Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%
Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.
Federal Lawsuits and DOMA
Throughout the history of this country, whenever the federal government has attached protections or responsibilities to marriage, it has always deferred to the states' determination of whether a couple is validly married. That practice changed in 1996, when the federal government enacted the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which restricts marriage under federal law to a union between one man and one woman. For the first and only time in this country's history, the federal government differentiated between marriages, denying same-sex couples who marry the more than 1000 rights and responsibilities of civil marriage under federal law.
In a ground-breaking decision by President Obama and the Department of Justice (DOJ), on Feb. 23, 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the President had determined that the unequal treatment of same-sex couples under DOMA violates the Equal Protection clause of the United States Constitution. Holder ordered the DOJ to stop defending DOMA in two cases pending in district courts in the Second Circuit, Windsor v. United States, 10 Civ. 8435 (BSJ) (JCF) (S.D.N.Y.), and Pedersen v. Office of Personnel Management, 310 CV 1750 (VLB) (D. Conn.). This article addresses the immediate and potentially long-ranging impact of that decision on married same-sex couples and their families.
The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year Later
The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.
The DOJ's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance Programs
The parameters set forth in the DOJ's memorandum have implications not only for the government's evaluation of compliance programs in the context of criminal charging decisions, but also for how defense counsel structure their conference-room advocacy seeking declinations or lesser sanctions in both criminal and civil investigations.
Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar Investigations
This article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.
A Lawyer's System for Active Reading
Active reading comprises many daily tasks lawyers engage in, including highlighting, annotating, note taking, comparing and searching texts. It demands more than flipping or turning pages.