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before it becomes operative as a law. The power of referendum does not permit the people to invalidate a la w that is already operative but suspends or annuls a law that has not yet gone into effect. In this sense, referendum is similar to a governor’s VETO powe r. By referendum, the people may also reinstate an act that the legislature has expressly repealed. The referendum, along with the initiative, are the two forms of direct legislation adopted by many states during the direct democracy movement of the early twentieth century. Referendum allows the people to voice their opinion on laws that have been enacted by the legislature, and the initiative allows the people to propose their own laws. Thus, in the states that have adopted the initiative and referendum, the people essentially form another branch of the legislature, having the ability both to enact laws and to overturn laws passed by the elected legislature but not yet in effect. An initiative or a referendum passed by the people has the same force and effect as any act of the legislature. A referendum may be challenged on constitu- tional grounds, on grounds that proper proce- dures were not followed in the referendum process and election, or on grounds that the referendum or initiative was outside the scope of authority granted by the state constitution. Also, in some states the governor may veto an initiative or referendum. The general initiative and referendum were first adopted in the United States in South Dakota in 1898, and many states soon followed. The movement toward direct legislation did not grow from a desire of the people to exercise the legislative function directly. Rather, many people distrusted their legislative bodies, believ- ing that large corporations and powerful groups of individuals were corrupting legislation. The power of referendum made most legislation subject to the will of the people. The referendum power is derived solely from a state’s constitution and applies to that state’s laws; people do not have the right to challenge federal legislation by referendum. The right of referendum and the procedure to be followed in exercising the referendum right are set forth in the state’s constitution and statutes. The referendum process is essentially the same in every state. First, there must be a pet ition for referendum that states, among other things, the title and nature of the legislative act the petition seeks to have submitted fo r referendum. The petition is then circulated for signatures. Generally, anyone eligible to vote may sign a petition for referendum, even if the individual is not registered to vote. When the required number of signatures is collected, the petition is filed. If the petition is certified as sufficient, the referendum measure is placed on the election ballot for approval or rejection by the people. If the required number of voters (usually a majority of the votes cast) approve the referendum, it passes. Usually, the people vote on a referendum measure during the general election, but special referendum elec- tions also may be held. In some states there is no limit on the referendum power, and any law may be challenged by referendum. In many states, however, the constitution creates exceptions to the referendum power for certain types of legislation. Commonly, constitutional provi- sions regarding referendums create an exception for laws necessary for the support of the state government and state or public institutions, because a referendum on any such measure might cause a branch of the government to cease to function. This exception applies mainly to tax and APPROPRIATION measures. Also, most states create an exception to the referendum power for laws necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, thereby allowing the legislature to exercise the POLICE POWER unimpaired. Finally, measures declared by the legislature to be emergency measures are usually not subject to referendum. In INTERNATIONAL LAW, an ambassador can request a referendum to seek instructions on subject matter that the ambassador does not have sufficient power to address through other means. FURTHER READINGS Coury, Christopher A. 1994. “Direct Democracy through Initiative and Referendum.” Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy 8. Oberholtzen, Ellis Paxson. 1997. The Referendum in America: A Discussion of Law-Making by Popular Vote. Holmes Beach, Fla.: Gaunt. Warner, Daniel M. 1995. “Direct Democracy: The Right of the People to Make Fools of Themselves: The Use and Abuse of Initiative and Referendum, A Local Govern- ment Perspective.” Seattle Law Review 19 (fall). REFORM PARTY H. Ross Perot, founder of Electronic Data Systems, Inc., ran for president in 1992 as an GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 288 REFORM PARTY independent candidate and received 19 percent of the popular vote. In September 1995 Perot organized the Reform Party and was the party’s 1996 presidential candidate. The Reform Party’s ticket, which included Perot’s running mate, Pat Choate, appeared on the ballot in every state and won eight percent of the vote. H. Ross Perot entered the 1992 presidential race in February 1992 and gradually gained substantial widespread support with his well- financed campaign and frank talk about gov- ernment. Perot made campaign finance reform, national trade deficits, and the balancing of the federal budget the main issues in his campaign. In July of that year, Perot withdrew from the race when he received critical media coverage and lost his campaign manager, Edward J. Rollins. However, public support for his candidacy persisted, and Perot re-entered the race in October with former navy admiral James