Social Welfare Law Commons^™

Other People's Poverty, Emmanuel Hiram Arnaud, Shaun Ossei-Owusu

Faculty Scholarship

Puerto Ricans have a relationship with the United States that is historically unparalleled. They have been citizens of the United States since 1917, served in every major conflict since World War I, and have been influential members of American culture, politics, and society. Yet, Puerto Rico is not fully part of the United States. The island of 3.2 million people— more than the population of eighteen states—is a U.S. territory. This means the federal government wields its complete and largely unrestrained plenary power over the Island, often treating Puerto Ricans differently than the rest of the United States. This differential …

Welfare Litigation, State Courts, And Social Citizenship, Andrew Hammond

Articles by Maurer Faculty

For half a century, federal courts have stood at the center of welfare rights enforcement. That era is ending. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s historic cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will generate an avalanche of benefit terminations, work requirement sanctions, and overpayment actions from state agencies. And with a federal judiciary increasingly hostile to the private enforcement of public law, state courts will become not just a concurrent forum for welfare litigation, but an increasingly important one. Understanding how state courts have handled welfare litigation over the past three decades, then, is essential to anticipating what comes next. This …

Equal Protection As A Measure Of Competing Interests In Welfare Litigation, John G. Richardson

Maine Law Review

Presently legal attacks on welfare programs focus upon the basic theory of the program, its definitions of need and obligation, and dissatisfaction with aspects of daily administration. Because these attacks seek to invalidate state action and federal forums are usually sought, conventional constitutional arguments of due process and equal protection are adapted to the peculiar issues posed by welfare cases. These attacks in substance allege that the state has so failed to support a needy person that its actions are fundamentally unfair and unacceptable. Equal protection has been raised often in welfare cases and some courts have granted relief based …

The Constitutional Law Of Remedies In Welfare Litigation, Donald F. Fontaine

Maine Law Review

It is becoming increasingly obvious that the problems of poor people in the United States are dependent, more than those of other classes, upon the proper administration of government agencies. The contact of poor people with government agencies involves most of their chief concerns in life: Welfare, social security, adequate health care, adequate income from work, a safe and healthy place to live, whether privately or publicly owned, and schools that provide real education without racial or economic discrimination. Where payments are improperly withheld from a presumably destitute recipient, the need for a speedy and adequate remedy should be obvious. …

The Constitutional Law Of Remedies In Welfare Litigation, Donald F. Fontaine

Maine Law Review

It is becoming increasingly obvious that the problems of poor people in the United States are dependent, more than those of other classes, upon the proper administration of government agencies. The contact of poor people with government agencies involves most of their chief concerns in life: Welfare, social security, adequate health care, adequate income from work, a safe and healthy place to live, whether privately or publicly owned, and schools that provide real education without racial or economic discrimination. Where payments are improperly withheld from a presumably destitute recipient, the need for a speedy and adequate remedy should be obvious. …

Territorial Exceptionalism And The Americanwelfare State, Andrew Hammond

Michigan Law Review

Federal law excludes millions of American citizens from crucial public benefits simply because they live in the United States territories. If the Social Security Administration determines a low-income individual has a disability, that person can move to another state and continue to receive benefits. But if that person moves to, say, Guam or the U.S. Virgin Islands, that person loses their right to federal aid. Similarly with SNAP (food stamps), federal spending rises with increased demand—whether because of a recession, a pandemic, or a climate disaster. But unlike the rest of the United States, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, …

Destigmatizing Disability In The Law Of Immigration Admissions, Medha D. Makhlouf

Faculty Contributions to Books

In U.S. immigration law, disability has historically been associated with deviance, and has served as the basis for legal barriers to entry and eventual citizenship. For example, immigrants with actual and perceived physical and intellectual disabilities, mental illness, and other health conditions have been deemed “inadmissible” to the United States based on the belief that they are likely to become dependent on the government for support. Although the law has evolved to accommodate immigrants with disabilities in some ways, significant legal barriers still exist on account of the widespread, persistent characterization of disability as a “bad difference” from the norm. …

Introduction, Ezra Rosser

Contributions to Books

This is the introduction to Holes in the Safety Net: Federalism and Poverty (Ezra Rosser ed., Cambridge University Press, 2019). The table of contents for the book, with links to the other chapters, can be found below: Introduction (this document) Ezra Rosser Part I: Welfare and Federalism Ch. 1 Federalism, Entitlement, and Punishment across the US Social Welfare State Wendy Bach Ch. 2 Laboratories of Suffering: Toward Democratic Welfare Governance Monica Bell, Andrea Taverna, Dhruv Aggarwal, and Isra Syed Ch. 3 The Difference in Being Poor in Red States versus Blue States Michele Gilman Part II: States, Federalism, and Antipoverty …

