Central to the bilingual/bicultural debate is whether the United States should continue to serve as a "melting pot" for diverse ethnic groups, or encourage differences in culture, lifestyle, and language. This article focuses on the role that courts and law makers have played in dealing with these apparently antithetical impulses.…

Recent legal developments promise to bring school psychologists increased threat of litigation. Therefore, it is suggested that defensive practices in school psychology are needed. A procedure for dealing with school referrals is presented as a way of possibly reducing the risk of liability for the individual school psychologist. (Author)

Today's privacy/disclosure issues have been defined by a series of court decisions that illustrate adaptation to social change. Development of surveillance technology, increased use of individual testing, and interconnected computers have allowed abuses of individual privacy rights to which the law has recently responded. (Editor/LBH)

Examines court cases dealing with charges of harassment, trespass, and invasion of privacy against reporters who ventured onto private property to gather news; proposes a test for such cases that would weigh the public interest in the particular information obtained against the nature of the intrusion. (GW)

Discusses child advocacy in the United States, the history of non-intervention in child welfare, and organized opposition to social welfare programs. Government and private action, the legal situation and lack of data are covered, as well as differing advocate attitudes toward child custody, neglected children, delinquents and medical issues. (BF)

Problems arise in the areas of child custody, insurance, real and personal property, and wills and estates. Individuals choosing to cohabit should consider the ramifications of cohabitation prior to or early in the development of their relationship in order to avoid devastating legal complications. (Author)

Reviews court decisions under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in which, despite Section 703(j), preferential remedial action implemented through numerical formulas is prescribed to improve minority employment opportunities. Concludes the pattern will continue until Congress or the Supreme Court clarifies the subject of preferential…

Recent developments regarding what constitutes an excludable scholarship or fellowship grant for federal income tax purposes are reviewed. Problem areas include degree candidate stipends, tuition remission, and student loan forgiveness. Conflicting court decisions and contradictory Internal Revenue Service rulings point up need for revision. (JT)

Reviews the Revenue Act of 1950, the Tax Reform Act of 1969, and other rulings regarding such issues as public/private foundation differentiation, exempt status, feeder organizations, and unrelated business income for bookstores, housing and food services, associated students, student newspapers, athletic associations, research, university press,…

The "state action" concept broadens the Fourteenth Amendment to restrict certain objectionable private activity. In an effort to clarify the requirement of state action as it has been interpreted and applied by the Supreme Court, the author examines the various state action theories as they have been applied to activate Fourteenth Amendment…

"Last hired, first fired" layoffs threaten gains made by women and minorities in equal employment opportunity under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The author reviews and analyzes legislative and judicial history of Title VII and concludes that, contrary to recent cases, the courts have the power and duty to preserve these gains even in…

An argument for a closer relationship between the American legal system and developmental research in such areas as foster care, child abuse, and child custody. (BRT)

Considers whether Haitians in the United States are political refugees from their own perspective, using data from a survey of Haitians in New York City. Examines how they have come to define identities for themselves (as exiles, immigrants, and political refugees). Includes a historical overview of Haitian immigration. (KH)

Analyzes the United States Supreme Court's reversal of "Memphis County School Distruct v. Stachura," a District Court decision to compensate a temporarily suspended life sciences teacher for damages involving deprivation of his constitutional rights. Views this decision as one more obstacle blocking individuals' progress against…