The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law
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Parental Rights: In Search of Coherence
Full text linkThe Supreme Court has referred to parental rights as “the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court.”1 Yet, disagreements about the nature and scope of parental rights have proliferated in recent years
Strings Are Attached: Revealing the Hidden Subsidy for Perpetual Donor Limits on Gifts
Full text linkCharitable gifts often come with strings attached. Donors limit their gifts in many ways, by restricting an asset’s use or purpose, controlling the timing of spending (as in an endowment), securing naming rights, or by retaining effective control over the distribution or investment of the asset by giving to a charitable intermediary such as a donor advised fund or private foundation. Most donor limits are perpetual in nature and a form of dead hand control. The Article explains that default rules strongly favor donor limits. Property law allows donors wide latitude to place limits on gifts, and they are easy for donors to impose. Once imposed, donor limits typically are extremely hard for charities to eliminate, as obedience to the donor’s intent is a priority in the law. Federal tax rules also favor donor limits by treating most donor-limited gifts the same as unrestricted gifts for purposes of the income and estate tax charitable deductions. As a result, donor limits are common, and burden a substantial portion of charitable assets. The Article finds based on a review of Form 990 data that, for 96 of the leading charities in the U.S., 69% of their $474 billion in net assets are subject to donor limits. For the 17 private universities in this group, 68% of the total endowment is donor limited. There is thus a substantial, hidden tax law subsidy for donor limits on gifts, yet one that entails many harms, including to the public interest, charitable autonomy, pluralism, constraining access to resources, compliance costs, and subsidizing gains to donors. Given these harms, the Article considers tax reform options for donor limited gifts. These include treating donor limits as retained rights or as return benefits (thus reducing the charitable deduction to account for limits), estate tax reform to discourage giving to intermediaries, encouraging unrestricted gifts from intermediaries, and not subsidizing donor limits in connection with any new giving incentive, such as a nonitemizer deduction or charitable giving credit. Under any of the reform approaches, the power of donors to impose limits would not change. But charity, and society, would be relieved from some of the costs of the dead hand
Eychaner v. City of Chicago: Repercussions after The Supreme Court refuses to take up a Takings Clause Reconsideration
No full textOn February 21, 2023, the Catholic Law community joined together for the second presentation of the 2023 Student Scholars Series, given by third-year law student Mark Tocchio. Tocchio\u27s work entitled, Eychaner v. City of Chicago: Repercussions after The Supreme Court refuses to take up a Takings Clause Reconsideration, examines the vulnerability of property owners having their property taken away in urban and low-income areas. The Presentation respondent was Mark S. Bourbeau, Esq. of DTM, PC.
In July 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court denied cert. in Eychaner v. City of Chicago, an eminent domain case that presented the Court with an opportunity to address the controversial holding established in Kelo v. City of New London. Without reconsidering Kelo, and by failing to reject the “future blight” justification presented in Eychaner, the Court has made private property owners in urban and low-income areas vulnerable to the taking of property for the benefit of those with political power and deep pockets
Vested Patents and Equal Justice
Full text linkIn a time of renewed interest in equal justice, the vested patent right may be timely again. Vested patent rights helped marginalized Americans to secure equal justice earlier in American history. And they helped to make sense of the law. Vested patent rights can perform those tasks again today.
The concept of vested rights render patent law coherent. And it explains patent law’s interactions with other areas of law, such as property, administrative, and constitutional law. The vested rights doctrine also can serve the requirements of equal justice, as it has several times in American history. Vested rights secure justice for vulnerable minorities against majority factions. They resist the tendency of law to devolve into power. And they solve practical problems consistent with what we owe each other as equal agents of practical reason
Panel I: Domestic Environmental Inequality
No full textFollowing the break the first panel opened with a discussion on domestic environmental inequality. Each panelist opened with a description of their current positions and why they were interested in the environmental law. The panel was moderated by Alexandra Dapolito Dunn \u2794, Partner, Baker Botts LLC, and Lecturer, Catholic Law. The other panelists included Taylor Lilley, Environmental Justice Staff Attorney, Chesapeake Bay Foundation; Julian Gonzalez \u2713, Senior Legislative Counsel, Earthjustice; and Mark Sabath, Senior Attorney, Southern Environmental Law Center. The panel wrapped-up their discussion and took questions from those in attendance
Panel 1: Impact of Wearable Devices on National Security (Military/National Security Focus)
No full textHuston gave a brief overview and introduction to some of the types of wearable devices that are being used by those in the military, as well as some of the concerns surrounding the security of the data being collected. Following his overview each panelist introduced themselves and shared their views. Bedestani then took to the podium and moderated the discussion with a series of questions.
Panelists: R. Patrick Huston, Brigadier General, U.S. Army (Retired); Colonel Christopher P. Mulder, Director, Air Force International Programs, Defense Security Cooperation Agency; and Alexandra Seymour, Associate Fellow, Technology and National Security Program, Center for a New American Security (CNAS)