Analysis Of Banning The Box Is Not Nearly Enough

“Banning the Box is Not Nearly Enough” by Lewis M. Steel relates to topics covered in We the People: An Introduction to American Government (Eleventh Edition), more specifically the material examined in chapter three (“Federalism: Forging A Nation”) and chapter four (“Civil Liberties: Protecting Individual Rights”). Not only does the article include subjects that are mentioned in chapters three and four, but it also provides a deeper understanding as to why the issue discussed in the article is so relevant to our country’s politics. In the news article, “Banning the Box is Not Nearly Enough,” the author, Lewis M. Steel, and his colleagues at Outten & Golden along with other law firms around the country have been working to eliminate the box on job applications that asks about prior criminal offenses. Their efforts have resulted in being

Federalism is related to the subject at hand in the sense that both the federal and state governments contributed greatly towards the success of the lawsuit against the Census Bureau. The Outten & Golden law firm sued employers who refused to give applicants a second chance by utilizing federal and state civil right laws against them. This ties into cooperative federalism (also known as contemporary federalism) because that term does not only mean that “national, state, and local policymakers…work together to solve policy issues” (Ch.3), it also means that the different levels of government have “shared policy responsibilities” (Ch.3). Since Steel’s law firm used both federal and state civil rights laws to support their case, their lawsuit would not have been possible if cooperative federalism did not exist. Both the national and state laws address civil rights and so those levels of government are like “a marble cake, whose levels flow together” (Ch.