B. Stockdale as his running mate. In 1996 the Reform Party fielded several candidates in elections across the country. At the party’s national convention, University of Denver professor and former Colorado gover- nor Richard D. Lamm challenged Perot’s nomination, but Perot won handily. The Reform Party experienced some success in the late 1990s. In 1998 former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura was elected as the governor of Minnesota on the Reform Party ticket. A year later, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan quit the REPUBLICAN PARTY to join the Reform Party. Despite these gains, the party engaged in internal disputes in 2000 that continued to have negative implications. Ventura quit the party in February 2000, calling it “dysfunctional.” A month later, Choate and Jack Gargan, who had become chairman of the party on January 1, 2000, but was later voted out of office, asked a federal court to determine which of them should be named as the proper chairman. A federal district court in Virginia named Choate as chairman, but the strife continued. Buchanan and his supporters clashed with Perot loyalists over the nomination for the party’s candidate for the 2000 presidential election. Buchanan was eventually nominated, but the problems with the party were evident in the election. Despite spending more than $38 million for the election, Buchanan received only 448,895 total votes. The party fared little better in the 2004 presidential election, when it supported consumer-protection advocate RALPH NADER,who won 465,650 votes. Over the next four years, the Reform Party slowly descended into disarray at the national level. For the 2008 presidential election, the party supported a ticket with two obscure politicians, Ted Weill of Mississippi for president and Frank McEnulty of California for VICE PRESIDENT. The Weill-McEnulty ticket appeared on the ballot in only one state, Mississippi, in which it received 481 votes. FURTHER READINGS Andryszewski, Tricia. 2000. The Reform Party: Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan. Brookfield, Conn.: Millbrook Press. Herrnson, Paul S., and John C. Green, eds. 1998. Multiparty Politics in America. Lanham, Md.: Row- man & Littlefield. Williams, Victor, and Alison M. Macdonald. 1994. “Re- thinking Article II, Section 1 and Its Twelfth Amend- ment Restatement: Challenging Our Nation’s Ma- lapportioned, Undemocratic Presidential Election Systems.” Marquette Law Review 77. CROSS REFERENCES Election Campaign Financing; Independent Parties. REFORMATION A remedy utilized by the courts to correct a written instrument so that it conforms to the original intent of the parties to such an instrument. Legal documents, such a s contracts, deeds, mortgages, and trusts, are all proper subjects for reformation. Because the ORIGINAL INTENT of the parties must control, however, a totally new a greement cannot be created through reformation. The court, in the exercise of its equity powers to do justice, will reform a document only in the event that FRAUD or MUTUAL MISTAKE occurred in its execution. But courts are generally reluctant to reform contracts by supplying terms omitted from a written instru- ment, unless the evidence clearly justifies the modification. Reformation is a remedy that is granted at the discretion of the court only where the facts and circumstances of a particular case warrant it. It will not be granted where an entirely new agreement would result between the parties or where unwarra nted hardships would be im- posed upon them. Only an individual who has acted in GOOD FAITH can apply to the court to have an instrument reformed. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION REFORMATION 289 Reformation is not available as a remedy to correct every minor error, such as a typograph- ical error; rather, it is granted where there has been a mutual mistake that substantially affects the parties’ rights and obligations. The mistake must have been in existence at the time the instrument was drawn up. A mistake in the description of land and its boundaries ordinarily justifies reformation of an agreement where the purchaser and seller intended that all the seller’s property be sold to the purchaser. In addition, a MISTAKE OF LAW by which both parties to the instrument have incorrectly compre- hended the legal effect of the facts and the document might also result in reformation. REFORMATORIES State institutions for the confinement of juvenile delinquents. Any minor under a certain specified age, generally 16, who is gui lty of having violated the law or has failed to obey the reasonable directive of his or her parent, guardian, or the court is ordinarily treated as a delinquent under state statute. The purpose of reformatories is to impose punishment for crimes committed by juveniles while concurrently rehabilitating the offenders through educational and vocational training so that they will become law-abiding citizens. The powers of a state to establish and maintain reformatories, as well as the authority of its agencies to do so, are ordinarily contained in constitutional or statutory provisions. Such authority is based upon the sovereign power of the state as PARENS PATRIAE to safeguard the WELFARE of children within its borders by removing them from harmful environments and putting them in institutions where their development will be supervised. Reformatories—which are also known as “houses of refuge,”“state vocational institu- tions,”“reform schools,”“juvenile correction centers,”“industrial schools” or “training schools”—are generally not considered prisons. In some states, however, they are part of the prison system with adult inmates. The Society for the Prevention of Pauper- ism, which later