Converging Welfare States: Symposium Keynote, Susannah Camic Tahk

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Susannah Camic Tahk, Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, speaks to the Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice 2018 symposium, Always with Us? Poverty, Taxes, and Social Policy. She addresses the following questions: To what extent do the particular advantages of the tax antipoverty programs persist as the tax antipoverty programs take center stage? Can tax programs, once distinguished from their direct-spending counterparts on the grounds of relative popularity and legal and administrative ease of access maintain those hallmarks as the tax-based welfare state grows …

Eitc For All: A Universal Basic Income Compromise Proposal, Benjamin Leff

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Universal Basic Income ("UBI") is a concept that has recently begun to enter the popular political consciousness in the United States. It is defined as "a regular cash income paid to all, on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement." It is invoked for a wide variety of political and social purposes, but is almost always presented as radically different from existing governmental welfare and transfer systems. Once a UBI is disaggregated into discrete policy components, it is possible to imagine to what degree existing programs share the benefits (and detriments) of a UBI to a greater or …

Nudges That Should Fail?, Avishalom Tor

Journal Articles

Professor Sunstein (2017) discusses possible causes for and policy implications of the failure of nudges, with a special attention to defaults. Though he focuses on nudges that fail when they should succeed, Sunstein recognizes that some failures reveal that a nudge should not have been attempted to begin with. Nudges that fail, however, does not consider fully the relationship between the outcomes of nudging and their likely welfare effects, most notably neglecting the troubling case of nudges that succeed when they should fail. Hence, after clarifying the boundaries of legitimate nudging and noting the fourfold relationship between the efficacy of …

Nudge-Proof: Distributive Justice And The Ethics Of Nudging, Jessica L. Roberts

Michigan Law Review

A review of Cass R. Sunstein, The Ethics of Influence: Government in the Age of Behavioral Science.

Localism, Labels, And Animal Welfare, Samuel R. Wiseman

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

The law does relatively little to improve the welfare of animals raised for food. In the short term, at least, market-based solutions appear to have more promise as a means of promoting farm animal welfare, as consumers increasingly seek out local and humanely-raised meat and eggs. To aid consumers in identifying these products, certification systems of varying degrees of rigor exist, but even these are of little use to consumers in the restaurant context, which accounts for a large percentage of meat consumption. Patrons see only finished meals, making fraud difficult to detect, and a recent newspaper investigation suggests that …

Medicaid: Welfare Program Of Last Resort, Or Safety Net?, Laura D. Hermer

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reforming The Processes For Challenging Voluntary Acknowledgments Of Paternity, Jeffrey A. Parness, David A. Saxe

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Voluntary acknowledgements of paternity (VAPs) significantly determine male legal parentage at birth for many children born of sex to unwed mothers in the United States. VAP processes are chiefly dictated by the federal Social Security Act, which places certain mandates on states participating in federally-subsidized welfare programs. These processes include norms on effective VAP establishments and on VAP disestablishments, either via early rescissions (within sixty days) by signatories or via later contests (after sixty days) by challengers, including signatories. The norms are driven by the Act’s desire to increase reimbursements of state child welfare payments from unwed fathers regardless of …

Emigres: Lost In A Sea Of Ignorance, Ronald C. Griffin

Faculty Books and Book Contributions

In EMIGRES: Lost in a Sea of Ignorance, Prof. Griffin states that austerity grips western nations, where governments spend paltry sums on welfare, refugees, and migrants. In his essay, Griffin parses a trove of knowledge about welfare and what's being done for needy people. There is a recounting of an Irish case, a report on spectacles in the US, and a narrative about the troubles in Europe stirred-up by Syrian refugees.

Immigration And Disability In The United States And Canada, Mark Weber

College of Law Faculty

Disability arises from the dynamic between people’s physical and mental conditions andthe physical and attitudinal barriers in the environment. Applying this idea aboutdisability to United States and Canadian immigration law draws attention to barriers toentry and eventual citizenship for individuals who have disabilities. Historically, NorthAmerican law excluded many classes of immigrants, including those with intellectualdisabilities, mental illness, physical defects, and conditions likely to cause dependency.Though exclusions for individuals likely to draw excessive public resources and thosewith communicable diseases still exist in Canada and the United States, in recent yearsthe United States permitted legalization for severely disabled undocumented immigrantsalready in the …

Self-Sufficiency: The Approach Welfare Reform Should Take In Order To Remedy The Shortcomings Of Past Efforts, Ashley Carroll

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

This comment will explain the evolution of welfare reform, present some proposals that others have suggested in order to remedy the problems the current system has, and suggest a way to best serve those of a lower socio-economic status. Part II explains the background on welfare reform and why the reform that occurred during the Clinton administration was so revolutionary. It will explain how the progress in the Clinton administration impacted the effectiveness of welfare reform. Part III details how the current welfare programs in place impact the United States, and how the changes by the Obama administration contrast with …

On The "Poverty Of Responsibility": A Study Of The History Of Child Protection Law And Jurisprudence In Nova Scotia, Ilana Luther

