Kara Sheli Wallis

Volume 28.2 (download PDF)

Abstract

Since its inception, federal “child welfare” policy has focused on the regulation, surveillance, and policing of Black, Indigenous, and immigrant families. Rooted in the legacies of slavery, U.S. settler colonialism, and the nineteenth century child labor “Orphan Train” movement, modern foster care functions to “save” children by removing them from indigent families to be “placed out” with strangers that the government deems more deserving of support. Although this is done under the guise of “child safety,” the real threats to children’s well-being stem from systemic failures—such as unaffordable housing, lack of access to healthcare, and entrenched poverty. Rather than invest in addressing these root causes, federal policy coerces states to implement a family regulation system that commodifies children and creates a market sustained by private agencies and adoption subsidies. Sacrificing public health for government surveillance, mandated reporting laws then make hospitals and doctors’ offices sites to initiate children into this harmful system.

Research shows that mandated reporting for healthcare providers reinforces the scapegoating of parents of color for social ills and poverty, while shielding institutional and individual racism. By turning healthcare providers into a tool of the police state, mandated reporting also deters families from seeking help and undermines the relationships needed to deliver adequate medical care. While some jurisdictions have recognized and attempted to curb these harms of mandated reporting, their efforts are constrained by strict requirements of the federal law’s funding
scheme.

Abolition of the federal mandated reporting apparatus is needed. This Article discusses how the adoption of sound, evidence-based policy would instead lead to funding communities and protecting public health, in replacement of our continued investment in a broken family regulation system—a system that consistently harms the very children it claims to protect.

Benjamin E. Douglas

Volume 28.2 (download PDF)

Abstract

The United States has long been exceptional among liberal states in both its lack of workers’ rights and the undemocratic character of its electoral politics. In this Article, I argue that these two phenomena are related: the power that business managers and owners have over their employees has a depoliticizing, anti-democratic effect. It discourages people with a boss—that is, most working-age people—from speaking their mind, while also preventing them from banding together for mutual benefit and the realization of shared values.

I begin by discussing the United States’ democracy deficit, as illustrated in low voter turnout and the weakness of civil society. I then discuss the ways in which employers have extreme power over their employees. Although many laws aim to limit employer discretion, from anti-discrimination laws to employee speech protections in some states, the backdrop of employer discretion and power renders these laws ineffective.

I then link the issues of depoliticization and employer power, discussing how the intimidation workers feel in the workplace undermines labor organizing, free speech, and political engagement in general. I place particular focus on laws that aim at making workers better citizens, such as whistleblower protections. I argue that giving workers due process, in particular requiring employers to show just cause before terminating employment, would breathe life into the aspirations behind these pro-democracy policies.

I conclude that there are no guaranteed results, but that the sketch of worker due process I am proposing offers real promise to help democratize our society.

Quinn DeCicco & Sarah Michelle Smith

Volume 28.2 (download PDF)

Abstract

New York’s Article 81 guardianship system, intended as a last-resort protection for individuals unable to manage their personal or financial affairs, has become a default intervention that too often strips people of autonomy and dignity. Overburdened guardians, minimal training requirements, and inadequate judicial oversight leave incapacitated persons vulnerable to neglect, exploitation, and “civil death.” This Comment uses Cody’s Story to humanize the systemic failures and evaluates Resolution 561, recently adopted by the New York City Council, which calls for a statewide public guardianship system. While Resolution 561 represents a critical step toward reform, it lacks the structural safeguards necessary for meaningful change. Drawing on comparative models from other states and social work principles of harm reduction and personcentered practice, this Comment argues that New York must pair any new system with enforceable caseload caps, mandatory and ongoing training, robust oversight, equitable funding, and a statutory presumption favoring less restrictive alternatives. Without these reforms, the state will continue to fail the very individuals that guardianship is meant to protect.

Talia Gallo

Volume 28.2 (download PDF)

Abstract

Survivors of intimate partner violence should not face further abuse at the hands of the state, let alone by a tool that is meant to protect them. This Note examines how orders of protections issued by family courts during child abuse and neglect proceedings fail survivors of violence and criminalize individuals in civil courtrooms. This research examines how orders of protection do not always afford individuals due process, despite depriving many of their individual autonomy and the right to parent. Orders of protection are just one example of how family courts punitively surveil marginalized communities, creating irreparable harm under the guise of being an essential civil service necessary to keep communities and families safe. Instead, violations of orders are used against survivors in their family court cases, damaging family bonds and discrediting survivors’ insights into their own experiences. This Note begs its reader to think more deeply about the concept of safety and protection in a system that is meant to guard the interests of some at the expense of others. It implores the reader to shift their focus to the stories of survivors, especially those whose voices and experiences have been too long left out of the conversation and who cry for abolition and reparation as a response to violence.

Steven L. Nelson & Ericka Love

Volume 28.2 (download PDF)

Abstract

This Article leverages Cheryl Harris’s Whiteness as Property to better understand the state takeover of public schools in Houston, Texas. In doing so, the Article recounts the history of state takeovers of public schools and districts before highlighting how whiteness as property has been applied in research in the field of education. The Article shares the specific facts about the state takeover of public schools in the Houston Independent School District ahead of applying the four rights inherent in Harris’s Whiteness as Property. This Article argues and exhibits that whiteness as property is an appropriate framework by which to evaluate the state takeover of public schools and districts, especially the takeover of Houston Independent School District.

David A. Weinstein

Volume 28.1 (download PDF)

Abstract

In 1883, in People ex rel. King v. Gallagher, the New York Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought on behalf of an eleven-year-old African American girl who sought admission into her neighborhood public school in Brooklyn and thereby challenged the legal segregation regime governing New York’s public education system. The case, largely forgotten today, had a profound impact on subsequent legal efforts at school desegregation. This article examines the development of African American legal rights to public education in New York State in the nineteenth century and early efforts to challenge the exclusion of Black students from public schools. It describes the King litigation and its place in the development of civil rights law, focusing on its role in entrenching the “separate but equal” doctrine.

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Sígrid Vendrell-Polanco

Volume 28.1 (download PDF)

Abstract

The United States purports to maintain a democratic relationship with its inhabited territories, yet the Supreme Court continues to uphold twentieth century laws that affirm rather than abrogate colonial policies. The gap between how the United States idealizes democracy and its real world application, especially in its five colonized territories (Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the United States Virgin Islands, and American Samoa), is not just growing – it is becoming a chasm. These colonies are currently referred to as United States territories. In 2023, the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico experienced a controversial sovereignty challenge surrounding the Supreme Court’s ruling in Financial Oversight & Management Board for Puerto Rico v. Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, Inc. In 2023, the Puerto Rican people expressed national outrage at the implementation and supervision of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (“PROMESA”) congressional statute due to its exclusion of Puerto Rican constituents from equal collaboration in debt crisis resolution and pronounced refusal of government transparency. This article contributes to the scholarly literature on United States territorial law by condemning the oppressive application of federal laws to the territories and contends that the Court has cut off any viable remedy for Puerto Rico to redress governance grievances. The Court continues to affirm colonial rule without a viable remedy for self-governance.

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Eric Lukoff

Volume 28.1 (download PDF)

Abstract

Due process in safety net public benefit programs requires agencies to employ modern technology in providing notice that is reasonably likely to reach participants. The Supreme Court has held that due process is dependent on the time, place, and circumstances in which it operates. Scholars have further argued that due process is adaptable to changing facts and circumstances over time. Yet, mailed paper notices remain the standard in providing notice to participants in public benefit programs.

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