became the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents, founded one of the first reformatories in 1825 in the state of New York. The group voiced concerns over the prevailing practice of placing children in adult jails and workhouses and objected to the punitive nature of the sentences meted out to children. The Society for the Prevention of Pauperism issued a “Report on the PENITENTIARY System in the United States in 1822,” calling for separate prisons for juvenile offenders. It noted that “these prisons should be rather schools for instruction, than places of punishment, like our present State Prisons where the young and the old are confined indiscriminately. The youth confined there should be placed under a course of discipline, severe and unchanging, but alike calculated to subdue and conciliate. A system should be adopted that would [provide] a mental and moral regimen.” Despite the increased use of reformatories for the rest of the nineteenth century, the notion that juvenile delinquents could be reformed and rehabilitated became hotly de- bated across the United States in the twentieth century. This debate continues today at the national, state, and local levels. CROSS REFERENCE Juvenile Law. REFRESHING MEMORY The process of aiding a witness’s recollection of certain details during a trial by allowing him or her to consult documents, memoranda, or books in order to better remember once-familiar transac- tions or events about which he or she is testifying, in case he or she is not otherwise readily able to do so. The item used for such aiding is typically marked as an exhibit. Once memory has thus been refreshed, examination continues. A witness is not pe rmitted to rely completely upon materials to help him or he remember a relevant detail, nor may the witness read from them directly while giving testimony. The witness must be capable of testifying to the facts from a present, independent recollection. An adverse party is entitled to have the writing produced at the hearing, to inspect it, to cross examine the witness thereon, and to introduce into evidence those portions which relate to the testimony of the witness. In the federal system, the refreshing of a witness’s recollection is governed by Rule 622 of the FEDERAL RULES OF EVIDENCE. FURTHER READING Rothstein, Paul F, Myrna S. Raeder, and Donald Crump. 2007. Evidence in a Nutshell. 5th ed. St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 290 REFORMATORIES REFUGEES Individuals who leave their native country for social, political, or religious reasons, or who are forced to leave as a result of any type of disaster, including war, political upheaval, and famine. Refugees are often unwilling to return to their country of citizenship because they fear political, social, or cultural persecution. The refugees turn to other countries for protection and support. A related problem is statele ssness, which occurs when one’s country of citizenship has been absorbed by another nation through war or political change. The United States has promulgated policies to aid refugees and stateless persons both internationally, throu gh various international organizations and treatie s, and domestically, through national IMMIGRATION policies. International Refugee Policies There have always been refugees, but their plight was first recognized as a major interna- tional problem after WORLD WAR I, when the number of refugees in Europe and Asia Minor totaled in the millions. The first world institu- tion to come to the aid of refugees was the LEAGUE OF N ATI ONS Office of the High C ommis- sioner for Refugees, established in 1921. Although U.S . p resident Woo dro w Wilson was a principal founder of the League of Nations, the U .S. SENATE refused to ratify the treaty on which it was based, and the United States never j oined the L eague. This office was later called the Nansen Office in honor of the Norwegian scholar who first headed it. The Nansen Office provided assistance to 500,000 Greeks who were resettling from Asia Minor to Greece and to 5 00,000 Turks resettling from Greec e to Turkey. The ri se of Nazi Germany led to another flood of international refugees in 1933. Because Germany would not permit the Nansen Office to assist those individuals, the League of Nations created the Office of the High Commissioner for the Refugees from Germany. By 1938 the office was expanded to help Austrian refugees fleeing the Nazis as well. The two League of Nations offices were later combined into the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees. In 1938, 32 countries met to establish the Intergovernmental Committee for Refugee s, at the urging of U.S. president FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. This time, the United States was a member of the organization. These organizations helped European political and social refugees in a variety of ways, for example by giving them identity and travel documents. By 1944 all of the functions of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees and the Intergovernmental Committee for Refuge es were assumed by the UNITED NATIONS (UN) in an office that was later called the International Refugees Organization (IRO). The United States was a member of the United Nations and participated in this international front as well. The IRO helped 1.5 million European and Asian refugees. It was dismantled in 1951, and its duties were taken over by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refu- gees (UNHCR). The UNHCR is responsible for protecting international refugees and assisting with the problems created by mass movements of people resulting from civil disturbance or military conflict. The high commissio ner follows policy directives handed down by the UN