November - December 2001

Cover

The November-December 2001 issue of Clearinghouse Review features articles on highlights of the recent Supreme Court term, community integration of individuals with disabilities, labor law issues for low-income workers, and privacy issues facing welfare recipients.

 
  • Beyond Bush v. Gore: Highlights from the Supreme Court's 2000–2001 Decisions Concerning Access to the Courts

    Several decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court last term will have an impact on individuals' access to the justice system and will affect federal court practice for public interest practitioners. In two of these decisions, the Court said that states were not subject to suit under two major civil rights laws. Other notable decisions involved the state action doctrine, attorney fees, retroactive application of statutes, judicial estoppel, and the scope of deference that judges must accord administrative agencies.

    By Jane Perkins, Gary Smith, Matthew Diller, and Gill Deford

  • Community Integration of Individuals with Disabilities: An Update on Olmstead Implementation

    In 1999 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that unnecessary institutionalization of people with disabilities is a form of discrimination in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Lower courts now are defining the boundaries of the integration mandate in Olmstead v. L.C. and ruling on various nonmerit defenses commonly raised. Meanwhile states are taking preliminary steps to implement the mandate.

    By Jennifer Mathis

  • Addressing Labor Law Issues for Low-Income Workers: Encouraging Collective Self-Help

    In the labor law community the argument is unrefuted that low-wage nonunion workers face unjust treatment by their employers more frequently and more severely than the unionized or professional labor force. Lawyers can advocate fair labor standards to protect low-income workers under the National Labor Relations Act.

    By David Huffman-Gottschling

  • Privacy Issues Affecting Welfare Applicants

    Although welfare applicants always have had to surrender some privacy rights to obtain public assistance, the 1996 welfare reform law requires even greater information collection from welfare applicants. Thus advocates need to know the limitations on the government's information collection that the Fourth Amendment and civil rights law impose, and they need to understand the legal restrictions on the use of the information that government agencies collect from welfare applicants.

    By Allison I. Brown

  • Sandoval's Retrenchment on Civil Rights Enforcement: The Ultimate Sorcerer's Magic

    In Alexander v. Sandoval the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that plaintiffs had no private right of action to enforce regulations prohibiting disparate impact discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Because the Sandoval majority "picked and chose" among conclusions from previous Supreme Court cases, the decision undermines basic concepts of stare decisis. The decision leaves questions unanswered and is likely to affect future cases.

    By Jane Perkins and Sarah Jane Somers

  • New Environmental Sampling and Right-to-Know Strategies for Housing and Tenants' Rights Advocates

    Focusing on environmental health hazards often associated with poor housing conditions is a new approach to addressing substandard housing and promoting tenants' rights. By adapting sampling and right-to-know strategies from the environmental movement to the housing and tenants' rights arena, advocates can document serious environmental health hazards in distressed communities and use this information to win measures to catalyze corrective action to ensure safe and affordable housing for low-income families.

    By Don Ryan and Ralph Scott

  • What's Up

    Congressman John R. Lewis honored for antipoverty and justice work