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Considers the debate over preferential treatment of pregnancy; US.

AN IMPORTANT DETERMINANT OF FEDERAL BALANCE IS THE DEGREE OF STATE COURT AUTHORITY TO DECIDE FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES. THIS STUDY TRACES THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE YOUNGER ABSTENTION DOCTRINE, ONE OF THE PRIMARY VEHICLES BY WHICH THE BURGER COURT RESTRICTED FEDERAL COURT JURISDICTION AND ENHANCED THE AUTHORITY OF STATE COURTS IN CONSTITUTIONAL ADJUDICATION. THE YOUNGER DOCTRINE WAS ADOPTED BY THE SUPREME COURT IN 1971 FOR REASONS OF COMITY AND EQUITABLE RESTRAINT. THROUGHOUT THE BURGER COURT YEARS, YOUNGER WAS EXPANDED FROM AN INITIAL DENIAL OF JURISDICTION TO LITIGANTS SEEKING INJUNCTIVE RELIEF IN STATE CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS, TO LITIGANTS IN CASES "AKIN" TO CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS, AND THEN TO LITIGANTS IN CASES "IMPORTANT TO STATE INTERESTS." BY RELYING ON YOUNGER ABSTENTION, THE BURGER COURT HAS REDUCED THE ROLE OF THE FEDERAL COURTS AS THE PRIMARY ENFORCEMENT OF U.S. CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS.

Litigation in the federal courts, 1981-84.

This study looks at attitudes toward the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) held by two geographically distant groups of political elites. My purpose is to examine attitudinal consistency with respect to feminist issues and to ascertain the extent to which approval of the ERA is related to support for a variety of feminist public policy goals. Moderate relationships are found between the feminist policy indices and support for ERA but the indices are more closely related to positive attitudes toward the women's movement. Partial correlational analysis shows that the relationships between support for ERA and support for the women's issues become weaker in each sample when controlling for the effects of approval of the women's movement. Although the existence of a feminist ideology seems supported by the data, doubt remains about the wisdom of assuming that approval of the ERA is concomitant with endorsement of specific political issues which would enhance legal equality with political or social equality.