Drafted and Shafted: Who Should Complain About Male-Only Registration?

SHERRY F. COLB

Cornell law professor comments on a recent opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit holding that requiring men but not women to register for the draft is constitutional under mandatory U.S. Supreme Court precedents. Specifically, Colb considers what the U.S. Supreme Court should do if it agrees to hear the case and more narrowly, whether the motives of the plaintiffs in that case bear on how the case should come out.

Read More

In re National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts Litigation

Docket: Consolidated C.A. No. 12111-VCS

Opinion Date: August 27, 2020

Judge: Slights

Areas of Law: Trusts & Estates

In this case involving disputes over how several related Delaware statutory trusts should be governed and how they should operate the Court of Chancery held that the Trusts have no beneficial interest in the student loans that serve as collateral for the debt instruments (Notes) and that the holders of residual beneficial interests in the Trusts (the Owners) owe certain fiduciary duties to the indenture trustee, the note holders, and the reinsurer for certain of the notes (Indenture Parties). When several constituents brought separate operational controversies in separate lawsuits the actions were consolidated. At issue were offshoots of the National Collegiate Student Loan Master Trust I (the Trusts), each of which were Delaware statutory trusts formed for the purpose of acquiring and servicing a portfolio of student loans (the Student Loans). The Trusts acquired the Student Loans with the proceeds from the issuance of Notes and then entered into an Indenture granting interest in the Student Loans to the Indenture Trustee. The Indenture made Clea that the Trusts transferred the Student Loans for the benefit of the Noteholders. The Trusts then promised to service the Student Loans. The Owner Trustee, which possessed the right to act on behalf of the Trusts, found itself in the middle of a dispute between the Owners and the Indenture Parties, who had various economic interests in the Trusts. The Court of Chancery held as set forth above.