General Assembly. The United Nations encourages countries to admit refugees and stateless persons and to provide resettlement opportu- nities for them. It also seeks to help refugees achieve self-sufficiency and family security in their new homes. Members of the United Nations agree to help refugees and stateless persons by giving them the same civil liberties afforded their nationals and the same economic rights afforded other foreign nationals. In 1948 the United Nations also addressed the Palestinian refugee situation in the Middle Number of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in 2007 Americas and the Caribbean 787,800 Europe 527,900 East Asia and the Pacific 934,700 Africa 2,799,500 Middle East and North Africa 6,380,200 South and Central Asia 2,617,200 SOURCE: U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immi g rants, World Refugee Survey 2008. ILLUSTRATION BY GGS CREATIVE RESOURCES. REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF GALE, A PART OF CENGAGE LEARNING. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3 RD E DITION REFUGEES 291 East by creating a new organization, the United Nations Relief for Palestinian Refugees, later called the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The UNRWA assisted more than 1.5 million Palestinian refugees through the early 1970s. In 1982 the UNHCR turned its attention to the 1.2 million African refugees in Somalia, Sudan, Djibouti, Kenya, and the horn of Africa. The majority of refugees were escaping condi- tions of famine in the underdeveloped African countries. Also in the early 1980s, the UNHCR assisted more than 36,000 Vietnamese boat people in the South China Sea. During the 1980s, the UNHCR helped 2.9 million refugees leave Afghanistan and resettle in Pakistan. Since the start of a civil war in 2003 in the Darfur region of Sudan, two million people have been driven from their home s and into refugee camps in Sudan and Chad. The UNCHR has worked to feed and house the refugees, but the UN has been unable to provide security to those in the camps. The 2002 U.S. invasion of Iraq and the subsequent civil unrest and violence drove many Iraqis to neighboring Iran, Syria, and Jordan. The United States admitted very few Iraqi refugees; in 2007 only 202 were admitted. The civil war in Somalia in the 1990s resu lted in the loss of a stable national government, and many Somalis came to the United States as refugees. The United Nations also helps refugees by assisting in their voluntary repatriation, or return to their home country. By 1988 the UNHCR helped at least 150,000 refugees return to their countries of origin, mostly in Africa and Central America. The UN General Assembly declared in 1988 that voluntary repatriation is the ideal solution to the problems faced by refugees. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the UNHCR began to study the particular problems faced by women and children refugees and called for further efforts to protect these special groups. In addition to the United Nations and the League of Nations, various international chari- table organizations, such as AMNESTY INTERNA- TIONAL , strive to aid refugees and stateless persons. Religious relief organizations also have aided refugees by providing food, clothing, shelter, and resettlement assistance. Domestic Refugee Policies In the early years of the United States, the states were responsible for the NATURALIZATION of ALIENS, and the only requirement for being naturalized was taking a pledge of loyalty. Now the federal government closely regulates the entry of all aliens, including refugees, through the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS), formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The standards for naturalization have become more demanding and exacting, especially after terrorist attacks on SEPTEMBER 11, 2001. Before the twentieth century, the U.S. approach to admitting refugees was no different from the admission of general immigrants, which was based on quotas for each country. During WORLD WAR II, the insensitivity of this policy became evident as the United States turned away Jewish refugees because its quota for German immigrants had been met, and the refugees were forced to return to Nazi Germany. In 1945 President HARRY S. TRUMAN signed an EXECUTIVE ORDER that gave displaced persons, or refugees, priority over other immigrants. Con- gress passed the War Brides Act, 59 Stat. 659, in 1945 and the Displaced Persons Act, 62 Stat. 1009, in 1948 to make the United States more responsive to international imm igration and refugee situations. The War Brides Act permit- ted the immigration of 120,000 alien wives and children of U.S. soldiers. The Displaced Persons Act allowed for more than the previously established quotas of refugees from Poland, Germany, Lat via, Russia, and Yugoslavia to be admitted. The Refugee Relief Act of 1953, 67 Stat. 400, allowed for the entry of 214,000 refugees during a limited period on a non-quota basis. Many Hungarian “freedom fighters” were admitted under the act in 1956. President DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER invited another 30,000 Hungarian refugees to the United States following their country’s revolution. This invitation was on a “parole” status, meaning these refugees were not granted immigrant visas. The Fair-Share Refugee Act of 1960, 74 Stat. 504, permitted the JUSTICE DEPARTMENT to admit even more refugees under parole status. Under this act, many refugees from Communist and Middle Eastern countries resettled in the United States. