State Sovereignty and the Eleventh Amendment in the U.S. Supreme Court: The 1988 Term

During its 1988 term, the U.S. Supreme Court addressed two importantaspects of the Eleventh Amendment, which generally protectsstates from being sued in federal courts. First, the Court heldthat the Congress has power to abrogate states' immunity fromsuit—to subject states to suits in federal courts fordamages—under Congress' expansive commerce-clause power.Second, the Court made clear that such abrogation would be foundonly where the text of the statute itself, as distinct fromits legislative history, clearly and specifically so provided.This article describes these decisions, and analyzes some oftheir implications for judicial federalism.     

Single-strand conformation polymorphism of hyper-variable regions HV1 and HV2 of human mitochondrial DNA: detection by silver staining

Human mitochondrial DNA from 50 trios consisting of mother (M), child (C) and father (F) was PCR amplified with primers flanking the hyper-variable regions, HVR1 and HVR2. The amplified products were then fractionated under non-denaturing conditions, silver-stained and compared by single-stranded conformational polymorphism (SSCP). In all but one case, mother and child displayed identical patterns, which could be promptly distinguished from that of the father. For the remaining cases, either set of primers was sufficient to resolve the familial ties. In no instance, M displayed alleles different from those of C within each trio, demonstrating that no false exclusions occurred. The SSCP approach proved to be a robust technique suitable as a preliminary screening in cases requiring identification of multiple samples.     

Sexual Harassment in the Federal Workplace Revisited: Influences on Sexual Harassment by Gender

Using data from the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board's most recent survey on sexual harassment, this study examines influences on sexual harassment in the federal workplace. We investigate the effect of workers'sociodemographic characteristics, aspects of their daily work environment (the sex of the supervisor and female/male ratio of coworkers), and agency location. Drawing on a variety of theoretical models and addressing a limitation of a previous study, we assess whether and how influences on sexual harassment differ for men and women. Not only does the likelihood of sexual harassment differ for men and women, but the determinants of harassment differ as well. Women are more likely to indicate receipt of unwanted sexual attention as their ratio of male coworkers increases, and men are more likely to indicate its receipt as their ratio of female coworkers increases. We also find differential effects for sex of supervisor, age, education, and job type, among other variables. Our analyses highlight that gender conditions the influences on sexual harassment.     

Differential Influences on Latino Electoral Participation

Relying on the Voter Supplement File of the November 2000 Current Population Survey (CPS), this study assesses sociodemographic influences on the registration status and turnout of Latino citizens in the United States. Latinos' deficits on socioeconomic status and social-connectedness largely account for their lower levels of participation. This study also provides a thorough assessment of whether and of how the influences on electoral participation differ between Anglos and Latinos. Noteworthy findings emerge. Whereas formal education and marriage demonstrate greater influence on the participation of Anglos, Latinos reap greater participatory benefits from age.