Prospective Overruling and the Revival of ‘Unconstitutional\u27 Statutes

The Supreme Court\u27s decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey reshaped the law of abortion in this country. The Court overturned two of its previous decisions invalidating state restrictions on abortions, Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, and it abandoned the trimester analytic framework established in Roe v. Wade. At the time Casey was handed down, twenty states had restrictive abortion statutes on the books that were in conflict with Akron or Thornburgh and which were unenforced. In six of these states, courts had held the statutes unconstitutional. Almost as soon as the Casey ruling was announced, the campaign to secure enforcement of these restrictions began. Are these statutes good law, despite the fact that they were once in conflict with governing Supreme Court precedent (and in some cases had been judicially determined to violate women\u27s constitutional rights)? Alternatively, will they have to be re-enacted by the legislature to be enforceable? These questions highlight the revival issue. The revival issue arises when a court overrules a prior decision in which it had held a statute unconstitutional. (We will throughout this article refer to the first decision as the invalidating decision, and to the second decision as the overruling decision. ) Should the enforceability of a statute passed prior to the overruling decision be determined by reference to the invalidating decision--in which case the statute would have to be repassed to be in effect--or by reference to the overruling decision--in which case the statute would not have to be repassed? In other words, does the overruling decision automatically revive a previously unenforceable statute? The way in which the revival issue is resolved will thus determine whether, in light of Casey, previously unenforced statutes became enforceable without the need for any post-Casey legislative action. In addition to affecting what kind of abortion regulations are in effect in twenty states in the immediate wake of Casey, this determination has profound consequences for the kind of abortion regulations that will be in effect in these states in the future. Such long-term consequences reflect the fact that our governmental system is not one of pure majoritarianism and that the burden of inertia in our legislative process is heavy: as we will discuss, statutes on the books can stay on the books even if a current majority no longer desires them; in contrast, proposed statutes need supermajoritarian support to secure passage. Therefore, the starting point for future legislative action--such as whether pre-Casey abortion regulations are enforceable--influences the legislative action that in fact develops

Environmental Impacts of a North American Free Trade Agreement

A reduction in trade barriers generally will affect the environment by expanding the scale of economic activity, by altering the composition of economic activity, and by bringing about a change in the techniques of production. We present empirical evidence to assess the relative magnitudes of these three effects as they apply to further trade liberalization in Mexico. In Section 1. we use comparable measures of three air pollutants in a cross-section of urban areas located in 42 countries to study the relationship between air quality and economic growth. We find for two pollutants (sulfur dioxide and "smoke") that concentrations increase with per capita GDP at low levels of national income, but decrease with GD? growth at higher levels of income. Section 2 studies the determinants of the industry pattern of U.S. imports from Mexico and of value added by Mexico's maquiladora sector. We investigate whether the size of pollution abatement costs in the U.S. industry influences the pattern of international trade and investment. Finally, in Section 3, we use the results from a computable general equilibrium model to study the likely compositional effect of a NAFTA on pollution in Mexico.

Family Law - Modifying Arbitrator\u27s Awards - A Nod to Judges of the Parties\u27 Own Choosing

The North Carolina Court of Appeals recently decided that the Uniform Arbitration Acts controls the modification of an arbitrator\u27s award of spousal support. In Crutchley v. Crutchley, the Court held that a judicially confirmed award of spousal support could not be modified by a motion in the cause. The Court\u27s message is clear - if parties choose to arbitrate spousal support, the validity and effect of the agreement and the arbitrator\u27s award are measured against the criteria of the Uniform Arbitration Act. On appeal, the practical question before the North Carolina Supreme Court is whether parties in a domestic dispute can agree to let someone other than a judge determine issues traditionally reserved for the courts, spousal support and child support, and to what extent the courts are bound by that agreement and the subsequent award

Introduction (1989)

A Seventh Conference on Mathematics from a Christian Perspective Gene B. Chase, Edito

Space station full-scale docking/berthing mechanisms development

One of the most critical operational functions for the space station is the orbital docking between the station and the STS orbiter. The program to design, fabricate, and test docking/berthing mechanisms for the space station is described. The design reflects space station overall requirements and consists of two mating docking mechanism halves. One half is designed for use on the shuttle orbiter and incorporates capture and energy attenuation systems using computer controlled electromechanical actuators and/or attenuators. The mating half incorporates a flexible feature to allow two degrees of freedom at the module-to-module interface of the space station pressurized habitat volumes. The design concepts developed for the prototype units may be used for the first space station flight hardware