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 292 REFUGEES In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a flood of Hmong refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos came to the United States. In 1975, 200,000 Indo-Chinese refugees arrived, and by 1985 nearly 400,000 Southeast Asians came to the United States. Throughout this period, Jewish refugees from Russia continued to be admitted to the United States. The Refugee Act of 1980, 8 U.S.C.A. § 1525, raised the number of annual immigrants permitted from 290,000 to 320,000, of whom 50,000 could be refugees. Mass admittance of refugees pursuant to the president’s parole authority was not permitted, but the president was allowed to admit refugees over the 50,000 annual limit with congressional consultation. Cuban and Haitian refugees in the early 1980s tested the ability of the United States to accommodate and assimilate refugees. The Cubans were seen as fleeing from the Commu- nist regime of Fidel Castro and therefore were permitted entry into the United States. Flight from a Communist country was a long-standing accepted qualifying basis for refugee status. The sheer numbers of Cuban refugees who came to the United States by boat, however, made their entry difficult, but not impossible, to process. Unlike the Cubans, the Haitian refugees claimed that they were fleeing poverty, a condition not recognized by the United State s as qualifying individuals for refugee status. However, the Haitians asserted that once they left Haiti, they could not return, or else they would face political persecution for having left. The U.S. government did not accept the Haitians’ fear of persecution as sufficient to admit them as refugees and concluded that they were economic immigrants. The Haitians were detained in large relocation camps and then deported. In 1981, President RONALD REAGAN signed an executiv e order authoriz ing the U.S. Coast Guard to stop boats leaving Haiti, and turn them around if they were transporting economic immigrants. FURTHER READINGS Fritz, Mark. 1999. Lost on Earth: Nomads of the New World. New York: Little, Brown. Helton, Arthur C., and Dessie P. Zaborcheva. 2002. “Globalization, Terror, and the Movements of People.” International Lawyer 36 (spring). Holbrook, Dane. 2003. “Protecting Immigrant Child Victims of Domestic Violence through U.S. Asylum Law.” Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy 12 (winter). Lischer, Sarah Kenyon. 2006. Dangerous Sanctuaries: Refugee Camps, Civil War, And the Dilemmas of Humanitarian Aid. Ithaca, New York: Cornell Univ. Press. Marfleet, Phillip. 2005. Refugees in a Global Era. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The State of the World’s Refugees: Human Displacement in the New Millennium. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. Osmanczyk, Edmund Jan. 2002. Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements. 3d ed. New York: Routledge. CROSS REFERENCES Human Rights; Immigration and Naturalization; Interna- tional Law. REFUNDING Reimbursing funds in restitution or repayment. The process of refinancing or borrowing money, ordinarily through the sale of bonds, to pay off an existing debt with the proceeds derived therefrom. REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA V. BAKKE A 1978 decision by the SUPREME COURT, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265, 98 S. Ct. 2733, 57 L. Ed. 2d 750, commonly referred to as Bakke, held that although the university unlawfully discriminated against a white applicant by denying him admission to its medical school solely on the basis of his race, the university may consider the race of an applicant in its admission procedure in order to attain ethnic diversity in its student body. In 1972 Allan Bakke, a 33-year-old white male engineer, applied for admission to the medical school of the University of California at Davis and was not accepted. Bakke was one of 2,664 applicants that year for 100 place s. He applied again the next year and was again rejected. This secon d year, minority applicants with grade point averages, Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores, and other qualifications that were lower than Bakke’s were accepted under a special minority admis- sion program. This program set aside 16 of the 100 places in the entering class for minority groups titled bla cks, Chicanos, Asians, and American Indians. Following his second rejection, in 1974, Bakke instituted a lawsuit in the Superior Court of California against the university on the grounds that his rights had been violated under the EQUAL PROTECTION Clause of the FOURTEENTH GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA V. BAKKE 293 AMENDMENT of the U.S. Constitution; the California Constitution; and Title VI of the CIVIL RIGHTS Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C.A. § 2000d et seq.), which proscribed the exclusion of any person from a federally funded program on the basis of race. The California lowe r court ruled that the school’s admission program was in violation of the state and federal constitutions and Title VI, but it would not order the university to admit Bakke to the medical school because Bakke had not shown that he would have won admission had there been no special minority program. Bakke then appealed to the California Supreme Court, which ruled that it was INCUMBENT upon the university, not Bakke, to prove that he would not have been admitted if the special program had not been in effect. The school acknowledged that it could not satisfy the requirement, and the court ordered the univer- sity to admit Bakke. The university appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which granted CERTIO- RARI (agreed to review the case), and the court order requiring Bakke’s admission was sus- pended pending a decision by the High Court. The Bakke case aroused intense controversy. Civil rights supporters feared that the court