scholarly journals The 60th Anniversary of the Everson Decision and America's Church-State Proposition

2007 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl H. Esbeck
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fourteenth Amendment ◽  
Establishment Clause ◽  
Board Of Education ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
State And Local ◽  
The Many ◽  
State Relations

On February 10, 1947, the United States Supreme Court handed down Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township. For scholars of the First Amendment, Everson marks the beginning of the Supreme Court's modern era with respect to church-state relations. It is easy enough to state the reason for the decision's prominence, for it was in Everson where the Establishment Clause was first “incorporated” through the Fourteenth Amendment and made applicable to the actions of all state and local governments. But just what did it mean to take the restraints on federal power that comprise the principle of no-establishment and to make them limits on the governments of the several states, as well as on the thousands of municipalities, counties, and school districts that dot the land? In Part II of these remarks, I will focus on what has occurred downstream of Everson over these event-filled sixty years. As the reader will see, I am of the belief that Everson's new deal has resulted in more good than harm for religious freedom. Still the record is mixed, as it is with most major developments. However, before going there, in Part I of this extended essay, I look back in time to recapture just what was in the bundle of restraints that all nine of the Justices in Everson said they were bringing forward via the Fourteenth Amendment and making newly binding on the many unsuspecting state and local officials.

Shaping State Fracking Policies in the United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles E. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Horizontal Drilling ◽  
Gas Drilling ◽  
The Past ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
State And Local

This article presents an overview of research focusing on how state and local governments have regulated oil and gas over the past decade following the expanded industry use of new technologies like hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and horizontal drilling. A consequence of fracking was a substantial increase in energy production accompanied by the emergence of policy concerns about how resource development and jobs could be balanced with efforts to maintain environmental quality. Researchers have dealt with three key concerns in the following sections: (1) determining whether state and local officials can each play an important role in developing policies affecting oil and gas drilling activities, (2) examining how state regulators deal with environmental and health impacts associated with fracking, and (3) looking at how state policy decisions have been shaped taking into account both state-level political and economic characteristics and agency resources and political will.

From ’48 to ’68

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-256
Author(s):  
Piero A. Tozzi
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fourteenth Amendment ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
Special Treatment ◽  
United States Supreme ◽  
Minority Class ◽  
Equal Protection Clause ◽  
The U.S

In the 1996 case Romer V. Evans, the United States Supreme Court struck down a Colorado state constitutional amendment that had prohibited municipalities and local governments within the state from enacting ordinances grant- ing special treatment to“homosexual persons.”The Court deemed the initiative to have been driven by “animus” toward an identifiable minority class, i.e., those characterized as having or engaging in “homosexual, lesbian, bisexual orientation, conduct, practices or relationships,” and thus ran afoul of the Equal Protection Clause found in the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

A National Assessment of Local Earthquake Mitigation: Implications for Planning and Public Policy

1992 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip R. Berke ◽  
Timothy Beatley
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Mail Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Earthquake Mitigation ◽  
Seismic Hazard Mitigation ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
Local Earthquake ◽  
State And Local

This paper presents conclusions and their implications for planning and public policy from a comprehensive study of local seismic hazard mitigation programs throughout the United States. Data from the study were obtained from a mail survey and three case communities. A key study conclusion is that while earthquake mitigation activity is higher among California communities than in communities of other states, it is considerably lower than for other types of hazards. Other key conclusions are that local officials can undertake a variety of activities to effectively advance planning for earthquakes, and that the more effective activities occurred through an interactive learning process where creative compromises among differing community perspectives were more likely. These conclusions imply that while there is a substantial need to better integrate earthquake mitigation into development and land use decision making, local government efforts to advance mitigation programs have a substantial potential for success. They also imply that achieving effective local response requires substantial changes in current practices of federal, state and local governments.

scholarly journals Early Responses to Climate Change: An Analysis of Seven U.S. State and Local Climate Adaptation Planning Initiatives

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Andrew Poyar ◽  
Nancy Beller-Simms
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Adaptation Planning ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Climate Adaptation Planning

Abstract State and local governments in the United States manage a wide array of natural and human resources that are particularly sensitive to climate variability and change. Recent revelations of the extent of the current and potential climate impact in this realm such as with the quality of water, the structure of the coasts, and the potential and witnessed impact on the built infrastructure give these political authorities impetus to minimize their vulnerability and plan for the future. In fact, a growing number of subnational government bodies in the United States have initiated climate adaptation planning efforts; these initiatives emphasize an array of climate impacts, but at different scales, scopes, and levels of sophistication. Meanwhile, the current body of climate adaptation literature has not taken a comprehensive look at these plans nor have they questioned what prompts local adaptation planning, at what scope and scale action is being taken, or what prioritizes certain policy responses over others. This paper presents a case-based analysis of seven urban climate adaptation planning initiatives, drawing from a review of publicly available planning documents and interviews with stakeholders directly involved in the planning process to provide a preliminary understanding of these issues. The paper also offers insight into the state of implementation of adaptation strategies, highlighting the role of low upfront costs and cobenefits with issues already on the local agenda in prompting anticipatory adaptation.

