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Abstract:
Homeownership has long been considered a rite of passage to the economic middle class. Accordingly, a great deal of legislation and academic attention has focused on policies that promote homeownership and lower the barriers to purchasing a first home. However, insufficient attention has been paid to policies that would affect the ability of families to keep their homes in times of economic stress. In particular, scholars have not yet addressed how homeownership policies affect families with children at home in the event of a financial downturn. This paper - drawing on data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project - focuses on the responses of these families to economic crisis. It provides empirical evidence that parents with children at home are more likely to fight to retain their homes and more likely to have filed for bankruptcy in order to do so. The paper demonstrates that having children plays a role in the decision to continue making mortgage payments on an expensive home, and in the decision to file for bankruptcy to try to retain that home. The data illustrate the powerful impact of housing policy on families with children and raise important questions about whether foreclosure policies should directly account for the presence of children.

Bankruptcy, homeownership, foreclosure, families, middle class, economy, financial crisis, subprime lending

Abstract:
Union representation elections are often conducted in an environment of intimidation and coercion, denying employees the freedom to choose whether they wish to be represented by a union. In the United States, both unions and employers have engaged in unfair labor practices in pursuit of their own agendas - misleading employees about the consequences of choosing union representation and, in extreme cases, threatening employees with physical harm. This Policy Essay by Senator Arlen Specter and Eric Nguyen argues that current federal labor law fails to address the problem of unfair labor practices in union representation elections. It discusses how current law provides only toothless remedies that do not deter abuses, and how implementation of these limited remedies by the National Labor Relations Board is plagued by delays. The Essay then surveys the experiences of Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom to illuminate how aspects of foreign labor laws could reduce procedural delays, lead to more responsive unions, and encourage voluntary negotiation between employers and unions if implemented in the United States. The Policy Essay concludes by posing questions that Congress should address while developing new legislation to secure employees' right to choose union representation.

National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), administrative delays, organized labor, unions, card check, secret ballot, unfair labor practices

Abstract:
Each year, millions of consumers purchase diet products ranging from herbal supplements to meal replacement drinks. Companies like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig devote tens of millions of dollars of their annual budget to advertising. At the center of much of the industry's marketing efforts are television advertisements featuring consumers who have experienced great success with such products. Concerned that these testimonials consistently mislead consumers, the Federal Trade Commission has suggested that it may promulgate more restrictive advertising guidelines. Industry watchers have suggested concrete revisions. The most aggressive proposal would restrict advertisers to featuring only those consumers who have experienced typical weight-loss results. Other proposals call for companies to include in their advertisements a table of detailed statistics on typical weight loss. This article argues that these leading proposals for change are overly broad and likely to be found unconstitutional under the First Amendment. It suggests that Congress and the Commission should instead devote greater resources to the post-market enforcement of the existing guidelines, which already require that testimonials be both representative of what consumers will generally achieve and confirmed by adequate substantiation.

FTC, FDA, First Amendment, advertising, testimonial advertising, weight loss, diet products

Abstract:
Jurists and scholars who view the Constitution as a social contract generally believe that it should be interpreted through an originalist lens. After all, the intent of the contracting parties is a fundamental inquiry in contract interpretation. In this article, I demonstrate that standard approaches to contract interpretation are much more open to non-originalist sources than is conventionally recognized. Judges interpreting contracts may use original understanding as a nominal default, but they also allow that meaning to be superceded by evidence of later traditions or changed consensus. I argue, therefore, that social contractarians should be more open to non-originalist sources in constitutional interpretation. Indeed, for a social contract theorist, there are normative as well as doctrinal reasons to do so. As they do in contract law, default rules might in constitutional law better reflect the preferences of the bound parties.

Constitution, constitutional law, contract law, originalism, original understanding, social contract

Abstract:
This article investigates the effect of public opinion, ideology, and political security on state decision-making on economic integration within the European Union (EU). Although leaders may have objective preferences based on projected economic effects and party ideology, they often face domestic constituencies with different views on increasing European interdependence. I argue that leaders with higher political security are able to discount adverse public opinion and to pursue their own preferences. Where leaders feel their political life may be in jeopardy, they stake out positions closer to prevailing public opinion. I test this hypothesis using a series of ordered probit models, and I conclude that even modest gains in political security dramatically increase the likelihood of a leader pushing strongly for economic integration.

European Union, Europe, decision-making, integration, political security, political capital, preferences, public opinion

Abstract:
Recent scholarship argues that judicial doctrines that raise the cost of passing legislation indirectly provide courts with greater information. If Congress is willing to expend limited resources on a bill it ultimately passes, the legislation is more likely to satisfy fixed constitutional standards. This logic has long been applied in the agency context: Courts require agencies to devote a great deal of time and energy on any single regulation, making it more likely that the agency has chosen a project within the scope of its delegated authority. This Article argues that so-called hard look review of legislation is unlikely to provide courts with information about its constitutionality. It first demonstrates that Congress, unlike agencies, has virtually unlimited resources with which to satisfy heightened procedural requirements. The Article then argues that even if Congress is forced to choose among competing legislative projects, it will select legislation that is politically advantageous rather than constitutionally sound. As a result, courts should be wary of assuming that greater procedural requirements will lead to less constitutionally problematic legislation. However, the systematic choice of politically popular bills - when combined with judicial doctrines that require extensive public debate and comment - do make it more likely that legislation is democratically responsive. This information provides courts with a different basis for deferring to Congress.

Hard look review, Congress, judicial review, consitutionality, signaling costs, procedural requirements