Charitable Trusts, the Fourteenth Amendment and the Will of Stephen Girard

Abstract

A charitable trust serves two masters-the property owner who created it and society which is its beneficiary. On the initial assumption that the interests of each coincide, the law guarantees the trust enforcement, perpetual existence and tax immunity. But aware that the harmony in any partnership is sometimes disrupted, it has also evolved methods of adjusting the two interests when they diverge. The process has been criticized as hesitant in application and over-solicitous to the demands of the settlor. Yet one has come to expect few surprises by way of doctrinal innovations. Now, however, a challenge has arisen from a wholly new and unexpected quarter. The attack is levelled at the trust which makes race the criterion for benefit, and the challenge stems from the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.