might hold that specific policies could not be employed to remedy past DISCRIMINATION. On the other side of the issue stood Bakke and his supporters, charging that Bakke’s civil rights were being violated simply because of his race, which happened to be white. A great deal of weight hung over the Bakke case as it moved through the courts, and, with enormous public- ity surrounding their decision, the Supreme Court justices were keenly aware of the case’s importance. On June 27, 1978, the court divided sharply in its decision, presenting six separate opinions. Four justices chose to address only the statutory issue of Title VI and found for Bakke, including his admission to the medical school, because the quota in the university’s admission plan had clearly excluded Bakke on the basis of his race. Four justices addressed the larger constitutional issue of the Equal Protection Clause and found for the medical school because its intent was not to exclude Bakke but only to include individuals of other races for compelling government reasons. The deciding swing vote was cast by Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., who found for both. Powell’s contention was that the Title VI plurality was correct in that the university had violated the “plain meaning” of the Civil Rights Act, which proscribed discrimination based on race, and ordered Bakke be admitted to the medical school. But Powell also found that the university could use “race-conscious” factors in selecting its applicants in order to achieve the benefits of a “diverse student body.” This divided decision settled the Bakke case, but it left the legal issue muddled: What actions, if any, could the state take to protect minorities in the marketplace? Subsequent court decisions struggled repeatedly over this primary civil rights question. In 2003 the AFFIRMATIVE ACTION issue returned to the Supreme Court. A group of unsuccessful white applicants to the University of Michigan’s undergraduate program and law school filed a lawsuit challen ging the univer- sity’s admission policies. The school uses a point scale to rate applicants, with grades and academics counting for more than two-thirds of the points. However, members of “underrepre- sented” racial and ethnic groups receive extra points, as do children of alumni and people from underrepresented geographic areas. The applicants and the Bush administration argued that giving points for race amounted to a quota, while the university contended that race was just one factor in promoting a diverse student body. The Supreme Court, in GRATZ V. BOLLINGER, 539 U.S. 244, 123 S.Ct. 2411, 156 L.Ed.2d 257 (2003), reaffirmed Bakke. The court held that higher education institutions may use race as one factor in evaluating applicants but, as in Bakke, warned against the use of racial quotas or Allan Bakke on his first day of medical school at the University of California, Davis, in September 1978. The Supreme Court’s ruling that the university’s admission plan had excluded Bakke on the basis of race allowed for Bakke’s admittance but left questions of the use of race in college admissions muddled. AP IMAGES GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3 RD E DITION 294 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA V. BAKKE policies that give race too prominent a role in the selection process. Though Bakke and Bollinger de alt with higher education, the Supreme Court applied the same reasoning to K-12 education in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, 551 U.S. 701, 127 S.Ct. 2738, 168 L.Ed.2d 508 (2007). The court struck down desegregation guidelines used by the Seattle, Washington, and Louisville, Kentucky, school districts, finding that such plans violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Chief Justice JOHN ROBERTS stated that the plans were “directed only to racial balance, pure and simple.” Roberts concluded that the “way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” It made no difference if the school districts had worthy goals in mind if they were “free to discriminate on the basis of race to achieve it.” FURTHER READINGS Anderson, Terry H. 2005. The Pursuit of Fairness: A History of Affirmative Action. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. Ball, Howard. 2000. The Bakke Case: Race, Education, and Affirmative Action. Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas. Daniel, T.K. Philip. 2003. “Diversity in University Admis- sions Decisions: The Continued Support of Bakke.” Journal of Law and Education 32 (January). Kirkelie, Stephen M. 2002. “Higher Education Admissions and Diversity: The Continuing Vitality of Bakke v. Regents of the University of California and an Attempt to Reconcile Powell’s and Brennan’s Opinions.” Will- amette Law Review 38 (fall). CROSS REFERENCES Affirmative Action; Colleges and Universities; Equal Protection; Strict Scr utiny; United Steelworkers v. Weber. REGISTER To record, or enter precisely in a designated place, certain information in the public records as is mandated by statute. A book of public records. A register contains various types of infor- mation that is available to the public, such as births, dates, and marriages. The term register is also used as a designa- tion for the public official charged with the duty of maintaining such records. REGISTER OF DEEDS The designation, in certain jurisdictions, of the public officers who record documents that establish ownership of property, mortgages, and other instruments that relate to real property in official record books provided and maintained for such purpose. Registers o f d eeds are also k nown as recorders of deeds. The office of the Recorder of deeds might also be known as the Registrar-General, Register of