Georgia State University experts are available to speak about two of the greatest legal issues and controversies in the United States: Corporate inversion (or relocating corporate headquarters abroad to avoid U.S. taxes) and same-sex marriage, as Virginia appeals a recent 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling to the Supreme Court of the United States, and how the debate affects same-sex couples and their children.

Contact information for the professors is available above in the contact box for logged-in Newswise registered reporters.

CAN WASHINGTON STOP OVERSEAS TAX FLIGHT?

Anne Tucker, assistant professor of law at Georgia State University, is available to discuss corporate inversions, Walgreens decision to buck the trend of moving overseas to legally avoid paying taxes in the United States, and how legally the decision to move abroad or stay on American soil affects corporations.

She says, “Congressional action before the end of the year is unlikely, but the strong rhetoric of economic patriotism and corporate defectors will likely have a place in the 2014 election debates.

However, she adds, “Tax policy alone isn’t the only solution, or factor to consider.”

Prior to joining Georgia State Law, Tucker practiced corporate law with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. She also clerked for the Hon. Alice D. Bonner and the Hon. Elizabeth E. Long at Georgia’s Business Court, a special court formed to adjudicate high dollar, complex commercial and business litigation. While at the court, Tucker served as the program director overseeing initial development of the Business Court. Prior to that, she served as a Governor’s Fellow for Indiana Gov. Frank O’Bannon.

Tucker received her J.D. at Indiana University and B.A. in political science and journalism at Butler University.

For more information about Tucker, including links to her publications, visit http://law.gsu.edu/profile/anne-tucker/.

HOW THE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE DEBATE AFFECTS CHILDREN

Tanya Washington, an associate professor of law with Georgia State University, is available to discuss the same-sex marriage legal debate following Utah’s early petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court and the other recent unconstitutional rulings by the recent Sixth, Fourth and Tenth Federal Circuit Courts. She can also speak to how the legal debate affects children of same sex couples.

She says that the petition for review advances the issue the Supreme Court carefully sidestepped in United States v. Windsor — whether state marriage bans violate the constitutional rights of gay couples.

“The ground swell of growing public support for same-sex marriage and the number of lower court decisions on the issue position the petition for success,” Washington says. “If the Supreme Court does grant certiorari, it will have the benefit of a remarkable number of carefully crafted lower court decisions interpreting Windsor as providing precedential support for the invalidation of state marriage bans as unconstitutional. Any state defending its marriage ban before the Supreme Court faces an uphill battle.”

Still, the debate has affected children of same-sex couples. Washington says, “Most states argue that marriage laws serve children’s best interests, however lower court opinions explain how laws that discriminate against same-sex families do not serve states’ interests in promoting children’s welfare. Those opinions, in the wake of Windsor, underscore how marriage bans stigmatize and cause financial harm to children in same-sex families.”

Washington, a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law, previously clerked for Chief Judge Robert M. Bell on the Maryland Court of Appeals. She has also practiced toxic tort defense litigation in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. offices of Piper, Marbury, Rudnick & Wolfe. She also served at Harvard Law School as the Albert M. Sacks Research Fellow and A. Leon Higginbotham Research Fellow before completing her LL.M.

For more information, including links to her publications, visit http://law.gsu.edu/profile/tanya-monique-washington/.