State and Local Government Law Commons^™

Powerline: The First Battle Of America's Energy War, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Powerline: The First Battle of America's Energy War by Barry M. Casper and Paul David Wellstone

Book Review, Howard C. Klemme

Publications

No abstract provided.

Regulation Through The Looking Glass: Hospitals, Blue Cross, And Certificate-Of-Need, Sallyanne Payton, Rhoda M. Powsner

Michigan Law Review

A clear focus on the commitment of the public health and hospital establishments to the large teaching hospital and their belief in rationalizing the health care system through community-based planning allows us to understand the ideas and institutions that have produced our present system of hospital regulation. It can also help us to understand the structure and behavior of the hospital industry and can illuminate current controversies over health care policy.

What follows is a narrative account of the development of regional planning and certificate-of-need legislation. As part of that story, we trace the evolution of the Blue Cross, explain …

Agenda: Federal Lands, Laws And Policies And The Development Of Natural Resources: A Short Course, University Of Colorado. School Of Law, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Federal Lands, Laws and Policies and the Development of Natural Resources: A Short Course (Summer Conference, July 28-August 1)

Even before the [Natural Resources Law] Center was established [in the fall of 1981], the [University of Colorado] School of Law was organizing annual natural resources law summer short courses. To date four programs have been presented:

- July 1980: "Federal Lands, Laws and Policies and the Development of Natural Resources"

- June 1981: "Water Resources Allocation: Laws and Emerging Issues"

- June 1982: "New Sources of Water for Energy Development and Growth: lnterbasin Transfers"

- June 1983: "Groundwater: Allocation, Development and Pollution"

(Reprinted from Resource Law Notes, no. 1, Jan. 1984, at 1.)

Instructors for this conference included University …

Michigan's Nursing Home Reform Law, John D. Croll

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article examines Michigan's new nursing home reform law, which has been hailed as "landmark legislation" and as a model for the entire country. Part I examines the past failures of nursing home regulation and the need for reform. Part II analyzes the law's key provisions. Part III examines the weaknesses of certain enforcement measures. The article proposes the following improvements: (1) extension of the law's protection to residents of homes for the aged; (2) greater access to patients by approved organizations; (3) adoption of nurse-patient ratios; (4) improvement of inspection procedures; and (5) allowance for patients or their representatives …

Constitutional Limits On State Regulatory And Protectionist Policies, Peter M. Gerhart

Faculty Publications

My theme throughout is this: Although the Supreme Court's sometimes timid review of state regulatory legislation may be explained by its continued allergic reaction to economic due process review, that timidity is often unwarranted because the Constitution does embody several principles that protect the free market from some forms of state intervention.

Federal Preemption Of State Law: The Example Of Overbooking In The Airline Industry, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Such complexity is common in the airline context, both because the Federal Aviation Act1 (FAA) and the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) do not purport to regulate all aspects of the industry and because airline activities are so varied that they come within the reach of numerous state statutory and common-law rules. This Note will consider the power of the CAB to preempt state law and thereby to insulate airline activities from state-law liability. It will suggest a framework for analyzing the problems of preemption by focusing on airline concealment of overbooking practices. Section I explains airline overbooking and demonstrates that …

The Role Of The Local Comprehensive Plan In Land Use Regulation, Daniel R. Mandelker

Michigan Law Review

This article will deal with the enlarged role of the comprehensive plan in the local land use control process. Part I examines traditional judicial views of the role of the comprehensive plan as a guide to zoning administration. Part II suggests that innovations in land use control and comprehensive planning techniques evidence a need for mandatory planning. Subsequent sections examine changes in the judicial attitude toward the role of the comprehensive plan in land use control administration, and survey some enacted and proposed state legislation that modifies the early planning acts by requiring comprehensive planning. This legislation is analyzed to …

Drinking Water Regulation, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

As 1974 drew to a close, President Ford signed legislation extending federal jurisdiction into a new realm: the quality of public drinking water supplies. This Safe Drinking Water Act is an interesting piece of legislation. It probably will become one more bit of data for the MOLDS System, and the Act, fortunately, has provisions which meet some of the criteria which Luther Avery set forth. Before describing the Act, I want to present a few statistics and background facts about this innocent bit of H2O.

Reform Of The Florida Securities Law, James Mofsky

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Interrelationship Between Excusionary Subdivision Control - A Second Look, Roger A. Cunningham

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The thesis of this article is that the conclusion set out above is both oversimplified and inaccurate. Contrary to the author's contention in his Journal article, there are "viable distinctions between zoning and subdivision control," and consequently the major exclusionary techniques available to suburban communities through "zoning" are simply not available in connection with "subdivision control." Dramatic attempts at racial exclusion through subdivision control are likely to be infrequent. Although subdivision regulations, like zoning ordinances and building codes, require expenditures by land developers which increase the cost of housing and thus tend to exclude the poor, the effect of subdivision …

Interstate Land Sales Regulation: The Case For An Expanded Federal Role, Robert R. Maxwell