Deeds, Reg i strar o f D eeds , R egistra r of Titles,DeedsRegistry,DeedsOffice,orCounty Recorder, d epending on the j urisdiction and custom in the area serviced by the recorder of deeds. In some U. S. states, the function of recorder of deeds is part of the county clerk’s responsibilities. The purpose of a recorder of deeds is to provide a single location where information about real rights can be recorded and searched by interested parties. The principals of statutory, case, and COMMON LAW are given effect by the recorder of deeds, insofar as it relates to vested ownership in land and other real rights. Because estate in la nd can be held in so many complex ways, a single deeds registry provides some stability, even though it cannot guarantee those real rights. CROSS REFERENCE Recording of Land Titles. REGISTRAR The public official charged with the duty of making and maintaining public records. Common examples are the registrars of voters and deeds. REGISTRATION Enrollment; the process of recording entries in an official book. For example, the names of stockholders might be registered in the official books of a corporation. Similarly motor vehicles are ordi- narily registered with the state motor vehicle department, and voters are registered so that they may participate in elections. In some jurisdictions, statutes establish systems by which land titles can be registered so that the ownership of real property can always be readily ascertained through a consultation of public records. CROSS REFERENCE Registration of Land Titles. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION REGISTRATION 295 REGISTRATION OF LAND TITLES A system by which ownership of real property is established through the issuance of an official certificate indicating the name of the individual in whom such ownership is vested. Land titles are registered through a statutory process called the Torrens title system, in somewhat the same way that automobile titles are now registered in most states. Under current Torrens acts, land ownership can be readily ascertained without any need for repeated examinations of voluminous public records, and the resulting titles are generally secure and marketable. The TORRENS TITLE SYSTEM takes its name from Sir Robert R. Torrens, a native of Ireland who later became the first premier of South Australia. It is said that in 1850 Torrens first thought of applying to land the same method of registering and transferring ownership used for ships. In 1858 the first Torrens Title Act went into effect in South Australia, largely through Torrens’s efforts. Although the system is known by his name, Tor rens was by no means the inventor of the statutory system for land registration now in place in the United States. Under Torrens statutes, an individual who registers title to land is required to first file an application with the appropriate court. All those who have or claim to have any interest in the property must be given notice of the proceed- ings so that they have an opportunity to make their claims to the land. Anyone seeking to be the registered owner of the land must show that he or she has good title “as against the world.” The person need not be in actual possession of the land, however. When title to land is established to the satisfaction of the court, it will issue a decree to settle and declare title. The decree must be entered on the records of the court and is conclusive of the rights of the parties, such as the fact of ownership and the area and boundary lines of the land. Upon registration of the decree, a designated officer, ordinarily called the registrar of titles, makes and files the original certificate of title in the proper register. A duplicate of the certificate must be delivered to the registered owner. Once this procedure has been completed, the land becomes regis- tered land. Any subsequent transfers and deal- ings regarding it must be made according to statute. Torrens acts were adopted in 20 states and territories between 1895 and 1917, but only eleven states now have title registration statutes in effect. Moreover, in those eleven states, the use of the Torrens title system remains optional and is confined to certain localities wherein only a relatively small proportion of the land is registered. Among several factors that may account for the lack of widespread acceptance of a title registration system are structural defects in some of the acts that have left numerous interests unaccounted for on the title certificate and have resulted in procedural problems in filing claims. Some people in states in which the system remains optional also have cited the high cost of initial registration as being prohibitive. Finally, title insurance companies, abstract companies, and title lawyers in general have vigorously opposed the Torrens title system because universal adoption of the system would decrease the demand for title insurance and would in effect render the need for these services obsolete. FURTHER READINGS Browder, Olin L., et al. 1989. Basic Property Law. 5th ed. St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing. CROSS REFERENCE Recording of Land Titles. REGRESSIVE TAX A tax with a rate that decreases as the taxpayer’s income increases. The resu lt of a regressive tax is that the lower-income taxpayer pays a larger percentage of his or her income in taxes than does the higher-income taxpayer. The opposite of the regressive tax is the progressive tax. With progressive tax es, such as the federal INCOME TAX , the effective tax rates increase as the taxpayer’s income inc reases. The proportionate tax rate, also referred to as a flat tax rate, remains constant as income rises. Under a proportionate tax system, higher-income indi- viduals pay