With an unexpected legal memorandum, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) Office of Legal Council (“OLC”) reversed the DOJ’s decades-old interpretation of federal gaming laws.  The OLC removed the last major federal barrier to state Internet gambling: its broad interpretation of organized crime statutes, in particular the late Robert F. Kennedy’s Wire Act.  With the DOJ’s [...]

Twenty years after Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey was decided, courts across the country are being called on to apply the Court’s undue burden test to novel abortion regulations.  The most recent wave of regulation involves the use of ultrasound technology.  Twenty-three states currently require physicians to perform, offer to perform, or follow [...]

One of the great dilemmas of corporate law is how to address the problem of excessive executive compensation without replacing it with excessive government intervention.  This Article proposes for the first time that Article 36(b) of the Investment Company Act (“ICA”), which enacted fiduciary obligations for investment advisers, be applied to general public corporations.  The [...]

If you can imagine Wall Street as the American Old West and the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) as the local sheriff, then the SEC’s new bounty program is the equivalent of nailing up reward signs all over town that read: “Wanted: Dead or Alive.”  The agency is looking for information regarding publicly traded companies, [...]

Employment Division v. Smith was a watershed moment in First Amendment law, with the Supreme Court holding that neutral statutes of general applicability could not burden the free exercise of religion.  Congress’s subsequent attempts, including the passage of Religious Freedom Restoration Act and Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, to revive legal protections for [...]