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Public awareness of the need for protection from fraudulent vendors of undeveloped land recurs periodically and has led to brief flurries of legislative and journalistic attention since the Florida land boom of the 1920s. Despite the rush of state and federal legislation enacted in recent years to combat sharp practices in the land development field, the need for stronger regulation has been revealed by testimony at public hearings held by the Office of Interstate Land Sales Registration as well as by numerous news accounts of questionable tactics employed by some land development promoters. The recent actions of the Federal Trade …

Proposed Regulation Of Limited Partnership Investment Programs, Ivan J. Schell

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Limited partners have long been admonished to scrutinize potential investments; this advice is often ignored, however, by investors eager to reap quick profits. Furthermore, the proliferation of limited partnership interests in a single enterprise diffuses the focus of investor vigilance and increases the potential for undetected abuses. Thus a need for regulation, either governmental or private, has developed. Currently the Uniform Limited Partnership Act and blue sky laws provide some control of limited partnership abuses at the state level. On the interstate level, the Midwest Securities Commissioners Association, the National Association of Securities Dealers, and the Securities and Exchange Commission …

Motor Vehicle Air Pollution: State Authority And Federal Pre-Emption, David P. Currie

Michigan Law Review

The problem of state authority over motor vehicle air pollution was recently highlighted when the Illinois Air Pollution Control Board, for the first time, adopted regulations to deal with vehicle emissions. Those regulations are disappointingly feeble. Except for outlawing visible smoke and for making it unlawful to dismantle pollution control devices, the new rules do nothing but state that the Board may decide to do something in the future about pollution from automobiles.

In attempting to improve upon these regulations, however, one is struck with a sense of considerable futility. Given the present limits of technology and the necessarily legislative …

Jurisdiction--Atomic Energy--Federal Pre-Emption And State Regulation Of Radioactive Air Pollution: Who Is The Master Of The Atomic Genie?, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Pending litigation between the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Northern States Power Company presents a potential federal-state conflict over the right of a state to impose upon operators of nuclear power plants more exacting pollution control standards than those required by regulations of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The AEC issued Northern States Power Company a permit to construct a nuclear power generating plant in Monticello, Minnesota. The regulations under which that permit was issued place a ceiling on the amount of radioactive effluents which can be discharged into the air during the course of the plant's operations. But under …

Statutory Regulation Of Hypnosis, James T. Brennan

Cleveland State Law Review

Hypnotism and state hypnotists caused quite a stir in the first quarter of the Twentieth Century. Several of the existing statutes on hypnotism were passed at that time. Then, for about a quarter of a century, hypnotism was legislatively forgotten. Recently, pressure groups in the form of hypnotic, psychological, psychiatric and medical societies have been lobbying for legislation prohibiting hypnotism by laymen. As the hypnotist vote isn't very large, the activities of these pressure groups have been ignored for the most part. Statutes on hypnotism generally seek either to regulate stage hypnotism, the hypnosis of minors, or medical use of …

Constitutional Law-Relation Of Federal And State Governments- Applicability Of State Minimum Price Regulations To Federal Procurement, Alexander E. Bennett

Michigan Law Review

The United States accepted the lowest bids for the supply of milk at three military installations in California. Because these bids were below the minimum prices for wholesale milk prescribed by state law, California instituted proceedings in the state courts for civil damages and injunctive relief against the successful bidders. The United States brought a separate action in a federal district court asking that the state be enjoined from applying its minimum price regulations to milk purchases by the armed services on the grounds that the military installations were federal enclaves over which the United States has exclusive jurisdiction and …

State Control Of Radiation Hazards: An Intergovernmental Relations Problem, Samuel D. Estep, Martin Adelman

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this article is to set forth the nature of the intergovernmental problem. This involves an analysis of the extent and limitations of federal power, a determination of congressional intent on the issue of federal pre-emption, and an appraisal of the steps now being taken by the Atomic Energy Commission to turn over part of the radiation safety regulatory program to the states.

State Power Over The Federal Contractor: A Problem In Federalism, Arthur S. Miller

Vanderbilt Law Review

In large measure both the federal officials, whose job it is to enter the commercial market to fulfill the government's material needs, and the federal contractor, wherever he may be and of whatever size he may be, tend to look upon attempts by states to tax or regulate with a skeptical eye. The state appears as some alien interloper whose activities result only in hardship and delay to the contractor and consequent annoyance and financial cost to the federal government. By and large, accordingly, a prevailing idea in the federal procurement circles seems to be that of avoiding, whenever possible, …

Local Government Law -- 1955 Tennessee Survey, Clyde L. Ball

Vanderbilt Law Review

Police Power: Conformity of Ordinance to State Statute: The town of Fayetteville enacted an ordinance imposing higher standards than those established by state and federal laws upon producers, of milk to be sold within the city. In State ex rel. Beasley v. Mayor and Aldermen of Fayetteville' plaintiff milk producer, having complied with state and federal requirements, was denied a permit to sell inside the city and sought a writ of mandamus to require the city authorities to issue the permit. Under the holding in State ex rel. Nashville Pure Milk Co. v. Shelbyville, a municipality could not refuse to …

