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  The Single Transferable Vote: Achieving the Goals of Section 2 Without Sacrificing the Integration Ideal

  Carstarphen, Dana (2015-10-16)

  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed to ensure that all Americans would be able to participate in the political process free from discrimination on the basis of race or color. In a series of decisions beginning with South Carolina v. Katzenbach, the federal courts upheld and implemented the rights established by the Act. Initially, courts were primarily called upon to dismantle discriminatory restrictions on voter registration and balloting procedures. Over time, the courts' efforts shifted to the elimination of gerrymandering schemes that "diluted" the political power of geographically concentrated minority communities. In 1982, amendments to the Voting Rights Act expanded the availability of relief under the Act by eliminating the requirement that plaintiffs alleging vote dilution demonstrate discriminatory intent. Today, the Voting Rights Act remains an important source of legal protection for minority voters who face barriers to political empowerment.
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  Who Are to Be the Electors? A Reflection on the History of Voter Registration in the United States

  Cunningham, Dayna (2015-10-16)

  Who are to be the electors... ? Not the rich more than the poor; not the learned more than the ignorant; not the haughty heirs of distinguished names, more than the humble sons of obscure and unpropitious fortune. The electors are to be the great body of the people of the United States. The ability to read and write . . . has some relation to standards designed to promote intelligent use of the ballot.... Literacy and intelligence are obviously not synonymous. Illiterate people may be intelligent voters. Yet in our society where newspapers, periodicals, books and other printed matter canvass and debate campaign issues, a State might conclude that only those who are literate should exercise the franchise.
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  The Third Criterion: Compactness as a Procedural Safeguard Against Partisan Gerrymandering

  Polsby, Daniel; Popper, Robert (2015-10-16)

  The health of democracies, of whatever type and range, depends on a wretched technical detail-electoral procedure. All the rest is secondary. In the aftermath of the decennial census, reapportionment and its wayward stepchild gerrymandering have again become topics of the hour. In 1991 or 1992, based on the new census, state legislatures will establish new boundaries for congressional and state legislative districts. In order to conform to the constitutional mandate that districts have equal populations -"one person, one vote" -states will have to redraw district lines to account for population shifts that have accumulated over the past ten years. Yet reapportionment, made necessary by fidelity to democratic principles, also will bring with it gerrymandering. Gerrymandering, broadly speaking, is any manipulation of district lines for partisan purposes. There are different varieties of gerrymandering, including racial gerrymandering, remedial racial gerrymandering, and collusive bipartisan gerrymandering. 8 Partisan gerrymandering, the most common kind and the subject of this paper, is undertaken by the political party in control of a state legislature to help itself and injure its competitor.
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  Voluntary Constituencies: Modified At-Large Voting as a Remedy for Minority Vote Dilution in Judicial Elections

  Stilt, Edward (2015-10-16)

  The Supreme Court has recently held in two cases that judicial elections are covered by section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and that trial judges are not exempt from the Act because they happen to hold "single person offices "-that is, exercise an authority independent of others who hold a similar office. The immediate, practical effect of the decision will be to remove a jurisdictional hurdle for the Blacks and Latinos who have suits pending in several states charging that multimember judicial elections violate section 2.
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  The Enforcement of Campaign Finance Rules: A System in Search of Reform

  Gross, Kenneth (2015-10-16)

  In the wake of the savings and loan crisis, the so-called "Keating Five" scandal, and increasing disillusionment with the electoral system, campaign finance reform is once again an issue of major national concern. As has often occurred in the past, Congress appears poised to enact major campaign reform legislation as a response to these latest political scandals. Indeed, the United States Senate passed a campaign finance reform bill in May of this year, and the House of Representatives is currently considering campaign finance reform legislation.
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  Nonacquiescence in Immigration Decisions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals

  Koh, Steve (2015-10-16)

  Perhaps at no other time is the conflict between administrative agencies and courts placed in starker terms than in instances of nonacquiescence. In general, nonacquiescence refers to an agency's refusal to follow a U.S. court of appeals precedent in subsequent factually similar cases arising within ("intracircuit") or outside ("intercircuit") the circuit which produced the adverse ruling. A nonacquiescence policy reflects a tension between an agency's mandate to achieve uniformity and expediency in its administrative adjudications and the court's obligation to safeguard equally the rights of litigants and nonlitigants. These basic issues have been the subject of considerable academi' and legislative attention. To date, however, there has been no examination in academic circles of the policy and practice of nonacquiescence by the Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS" or the "Service").
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  Introduction: The Judicial Regulation of Political Processes- In Praise of Multiple Criteria

  Edwards, Paul; Polsby, Nelson (2015-10-16)

  State legislatures have started to convert 1990 census data into new districts and the political maneuvering has begun. Accusations about partisan or racially motivated gerrymandering have begun to fill the op-ed pages. Meanwhile, in the popular press there is hand-wringing about the expense and waste of campaigning for elective office, the lack of responsiveness of legislatures, and the corrupting influence of special interests in politics. Like most controversial social issues of our day, many of these concerns about regulating the electoral process will end up in court.
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  Election Reform and Democratic Objectives- Match or Mismatch?