a greater amount of taxes than lower-income individuals pay, but the ratio is identical. Consumption taxes, which are taxes on consumer goods and services, are usually regressive because individuals with lower incomes spend a larger portion of their income on these goods and service s than higher-income individuals do. Some examples of these GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 296 REGISTRATION OF LAND TITLES consumption taxes are the taxes on alcohol and tobacco, also referred to as “sin taxes.” Some taxes can be a combination of the different tax rates. For example, the SOCIAL SECURITY tax is proportional until the taxpayer reaches the maximum income level. However, once the taxpayer’s income reaches the ma xi- mum cap, all income earned over the cap is not taxed. The result is a regressive tax because the individual earning in excess of the maximum income level is paying a lower percentage of her or his income in taxes than the lower-income individual is paying. FURTHER READINGS Howard, Jay M. 1992. “When Two Tax Theories Collide: A Look at the History and Future of Progressive and Proportionate Personal Income Taxation. Washburn Law Journal 32. Kiefer, Donald W. 1990. Would a Social Security Tax Cut Increase Progressivity? CRS 90-235 RCO. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service. Samuels, Leslie B. 1995. “Remarks of Leslie B. Samuels.” Federal Bar Association Section of Taxation Report 11. CROSS REFERENCE Taxation. REGULAR Customary; usual; with no unexpected or unusual variations; in conformity with ordinary practice. An individual’s regular course of business, for example, is the occupati on in which that person is normally engaged to gain a livelihood. REGULATION A regulation is a rule or order having the force of law, usually prescribed by an administrative agency, relating to the actions of those under the agency’s control. Regulations are issued by various federal government departments and agencies to carry out the intent of legislation enacted by Con- gress. Administrative agencies, often called “the bureaucracy,” perform a number of different government functions, including rule making. The rules issued by these agencies are called regulations and are designed to guide the activity of those regulated by the agency and also the activity of the agency’s employees. Regulations also function to ensure uniform application of the law. As a general matter, legislatures create administrative agencies through the enactment of enabling legislation. In the federal govern- ment, many agencies exist within the EXECUTIVE BRANCH of government. An executiv e ADMINIS- TRATIVE AGENCY is designed to carry out the law and the president’s policies. Congress, however, retains primary control over the organization of the BUREAUCRACY, including the power to create and eliminate agencies and co nfirm presidential nominations for staffing the agencies. Congress has also created administrative agencies that exist outside the executive branch and are independent of presidential control. President FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT and the NEW DEAL plan he implemented created many new administrative agencies. Over the years administrative agencies have become more powerful participants in the overall federal government structure as Con- gress and the president have delegated more legislative and executive duties to them. Ad- ministrative agencies have also become respo n- sible for many judicial functions. The judicial and legislative functions of administrative agencies are not exactly like those of the courts or the legislature, but they are similar. Because regulations are not the work of the legislature, they do not have the effect of law in theory; but in practice, regulations can have an important effect in determining the outcome of cases involving regulatory activity. Much of the legislative power vested in administrative agencies comes from the fact that Congress can only go so far in enacting legislation or establishing guidelines for the agencies to follow. Language that is intrinsically vague and cannot speak for every factual situation to which it is applied, as well as political factors, dictate that the agencies have much to interpret and decide in enforcing legislation. For example, SECURITIES laws prohibit insiders from profiting against the PUBLIC INTEREST , but it is left to the applicable administrative agency, the SECURITIES AND EX- CHANGE COMMISSION , to define “public interest.” The FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, another administrative agency, must keep unsafe food and ineffective drug products off the mark et, but further administrative refinement and interpretation is nece ssary for the agency to determine what products are “unsafe” or “ineffective.” The FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COM- MISSION must interpret laws regulating broad- casting; the TREASURY DEPARTMENT issues regula- tions interpreting the INTERNAL REVENUE CODE; and the Board of Governors of the FEDERAL GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION REGULATION 297 . founder of Electronic Data Systems, Inc., ran for president in 1992 as an GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION 288 REFORM PARTY independent candidate and received 19 percent of the. basis of race allowed for Bakke’s admittance but left questions of the use of race in college admissions muddled. AP IMAGES GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3 RD E DITION 294 REGENTS OF THE. the ownership of real property can always be readily ascertained through a consultation of public records. CROSS REFERENCE Registration of Land Titles. GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION REGISTRATION