Competitive Operation Of Municipally And Privately Owned Utilities, Charles M. Kneier

Michigan Law Review

Public utility services for cities are usually provided on the principle of regulated monopoly. It has been found that by the very nature of the utility business, better service can be had and at cheaper rates by the use of one supplier rather than by the use of competing plants: This one plant having a monopoly of the business may be either privately or municipally owned. If the service is furnished by a privately owned utility, regulation is usually by a state commission, but in a few states regulation is still largely by the city in which the company operates. …

Municipal Corporations-Validity Of Juke Box Licensing Ordinance As Exercise Of Police Power, Edward S. Tripp S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff owned and operated coin-operated phonographs, commonly known as juke boxes, in the City of New Kensington, Pennsylvania. The city enacted an ordinance making the possession of coin-operated phonographs or music boxes within the city without a license illegal. An annual license fee of $25.00 per machine was imposed and violators were subjected to fine and imprisonment, each day of illegal operation constituting a separate offense. Plaintiff sought to enjoin enforcement of the ordinance, alleging that it would cause him irreparable injury and that it was unconstitutional because beyond the legislative power of the city council. An injunction was granted …

Constitutional Law-Freedom Of Speech For Labor Organizers-Registration Requirement Invalid, Francis Powers

Michigan Law Review

Collins v. Thomas decided by the Supreme Court in January is a decision of great practical importance in that it falls at a point where three recently developed constitutional doctrines enmesh or intersect with one another. The case makes it necessary that the Court integrate these doctrines and distinguish the areas in which they are respectively applicable.

Constitutional Law - Commerce Clause - Labor Law - Power Of State To Enjoin Unfair Labor Practices Of Employees In Industries Engaged In Interstate Commerce, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The appellant (defendant in the case below) and certain of its members were found guilty of unfair labor practices as defined by the Wisconsin Employment Relations Act. Plaintiff-appellee issued a cease and desist order, which was sustained by the lower court despite defendant's contention that the statute was unconstitutional on the ground that Congress had precluded such state legislation affecting interstate industries by enacting the National Labor Relations Act. Held, plaintiff's order sustained. State legislation not repugnant to the Wagner Act is operative in this field so long as the National Labor Relations Board has not acted in the …

Municipal Corporations - Licenses - Amount Of Fee, S. R. Stroud

Michigan Law Review

The defendant, a sandwich peddler, was convicted in the justice court of violation of an ordinance requiring peddlers to have a license. Upon appeal to the circuit court the conviction was set aside on the ground that the ordinance requiring a peddler to obtain a license at $150 per vehicle per year was invalid since the fee was unreasonably high. Held, the circuit court should be reversed and the conviction sustained since the amount of the license fee could not be considered unreasonably excessive in view of all the circumstances. People v. Riksen, 284 Mich. 284, 279 N. …

Insurance - Supervision By The State - What Constitutes The Insurance Business, Thomas E. Wilson

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a corporation, advertised that any person who bought goods from certain selected stores would be entitled to receive coupons, and when his coupons amounted to a certain sum he would be entitled to certain death and security benefits up to specified amounts. Plaintiff brought suit against the Insurance Commissioner of Pennsylvania to enjoin him from interfering with the plaintiff's business. Held, that the plaintiff was carrying on an insurance business and was subject to supervision by the Insurance Commissioner. Hunt v. Public Mutual Benefit Foundation, (C. C. A. 3d, 1938) 94 F. (2d) 749, certiorari denied (U. …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Growth And Development Of The Police Power Of The State, Collins Denny Jr

Michigan Law Review

The police power of the state is one of the most difficult phases of our law to understand, and it is even more difficult to define it and to place it within any bounds. In speaking of this power the court has recently said: "It extends not only to regulations which promote the public health, morals, and safety, but to those which promote the public convenience or the general prosperity. * * * It is the most essential of powers, at times the most insistent, and always one of the least limitable of the powers of government."' The term is …

Rent Regulations Under The Police Power, Alan W. Boyd

Michigan Law Review

Conditions resulting from the widespread housing shortage caused by the cessation of building during the war have given rise to legislation which must seem startling indeed to much of the legal talent surviving from a generation ago. The outstanding example is to be found in the New York laws which so far have succeeded admirably in eluding the constitutional pitfalls relied upon to nullify them. Three provisions have borne the brunt of the attack. The first prevents the recovery of an unreasonable rent in an action at law, and places the burden of showing reasonableness upon the landlord." Another suspends …

State Regulation Of The Canal Corporation In Colorado, Leonard P. Fox

Michigan Law Review

Inapplicability of the common law doctrine of riparian rights to conditions in the arid region moved the first territorial legislature of Colorado to recognize the counter doctrine of prior appropriation. In fact, the right to the water in the streams of Colorado, by prior appropriation, antedated any legislation. "It was the common law of the people, and legislation, both national and territorial, was but a recognition declaratory of the right as it had theretofore and then existed."-1 Adhering to territorial precedent, Colorado was the first state to incorporate the priority doctrine in its organic law.