The U.S. Supreme Court is facing the serious nationwide problem of domestic violence and the continuing difficulty of enforcement of one of the most important weapons against that violence -- protection orders. On March 21, the Court considered whether a civil rights remedy is available to domestic violence victims whose pleas to enforce protection orders go unheeded by local police departments. <i>Town of Castle Rock, Colorado v. Gonzales</i>, No. 04-728.

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The timing of a divorce decree can make a big difference in the parties' federal income tax liability because their filing options are determined by their marital status at the end of the tax year. Under federal tax law, taxpayers who were married for 364.5 days but had their divorce decree entered on the afternoon of Dec. 31 are deemed to be single for that tax year. Parties whose divorce decree is entered on the first business day of the new year are married for purposes of filing the previous year's tax returns. Similarly, parties who are divorced or otherwise single during the year who remarry on Dec. 31 are married for purposes of filing their tax returns for that year. Parties who are still married and not judicially separated are married for purposes of filing their tax returns no matter how long they have been separated. IRC '' 6012-6013. It is important to give consideration to the client's filing options because filing status can produce considerable variation in the tax bill on the same income.

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A recent case from the appellate court in Washington demonstrates the lack of protection offered by the Uniform Parentage Act (UPA) to children raised by same-sex couples and to the non-biological parent. The court in <i>In re the Parentage of L.B.</i>, 121 Wn. App. 460, 89 P.3d 271 (2004), cert. granted, 152 Wn.2d 1013, 101 P.3d 107 (2004), filled in the gap left by the legislature in recognizing the relationship between the non-biological parent/primary caregiver and the child by creating a common law cause of action for the psychological parent.

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Recent developments in e-commerce law and in the e-commerce industry.

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Spam is a cost-effective and lawful marketing tool. Just consider: A spammer can send an e-mail advertisement to 1 million people for only $100. <br>So, fortunately for many spammers, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 allows the use of unsolicited commercial e-mail. But to avoid legal difficulties, those who use spam should consider doing more than simply the basics ' more active business planning, and legal defensiveness, than just hurtling spam into the ether. In particular, it's a good idea for anyone sending bulk commercial e-mail to establish an appropriate chain of title for target list databases acquired.

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The term electronic secret isn't an oxymoron, but lately, it does seem that storing data digitally is incompatible with keeping that data confidential. <br>While victims of the disclosure of personal information may have concealed past security flaws, California's path-blazing law requiring disclosure of releases of personal information has forced public announcement of many recent incidents. While that law was once a seemingly onerous exception, calls for similar laws have spread among the states and in Washington, DC.

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When Static Control Components Inc., a small, family-owned printing-supply business, was sued under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Seth Greenstein was surprised. The 49-year-old partner in the Washington, DC, office of Chicago's McDermott Will &amp; Emery thought he had the DMCA down cold. Still, it took him nearly a year to get an injunction against the company lifted.

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Is a software license assumable by a licensee in the event the licensee seeks bankruptcy protection? <br>A recent Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling has demonstrated the critical importance of this question to software licensees. The risk of nonassumption may prove quite significant. This article discusses this risk and suggests a potential license provision addressing the risk.