Collaborative capital budgeting in U.S. local government

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hina Khalid ◽  
David S.T. Matkin ◽  
Ricardo S. Morse
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Capital Budgeting ◽  
The United States ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Significant Heterogeneity ◽  
Management Literature ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Local Officials

This article explores collaborative capital budgeting in U.S. local governments. To date, the capital budgeting literature has focused on practices within individual governments. This leaves a gap in our understanding because a large portion of capital planning, acquisition, and maintenance occurs through collaboration between two or more local governments. Drawing on the capital budgeting and collaborative public management literature, and on illustrative cases of collaborative capital budgeting in the United States, an inductive approach is used to: (1) identify and categorize the different objectives that motivate local officials to pursue collaborative agreements, (2) examine common patterns in the types of assets involved in collaboration, and (3) discover common institutional arrangements in collaboration agreements. The research findings demonstrate significant heterogeneity in the objectives, patterns, and institutions of collaborative capital budgeting.

scholarly journals Integrated Data Systems in the US: a National Survey of State and Local Governments and their University Partners

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adelia Jenkins ◽  
Dennis Culhane
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
National Survey ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Data Matrix ◽  
Data Systems ◽  
The Us ◽  
State And Local ◽  
K 12

Background Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP) is an initiative of the University of Pennsylvania that focuses on the development, use, and innovation of integrated data systems (IDS). We convene a network of IDS across the United States and provide technical assistance to support developing sites as they build the technical and human capacity to integrate and use administrative data across agencies. Main AimIn late 2018 and early 2019, AISP conducted a national survey of integrated data efforts to better understand the landscape and how it’s changed since the last national scan was completed in 2013. The survey also served to document who is leading data sharing efforts, what data they are linking, and how linked data are currently being used. This information was used to create a centralized data matrix and contact list in order to support cross-site learning and facilitate future projects and analyses. Methods/ApproachThe survey was disseminated to AISP Network Sites, Learning Community sites, and others by AISP staff and partner organizations, including the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership Network and Arnold Policy Labs initiative. Survey responses were analyzed by AISP in spring 2019. ResultsThe survey yielded 39 responses from state and local governments and their research partners. The most common uses of integrated data among those surveyed are informing policy, program evaluation, and research. Integrated case management and resource allocation are also increasingly informed by integrated data. The most commonly integrated data sources are early childhood, child welfare, and K-12 education. Medicaid, TANF, SNAP, and UI Wage Records have also been integrated by over 50% of sites surveyed. The most common lingering challenges reported by sites related to sustainability. ConclusionSurvey results document the purposes and sources of data currently integrated by jurisdictions across the US and have major implications for the field both nationally and internationally.

Within Source Diversification When the Going Gets Tough: Examining Alterations to Human Service Nonprofit Funding by Levels of Government

2021 ◽  
pp. 45-66
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
The United States ◽  
Government Funding ◽  
Federal State ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Nonprofit Funding ◽  
State And Local ◽  
The Government

Government increasingly relies on nonprofit organizations to deliver public services, especially for human services. As such, human service nonprofits receive a substantial amount of revenue from government agencies via grants and contracts. Yet, times of crises result in greater demand for services, but often with fewer financial resources. As governments and nonprofits are tasked to do more with less, how does diversification within the government funding stream influence government-nonprofit funding relationships? More specifically, we ask: How do the number of different government partners and the type of government funder—federal, state, or local—influence whether nonprofits face alterations to government funding agreements? Drawing upon data from over 2,000 human service nonprofits in the United States, following the Great Recession, we find nonprofit organizations that only received funds from the federal government were less likely to experience funding alterations. This helps to illustrate the economic impact of the recession on state and local governments as well as the nonprofit organizations that partner with them.

The Contours of Repression

2019 ◽  
pp. 184-208
Author(s):  
David M. Struthers
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Industrial Workers ◽  
World War One ◽  
International Borders ◽  
The World ◽  
Sedition Act ◽  
State And Local

This chapter examines the World War One period in which the federal, state, and local governments in the United States, in addition to non-state actors, created one of the most severe eras of political repression in United States history. The Espionage Act, the Sedition Act, changes to immigration law at the federal level, and state criminal syndicalism laws served as the legal basis for repression. The Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM), Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and other anarchists took different paths in this era. Some faced lengthy prison sentences, some went underground, while others crossed international borders to flee repression and continue organizing. This chapter examines the repression of radical movements and organizing continuities that sustained the movement into the 1920s.

Government and Fiscal Policy in American Economic History

2018 ◽  
pp. 194-224
Author(s):  
John Joseph Wallis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Property Tax ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Payroll Taxes ◽  
The Third ◽  
State And Local

Over the last 225 years, government finances in the United States have gone through three distinct stages. In the first stage, 1790–1850, state governments actively pursued policies to promote economic development and financed them from revenues from state investments. In the second, 1850–1930, local governments became the most important level of government, as measured by revenues and expenditures, and revenues shifted toward the property tax. In the third period, 1930 to the present, the national government became the most active and largest level of government, financed through income and payroll taxes, and developed an extensive network of grants to state and local governments. The chapter tracks the changes in sources of revenues and purpose of expenditures, with specific attention paid to military spending over the entire period.

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