One Tax Piece of the Savings and Loan Crisis: Can the Federal Home Loan Bank Board Use the Internal Revenue Cose to Bail Out the Ailing Savings and Loan Industry?

In Cottage Savings Association v. Commissioner the Sixth Circuit delves into a little known aspect of the savings and loan crisis-the attempt by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to use the Internal Revenue Code ( Code ) to help bolster its failing constituent thrifts. In the course of its analysis, the Sixth Circuit must articulate the requirements for transforming an economic loss into a deductible tax loss

Constructing Reality: Social Science and Race Cases

Dred Scott v. Sanford, Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education and Grutter v. Bollinger all demonstrate that law alone is not enough to make social change. Instead, lawyers interested in social change must understand the nature of the societies that they attempt to persuade and the language that leads judges to change their ways of thinking. In the early 21st century, the language of persuasion is often the language of social science

Minority Law Teachers Conference

The 1990 Minority Law Teachers Conference was dedicated to expanding the number of minorities in law teaching. To this end, the volume addresses a wide variety of concerns for new and veteran teachers including: teaching, scholarship, service, diversity and recruitment. The volume remains one of the most comprehensive statements of minority law professors about their role in the academy

Islamic Law Meets ERISA: How America\u27s Private Pension System Unintentionally Discriminates Against Muslims and What to Do About It

This article asks whether Muslims whose religious beliefs prevent investment in their employers’ private pension plans have a right to religious accommodation. This is a real issue for a growing part of the population whose spiritual lives are governed by rules that prohibit the giving or taking of interest. As one might expect, the investments available through most American pension plans involve some aspect of interest making those investments unsuitable retirement vehicles for devote Muslims. Consequently, in order to secure their retirement income, Muslims are faced with either violating their religious beliefs, losing years of investment opportunity as they wait for the American investment market to catch up to their religious needs, relying on their employer’s goodwill, or religious accommodation through court or statute. Religious accommodation in the workplace is governed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act (Title VII). The statute is directive and punitive. There are potential money damages if an employer does not comply with Title VII’s religious accommodation requirement but no benefit (monetary or otherwise) in exchange for compliance. The two Supreme Court decisions that look at religious accommodation under Title VII concern private employers asked to rearrange employee work schedules to accommodate Sabbatarians. Where the employer faced a potential penalty for failure to provide religious accommodation but no benefit for compliance with the statute’s requirements, the Court treated the Title VII accommodation obligation as an Establishment of religion and as a burden on the non-believers’ Free Exercise rights. Accordingly, the Court diminished Congress’ religious accommodation rule under Title VII to the point that no motivated employer need ever accommodate an employee’s religious practice.Not all religious accommodations occur in the same context. As opposed to religious accommodation under Title VII, the Court generally gives Congress great deference when the legislature bestows tax benefits in exchange for taxpayers eschewing even constitutionally protected activities. Private pension plans are founded on tremendous tax benefits bestowed on retirement accounts by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). These benefits invoke the deference to Congress exhibited in the Court’s tax decisions rather than the hostility to forced religious accommodation reflected in its Title VII decisions

Income Tax Rhetoric (or Why Do We Want Tax Reform?)

The 1992 presidential election is over but the United States economy still faces hard times. Each man who hoped to lead us promised to revive our sick economy, and each cure promised included a strong dose of tax reform. At no time during the campaign or the transition did anyone seem to ask: Can tax reform actually increase employment, lower the deficit, nwerse our trade imbalance, or provide any other boost out of the recession? Why do Americans accept the notion that economic recovery requires tax reform? We did not always think this way. Why does it seem so natural now? Furthermore, is it good for our politics to focus so much on constant tax reform

Bibliography of Tax Articles in High Prestige Non-Specialized Law Journals: A Comparison of Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States 1954-2001

The bibliography surveys all tax articles (but not Notes) from 1954 to 2001 in high prestige law journals in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. The bibliography compares number of articles produced in each country and also shows what areas of interest dominate in each market. For example, Canadian journal produce more scholarship on Comparative Taxation while Australian journals are more likely to publish in the area of Evasion and Avoidance

Setting an Agenda for a Study of Tax and Black Culture

At present the Internal Revenue Code unthinkingly reflects many aspects of white culture including historical opportunities that whites have received for wealth building and marriage. In order for the federal tax laws to tax fairly all cultures within the purview of taxation must also find their values reflected. The article sets out how the tax laws might begin to incorporate black culture

Quantum Leap: A Black Woman Uses Legal Education to Obtain Her Honorary White Pass

The nature of privilege is that it is hidden from those who possess it even more than it is hidden from those who lack privilege. Privilege\u27s invisibility to its owner makes privilege difficult to both identify and fight

Exploring the Mysteries: Can We Ever Know Anything About Race and Tax?

The politics behind tax legislation are explored in order to demonstrate that, rather than being surprising or unexpected, it is easily predictable that federal tax laws would favor whites over blacks

United States\u27 Trade Policy and the Exportation of United States\u27 Culture

The United States Trade Representative and the policies that he (or she) attempt to impose on our trading partners have the serious and perhaps unintended effect of destroying local culture particularly in the area of film production