Between the Lines

R. Shep Melnick

doi:10.5771/9780815705543

Summary

Judicial interpretation of federal statutes has often been at the center of political controversy in recent years. In fact, it would be difficult to find a major domestic policy area in which statutory interpretation by the federal courts has not played a significant role in shaping the activities of government. In most important cases, judges base their interpretation not on the letter of the law, but on their reading of its history, purpose, and spirit. What judges discover between the lines of statutes often has major policy consequences.

This book examines how statutory interpretation has affected the development of three programs: Aid to Families with Dependent Children, education for the handicapped, and food stamps. It explores how these decisions have changed state and national policies and how other institutionsespecially Congresshave reacted to them. Although these three programs differ in several important ways, in each instance court action has expanded program benefits and increased federal control over state and local governments.

R. Shep Melnick ties trends in statutory interpretation to broader policy developments, including the expansion of the agenda of national government, the persistence of divided government, and the resurgence and decentralization of Congress. He demonstrates that Congress frequently modifies or overturns court rulings, and he explains why statutory interpretation became so controversial in the 1980s.

Between the Lines also explores the understanding of welfare rights that has guided the development of welfare policy over the past fifty years. What basic beliefs about the welfare state underlie court decisions interpreting these statutes? To what extent do members of Congress share these views? How have the assumptions of judges and members of Congress changed over time? These are some of the questions addressed in this detailed study of American welfare policy.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2010
ISBN-Print: 978-0-8157-5664-4
ISBN-Online: 978-0-8157-0554-3
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 344
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
1. 1. Statutory Interpretation and the American Constitution No access
  2. From Laissez-Faire to Programmatic Rights No access
  3. Studying Statutory Interpretation No access
2. 1. Civil Rights and the Expanded Agenda No access
  2. Divided Government and the New Factionalism No access
  3. Implications for the Design of Statutes No access
  4. A Judiciary in Flux No access
3. 1. The Demise of the Rights-Privilege Distinction? No access
  2. The Decline of Deference No access
  3. From Grants-in-Aid to Individual Rights No access
  4. The Search for Meaning No access
  5. The Two Meanings of "Entitlement" No access
  6. A Battle on Two Fronts No access
1. 1. The Frustration of Reform No access
  2. From Professional Norms to Welfare Rights No access
2. 1. The New Jurisprudence of Title IV No access
  2. Activism in the Lower Courts No access
  3. The Supreme Court's Second Thought No access
  4. AFDC and the Judicial Process No access
3. 1. The Political Lessons of the Guaranteed Income No access
  2. The First Attack on the Courts: Long's March No access
  3. The Second Attack on the Courts: The Reagan Experience No access
  4. 1981–82: Welfare's Thermidor No access
  5. A New Consensus? No access
1. 1. The Strategy of Rights No access
  2. The Courts Set the Stage No access
  3. The Passage of Rights No access
  4. The Ironies of Congressional Action No access
2. 1. The Quiet Administrators No access
  2. Judicial Rules and Themes No access
  3. Defining an Appropriate Education No access
  4. The Political Appeal of Legal Rights No access
1. 1. Food Stamps and Special Education No access
  2. The Two Faces of Food Stamps No access
  3. Committee Jurisdiction No access
  4. From Discretion to Confrontation No access
2. 1. The Dance of Litigation No access
  2. Playing the Trump Card No access
  3. The Attack on the Courts No access
  4. Conclusion No access
1. 1. Separation of Powers No access
  2. Federalism No access
  3. Judicial Presumptions No access
2. 1. The Many Faces of Congress No access
  2. The Fortune of Reversals No access
  3. Committee Variation No access
  4. Judicial Review: The View from Congress No access
3. 1. The Claim of Objectivity No access
  2. Distribution of Costs No access
  3. Fault and Responsibility No access
Notes No access Pages 285 - 336
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