Lochner, Lawrence, and Liberty

Many of the states of the United States have statutes, constitutional provisions, and court decisions that deny individuals the right to have a family, specifically a spouse and children, based on sexual orientation. Advocates have made a wide variety of arguments attacking such restrictions. Scholars and litigants frequently argue that such acts violate constitutional guarantees of equal protection or invade a constitutional right to privacy. However, such arguments are often defeated by counter arguments presented with religious, moral, and even emotional fervor. This article presents and defends a new analytical framework based on liberty of contract to advance gay rights. The context explored in this article for this new paradigm is the area of gay rights to family. Thus, this article will begin in Part I by presenting a survey of the primary encroachments on the liberty of gay people to enter into formal arrangements to create a family. Part II of this article will discuss the Lochner decision and develop its potential for renewed application. Part II will also discuss the philosophy and history that led up to that decision and certain other decisions from that era. Finally, Part II will present critical analyses of the downfall of Lochner and its analytical framework. The goal of this part is to explain the meaning of the Lochnerian liberty of contract interest. Part III will explain that many of the traditional criticisms of Lochner are unfounded and are currently being re-considered by scholars. Part III will admit to certain shortcomings of the traditional Lochner framework but will set forth more fully the modification to that framework outlined briefly a bove, making the framework more balanced and appropriate for use by modern courts. Part III will then apply that approach to gay rights to family, hypothesizing the results in each of the three main areas under inquiry here: rights to marry, adopt, and enter into surrogacy arrangements. Finally, this article will conclude in part with a summary of what has been considered. It will then make some final remarks about the potential usefulness of a modified Lochnerian approach to liberty of contract, and thus to liberty itself

Simplifying the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act: If a Sovereign Acts like a Private Party, Treat It like One

This Article will begin in Section II by giving an overview of the development and structure of the FSIA. Section II will explain how the United States moved from its position in the nineteenth century of absolute sovereign immunity to the more appropriate restrictive theory of immunity that is embodied in the FSIA. Section III will then explain in detail why the current framework of the commercial activities exception to the FSIA is problematic. In this Section, the leading cases that have attempted to interpret the commercial activities exception to the FSIA will be analyzed. Finally, Section IV will present and support an argument for an alternative structure to the commercial activities exception of the FSIA, a more rational approach that simply treats a foreign sovereign like a private party when and if it acts like one. While the alternative structure could and should be introduced by way of a statutory amendment to the FSIA, this Article will also argue that pending such an amendment, courts should interpret the language of the current FSIA in a way that leads to the same results

Lochner, Lawrence, and Liberty

Many of the states of the United States have statutes, constitutional provisions, and court decisions that deny individuals the right to have a family, specifically a spouse and children, based on sexual orientation. Advocates have made a wide variety of arguments attacking such restrictions. Scholars and litigants frequently argue that such acts violate constitutional guarantees of equal protection or invade a constitutional right to privacy. However, such arguments are often defeated by counter arguments presented with religious, moral, and even emotional fervor. This article presents and defends a new analytical framework based on liberty of contract to advance gay rights. The context explored in this article for this new paradigm is the area of gay rights to family. Thus, this article will begin in Part I by presenting a survey of the primary encroachments on the liberty of gay people to enter into formal arrangements to create a family. Part II of this article will discuss the Lochner decision and develop its potential for renewed application. Part II will also discuss the philosophy and history that led up to that decision and certain other decisions from that era. Finally, Part II will present critical analyses of the downfall of Lochner and its analytical framework. The goal of this part is to explain the meaning of the Lochnerian liberty of contract interest. Part III will explain that many of the traditional criticisms of Lochner are unfounded and are currently being re-considered by scholars. Part III will admit to certain shortcomings of the traditional Lochner framework but will set forth more fully the modification to that framework outlined briefly a bove, making the framework more balanced and appropriate for use by modern courts. Part III will then apply that approach to gay rights to family, hypothesizing the results in each of the three main areas under inquiry here: rights to marry, adopt, and enter into surrogacy arrangements. Finally, this article will conclude in part with a summary of what has been considered. It will then make some final remarks about the potential usefulness of a modified Lochnerian approach to liberty of contract, and thus to liberty itself

How Community Organizations Promote Continuity of Care for Young People with Mental Health Problems

Young people between the ages of 16 and 25 who experience mental health problems experience transitions and need help from a variety of organizations. Organizations promote continuity of care by assisting young adults with developmental, service, and systemic transitions. Providers offer specific services to help transitions and also form cooperative relationships with other community organizations. Results from a survey of 100 service providers in one community describe organizational attributes and practices which are associated with continuity of care in a regional system for young adults. Data analyses show that full-service organizations which practice cultural competence offer more specific services that foster continuity of care. Larger, full-service organizations are also more likely to have more extensive and collaborative inter-organizational networks that help young adults continue care over time within the regional system of care

Do primary care medical homes facilitate care transitions after psychiatric discharge for patients with multiple chronic conditions?

Primary-care-based medical homes may facilitate care transitions for persons with multiple chronic conditions (MCC) including serious mental illness. The purpose of this manuscript is to assess outpatient follow-up rates with primary care and mental health providers following psychiatric discharge by medical home enrollment and medical complexity

Do Medical Homes Offer Improved Diabetes Care for Medicaid Enrollees with Co-occurring Schizophrenia?

To determine whether Medicaid recipients with co-occurring diabetes and schizophrenia that are medical-home-enrolled are more likely to receive guideline-concordant diabetes care than those who are not medical-home-enrolled, controlling for confounders