scholarly journals The New Illegitimacy: Children of Cohabiting Couples and Stepchildren

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Grant Bowman

20 Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law 437 (2012)The legal treatment of children of unmarried parents and stepchildren must be changed if they are not to be disadvantaged in comparison with children of married parents. With respect to the areas of law discussed in this Article, legal reform is necessary in a variety of situations in which legitimate children receive what is the functional equivalent of posthumous support-that is, inheritance in the absence of a will, social security survivors benefits, workers' compensation, and tort suits for wrongful death and loss of consortium. Cohabitants and stepchildren of both married and unmarried parents should be added to the persons listed as the natural objects of a decedent's bounty under state intestacy law after they have lived together for two years or the adult cohabitants have had a child in common. The Social Security Act should be amended so as to treat illegitimate children genuinely as equal to legitimate children, by not requiring proof of actual dependency at the time of the death of the insured if they had a right to support at that time. Stepchildren of both married and unmarried parents should also be eligible for social security benefits if they were minors and dependent upon the insured stepparent when he or she died. Under workers' compensation laws, wrongful death statutes, and in common law loss of consortium cases, awards should be available to cohabitants' children and stepchildren on the same terms as to children of married parents; in most cases, this will involve dependency at the time of death. In the absence of legal change in all these areas, children will continue to be punished for their parents' failure to marry.

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary-Elizabeth Murphy

When Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, was elected president in 1932, most African Americans did not support him since they were still loyal to the Republican Party. Moreover, New Deal policies, especially the Social Security Act in 1935, excluded farmers and domestics, and thus, most African Americans. One of the people who encouraged black voters to switch to the Democratic Party was Elizabeth McDuffie, a black servant in the Roosevelt White House. In the 1936 election, McDuffie went on the campaign trail and toured Chicago, Cleveland, Springfield, and St. Louis. As a domestic servant, McDuffie was a familiar face to southern migrants, and she convinced many black voters to switch to the Democratic Party. After her campaign tour concluded, McDuffie became acquainted with the large black population in Washington, D.C. McDuffie worked alongside middle-class activists to increase economic opportunities for women workers by sponsoring training programs for servants. But, as this article demonstrates, most black servants did not want training programs; they desired higher wages, better jobs, and inclusion in the Social Security Act. Working-class women in Washington wrote letters to the newspaper and in 1938, 10,000 rioted for jobs as federal charwomen, jobs that paid higher wages and offered savings for retirement. After McDuffie witnessed these events, she became a vocal critic of the limitations of New Deal programs while continuing to praise Roosevelt and the Democratic Party. This article argues that Elizabeth McDuffie’s career in Washington illuminates the contradictions of New Deal politics for black women workers.


Author(s):  
David R. Mayhew

This chapter navigates the 1930s and groups two impulses into it: responding to the Great Depression and building a welfare state equipped with instruments of social provision. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democrats blended these two impulses when they executed their New Deal in the 1930s. However, on current inspection, the blend is confusing and sometimes contradictory, and there is a difference in time span. Responding to the Great Depression was clearly a 1930s drive; whereas the Social Security Act of 1935 still enjoys its high place at the top of the American welfare state. The chapter shows how the timeline on building U.S. social provision runs a lot longer before and afterward.


Author(s):  
Aline Machado Weber

APONTAMENTOS SOBRE A EFETIVIDADE DA TUTELA JURISDICIONAL EM MATÉRIA PREVIDENCIÁRIA   NOTES ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF JURISDICTIONAL PROTECTION IN SOCIAL SECURITY MATTERS  RESUMO: Ações em que se postula a concessão de benefícios previdenciários consistem em substancial parcela das demandas judiciais em curso no país. A despeito da sua importância em termos quantitativos, porém, ainda é tímido o interesse da doutrina no direito previdenciário pelo seu viés processual. O presente trabalho tem por objetivo analisar a tutela jurisdicional em matéria previdenciária enquanto instrumento hábil a equacionar os relevantes valores constitucionais em discussão. Vale-se, para tanto, da noção de lide previdenciária, na qual residiria o traço distintivo do processo judicial previdenciário. Em um primeiro momento, objetiva-se delinear a demanda judicial previdenciária, discorrendo sobre seu caráter individual e multifatorial, com destaque para a influência da Administração Pública e do Poder Judiciário no incremento da litigiosidade nessa seara. Em um segundo momento, analisa-se o processo judicial previdenciário, destacando os pontos críticos que impedem seja ele um processo de resultados, a saber, o distanciamento entre as esferas administrativa e judicial, a inadequação do procedimento comum, o excesso de instrução probatória e a postura pouco colaborativa das partes. Pretende-se, enfim, perquirir sobre a conveniência de se falar em um direito processual previdenciário e sobre as possibilidades que se abrem, a partir daí, para que esse processo judicial atinja seus escopos. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Direito Previdenciário; Benefícios Previdenciários; Processo Judicial Previdenciário; Instrumentalidade; Eficiência. ABSTRACT: Lawsuits in which the concession of social security benefits is pursued comprise a substantial portion of lawsuits ongoing in the country. Despite its importance in quantitative terms, however, doctrine has still little interest in social security law in its procedural aspect. The present work has the purpose to analyze the jurisdictional protection in social security benefits matters as an apt instrument to equate the relevant constitutional values in discussion. It assumes, therefore, the concept of social security case, in which resides the distinctive feature of the welfare judicial proceedings. At first, the objective is to delineate the social security litigation, discussing its individual and multifactorial character, emphasizing the influence of public administration and the judiciary in the increase of litigation in this area. In a second moment, we analyze the social security judicial proceedings, highlighting the critical issues that prevent it to be a process of results, namely the distance between administrative and judicial realms, the inadequacy of the common procedures, excess of discovery phases, and little collaborative parties. We intend, ultimately, to assert the convenience of talking about a specific social security procedural law and the possibilities that are open, thenceforth, in order that these judicial proceedings reach its purposes. KEYWORDS: Social Security Law; Social Security Benefits; Social Security Legal Proceedings; Instrumentality; Efficiency.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document