The Relationship Between Public and Private Sector Wages in Alberta

L'Alberta est loin de constituer un marché du travail parfait. Ne comptant que deux centres urbains importants situés à quelque deux cents milles l'un de l'autre, il ne peut guère exister de mobilité de la main-d'oeuvre entre Edmonton et Calgary et entre leurs banlieues respectives. Les marchés du travail ne peuvent donc, dans une certaine mesure tout au moins, qu'être fragmentés. Étant donné que le gouvernement albertain applique une structure des salaires relativement uniforme d'un bout à l'autre de la province, il va de soi que, à cause de son importance comme employeur, il joue un rôle considérable dans la détermination des taux de rémunération. En outre, les négociateurs syndicaux du secteur privé peuvent utiliser comme coin contre les employeurs un règlement sur les salaires dans le secteur public. De plus, l'entente entre le gouvernement et ses employés devient pour les dirigeants syndicaux une réussite à dépasser en vue de faire le bonheur de leurs membres. Ces deux faits ont évidemment une influence marquée sur les ententes qui sont négociées tant dans le secteur privé syndiqué que dans le secteur public.La politique du gouvernement en matière de salaires pèse aussi d'un certain poids sur le secteur privé non-syndiqué. Si les taux de salaires payés par les employeurs du secteur privé non-syndiqué sont trop inférieurs à ceux que versent le gouvernement, il est probable que la capacité des employeurs de contenir la montée du syndicalisme et d'empêcher le roulement de la main-d'oeuvre sera réduite.Le gouvernement ne fixe pas les salaires de ses employés sans tenir compte des taux qui sont payés tant dans les entreprises syndiquées que dans les entreprises non-syndiquées. Nous savons, à partir de documents explicites, que le règlement des questions salariales subit, avec un certain décalage, l'influence des taux de salaires qui sont versés par les entreprises privées et les municipalités.L'Alberta a négocié avec ses employés pendant la première moitié des années 1969 et 1971. Quatre-vingt cinq pour cent des établissements qui n'appartiennent pas au secteur gouvernemental ont négocié de nouvelles conventions collectives ou ont procédé à une révision générale des salaires en 1970 et en .1972.En conséquence, est-il possible de tracer un modèle régressif où il apparaîtra que le salaire payé à un employé exerçant le métier « i » travaillant pour une entreprise privée ou une municipalité « p » est fixé en tenant compte à la fois du salaire qu'il touchait au cours des deux années précédentes et du taux de salaire des employés du gouvernement provincial qui exécutent un travail identique. Ce modèle est tiré de données extraites de relevés du gouvernement d'Alberta pour les années 1969 et 1972.Ainsi, peut-on résumer les constatations de cette étude de la façon suivante :1. Les changements dans les traitements des employés de bureau du gouvernement provincial ont eu une influence positive marquée sur les traitements des employés de même catégorie dans l'entreprise privée et les municipalités en ce qui concerne les rondes de négociation des années 1969 et 1972. On ne décèle aucune relation semblable en ce qui a trait aux autres groupes d'emplois.2. De ces deux rondes de négociation, c'est celle de 1972 où la Province a exercé le poids le plus marqué sur la fixation des taux de salaires dans l'industrie et dans les municipalités.3. Même s'il exerce une influence sur les salaires, le gouvernement, en contrepartie, subit aussi fortement l'influence des taux de salaires qui sont fixés dans le secteur privé, principalement là où il existe des syndicats.4. Lorsqu'on exclut les municipalités de l'échantillonnage, l'influence des augmentations de salaires accordées par le gouvernement est moins grande sur les entreprises privées et n'a été significative en 1972 que dans le cas des employés de bureau non syndiqués.The purpose of this study is to determine the nature and magnitude of any relationship between wage and salary changes in specified occupational classifications within the Alberta Civil Service and wage and salary changes in similar occupational classes in Alberta industry. In particular, the possibility of the « leader » role that public service wage and salary changes may play in the determination of occupational wage and salaries in other employment sectors within the Province of Alberta will be articulated

In the Shadow of Best Interest: Negotiating the Facts, Interests, and Interventions in Child Abuse Cases

Most cases of child abuse and neglect are not as extreme or clear-cut as those reported in the media. In routine cases the perpetrator is usually a family member, the evidence of injury is ambiguous and the identity of the perpetrator is uncertain. Prosecution, removal of the child, and therapy for the family are sometimes contradictory mandates which courts and social service agencies must balance. Norm centered negotiation is the decision making process found in this study of child protective work. Child protection workers sometimes negotiate with families in their decisions to confirm abuse, representatives of different agencies negotiate with each other to establish the facts of a case, the best interests of the child, and the service plan. Negotiation is interpreted to be a practical solution to chronic factual uncertainly, contradictory mandates and multi-agency participation in decisions. Recognition and legitimation of negotiation as the actual decision making pro cess in many cases will permit agencies to keep records and data which permit mure adequate monitoring of case processing Legitimation of negotiation will permit explicit training of staff in more effective methods to negotiate in the shadow of the best interests of children