PhD Dissertations

This thesis presents a history of child protection law and jurisprudence in Nova Scotia. The thesis begins by examining the development of the first child protection statute in Canada, the Nova Scotia Prevention and Punishment of Wrongs to Children Act in 1882. The Act was developed amidst a climate of reform in late-19th century Halifax, at the urging of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The Act, along with a number of other pieces of “domestic relations” legislation at the time, was focused on protecting children in poverty. With the passing of the Act, the legislature not …

Homelessness: A Post-Industrial Society Faces A Legislative Dilemma, Robert W. Collin, Daniel J. Barry

Akron Law Review

In American social welfare history, the intent with which one became poor has determined their eligibility for aid from the state. This intent has never been clearly labeled as such. Rather, it has taken the form of equating intentional poverty with those "voluntarily in need," not truly needy or "willfully unemployed." There has not been a distinction between the intention with which one seeks aid, and the intention with which one becomes poor. Recently, such a distinction is emerging in new homelessness legislation. However, the new poverty legislation which grapples with intent will be doing so in a post-industrial society. …

Poverty, Dignity, And Public Housing, Jaime Alison Lee

All Faculty Scholarship

Antipoverty efforts are persistently subverted by broad societal contempt for poor people. The belief that poor people are morally and behaviorally inferior, and that their personal failings are the cause of their own poverty, is a staple of American opinion polls and political rhetoric. This presumption is so widespread that it even permeates antipoverty programs, which treat poor people with disdain even as they offer aid and assistance.

Income discrimination creates not just social stigma, but legal inequalities. The Supreme Court recognized some forty years ago that welfare law promoted wealth-based Constitutional inequalities, and responded by invoking the doctrines of …

Supreme Court, New York County, Khrapunskiy V. Doar, Daphne Vlcek

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Screening" The Poor: The Legality Of Drug Testing For Welfare Benefits, Jacquelyn Bolen

Law Student Publications

On March 8, 2014, at the conclusion of the 2014 Virginia General Assembly regular session, Virginia joined at least 17 other states that, in this year alone, have introduced proposals to screen or test applicants for illegal substances prior to obtaining public assistance.1 Following the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which permitted states to conduct drug testing as part of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, states began proposing drug screenings for applicants of public welfare benefits.2 Despite a 2003 Sixth Circuit decision holding that suspicionless drug testing is un-constitutional, in …

Feminism, Democracy, And The "War On Women", Michele E. Gilman

All Faculty Scholarship

This article analyzes the social conservative attacks on women preceding the 2012 election cycle, known as the War on Women, and the ensuing feminist response. Combat was waged on many fronts, including abortion restrictions, access to contraception, funding for Planned Parenthood, welfare programs, and workplace fairness. The article discusses what this "war" means for the complex relationship between feminism and democracy. American democracy has had both liberating and oppressive effects for women, while feminism has sometimes struggled internally to appropriate the values of democracy and externally to harness its potential. Accordingly, the article explains the major political theories regarding feminism …

The Return Of The Welfare Queen, Michele E. Gilman

All Faculty Scholarship

After welfare reform was passed in 1996, there was every reason to hope that the welfare queen was dead. The “welfare queen” was shorthand for a lazy woman of color, with numerous children she cannot support, who is cheating taxpayers by abusing the system to collect government assistance. For years, this long-standing racist and gendered stereotype was used to attack the poor and the cash assistance programs that support them. In 1996, TANF capped welfare receipt to five years and required work as a condition of eligibility, thus stripping the welfare queen of her throne of dependency. Nevertheless, during the …

Forgotten Fathers, Daniel L. Hatcher

All Faculty Scholarship

Poor fathers like John are largely forgotten, written off as a subset of the unworthy poor. These fathers struggle with poverty – often with near hopelessness – within multiple systems in which they are either entangled or overlooked, such as child-support and welfare programs, family courts, the criminal justice system, housing programs, and the healthcare, education, and foster-care systems. For these impoverished fathers, the “end of men” is often not simply a question for purposes of discussion but a fact that is all too real. In the instances in which poor fathers are not forgotten, they are targeted as causes …

Administrative Savings From Synchronizing Social Welfare Programs And Tax Provisions, Jonathan Barry Forman

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Ford V. Shalala: Applying Mathews V. Eldridge To Ssi Benefits, Daniel T. Vaughan

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Gideon Meets Goldberg: The Case For A Qualified Right To Counsel In Welfare Hearings, Stephen Loffredo, Don Friedman

Touro Law Review

In Goldberg v. Kelly, the Supreme Court held that welfare recipients have a right under the Due Process Clause to notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard before the state may terminate assistance. However, the Court stopped short of holding due process requires states to appoint counsel to represent claimants at these constitutionally mandated hearings. As a result, in the vast majority of administrative hearings involving welfare benefits, claimants- desperately poor, and often with little formal education- must appear pro se while trained advocates represent the government. Drawing on the theory of underenforced constitutional norms, first articulated by Dean …

Welfare Fraud And The Fourth Amendment , Erik G. Luna

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.