  Gottlieb, Stephen (2015-10-16)

  Discussion of campaign reform tends to center on specific proposals, often leaving goals implicit as if they are too obvious for discussion. However, the proposals often appear less important, contradictory, or perverse when the discussion centers on goals. This essay focuses on the goals of campaign reform. To demonstrate the significance of discussing campaign reform's objectives, this article will explore the often illusory relationship between election law reforms and their desired goals.
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  First Amendment Antitrust: The End of Laissez-Faire in Campaign Finance

  Cole, David (2015-10-16)

  Judging from the rhetoric of the dissenting Justices, the Supreme Court's decision in Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, which upheld limits on corporate campaign speech, marked a revolution in First Amendment jurisprudence. Justice Kennedy branded the majority a "censor," and characterized the result as "the most severe restriction on political speech ever sanctioned by this Court. " Justice Scalia warned that by accepting the majority's rationale, "the First Amendment will ultimately be brought down. But dissenters' rhetoric, like campaign speech itself, must be taken with a grain of salt.
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  THE YLPR INTERVIEW: Marian Wright Edelman

  2015-10-15
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  Prosecuting Maternal Substance Abusers: An Unjustified and Ineffective Policy

  Rubenstein, Laurie (2015-10-15)

  This year as many as 375,000 babies may begin their lives harmed by their mothers' substance abuse. As they grow, many of these children will suffer from a myriad of health problems and will impose tremendous financial and social costs on American society. Frustrated by the proliferation of drug babies, the apparent unwillingness of these babies' mothers to abstain from using drugs, and the inability of the social welfare and public health systems to cope with this problem, a handful of prosecutors across the country have invoked criminal sanctions against approximately fifty pregnant substance abusers.
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  Drug-Related Evictions in Public Housing: Congress' Addiction to a Quick Fix

  Weil, Lisa (2015-10-15)

  Nowhere are the human and economic costs of drug use, abuse, and trafficking more evident than in public housing projects throughout the nation. From housing developments in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, New Haven, Washington, D.C., and even Omaha, Nebraska, come tragic stories of violence, death, and fear, told by residents terrified of the open drug trade that has ravaged their neighborhoods.
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  The Myth of the American Welfare State

  Baker, Lynn (2015-10-15)

  America's Misunderstood Welfare State: PersistentM yths, Enduring Realities. By Theodore R. Marmor,1 Jerry L. Mashaw," and Philip L. Harvey.ttt New York, N.Y. 1990. Pp. xvii, 268. $22.95.
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  Contents

  2015-10-16
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  A Tribute to Jean Camper Cahn

  2015-10-15

  When Jean Camper Cahn wrote these words in a 1984 tribute to civil rights scholar Clarence Clyde Ferguson, Jr., she must have seen a world markedly different from the one she helped to create as a leading architect of the War on Poverty. With the eighties' own War on the Poor, it is easy to understand Jean Cahn's despair at the passing of another hero.
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  Health and Development Services for Children with Multiple Needs: The Child in Foster Care

  Halfon, Neal; Klee, Linnea (2015-10-15)

  Over the past century, child morbidity and mortality has decreased for most children in Western societies due to improved living conditions and advances in health services. Nevertheless, growing numbers of poor and disadvantaged children in the United States still do not enjoy even the most basic services like prenatal care and regular immunizations. While many of the infectious diseases that threatened all children earlier in the century have been eliminated among middle and upper class Americans, such diseases continue to affect the poor and underserved. Moreover, scholars and public health officials are now recognizing "new morbidities" such as developmental delays, school problems, emotional and behavioral problems, child abuse and neglect, intrauterine drug or alcohol exposure, and the effects of family disruption and violence. Unlike the "old morbidities," which have single biological origins amenable to relatively simple interventions such as antibiotics, immunizations, and improved nutrition, the new morbidities result from multiple social and behavioral factors that demand complex responses. Problems such as alcohol and drug abuse, school failure, and teenage pregnancy seldom have a single identifiable and treatable cause. Consequently, these problems require a combination of social, familial, behavioral, and educational interventions provided through infant development programs or family preservation programs designed to change the ecology of the child and family.
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  Unlocking the Hospital Doors: Medical Staff Membership and Physicians Who Serve the Poor

  Rosenbaum, Sara; Sager, Marilynn (2015-10-15)

  Children's health, a key measure of any nation's well being, is a leading indicator of the soundness of a nation's health system and its ability to provide economically for all of its citizens. Children's basic living conditions and their access to medical care in turn are major determinants of children's health.
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  Restrictions on Nursing Care for Children: A Policy That Saves No Dollars and Makes No Sense

  Giliberti, Mary; Lucht, Carroll (2015-10-15)

  In 1981, three and a half-year old Katie Beckett caught the attention of President Ronald Reagan. Katie had contracted viral encephalitis as an infant and as a result required a mechanical ventilator to help her breathe. Her parents wanted to take her home from the hospital where she had lived since infancy, but Medicaid would fund her care only if she remained in the institution. Therefore Katie remained in the hospital, which cost the public approximately $10,000 more per month than home care.
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  Sexual Harassment as Sex Discrimination: A Defective Paradigm

  Paul, Ellen (2015-10-15)

  Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits sex discrimination in employment. During the last fifteen years, the courts have extended this prohibition to include sexual harassment. While the first plaintiffs to bring Title VII sexual harassment claims met with a good deal of skepticism, current law recognizes that such behavior is actionable under Title VII. In 1980, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission amended its Guidelines on Discrimination Because of Sex to include sexual harassment and helped solidify judicial acceptance of this cause of action.
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  Contents

  2015-10-15

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