explore the use of governmental authority; foundational democratic legal sources, such as the Declaration …

Uncharted Terrain: The Intersection Of Privatization And Welfare, Rebecca L. Scharf, Henry Freedman, Mary R. Mannix, Marc Cohan

Scholarly Works

Welfare, a mainstay of legal services practice, is cutting edge again. Clients need help negotiating a system that devolution, discretion, and privatization have changed radically. Public officials need help in this new environment to "get it right," so that programs achieve the laudable goals ascribed to them.

Privatization creates special challenges for welfare advocates. New players, ranging from neighborhood nonprofit organizations to churches to multinational corporations, are making decisions that affect clients' vital interests. New legal issues, ranging from state action to public contracting compliance, can arise. Accountability and transparency, difficult to achieve in the governance of traditional welfare programs, …