Years after its horrific devastation of New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina just claimed two more victims–Newcomb College for women at Tulane University and the sanctity of donor intent in Louisiana.

The fate of both was sealed in February when the state Supreme Court ruled that Tulane had no obligation to honor Josephine Newcomb's 104-year-old bequest that it maintain, in perpetuity, a women's college as a memorial to her deceased daughter Sophie. After five years of litigation fueled by the spirited opposition of alumnae and Newcomb's descendents, the ruling ratified

Tulane's 2005 decision to abolish the college. The path to the ruling was fraught, both legally and ethically, and revealed the frailty of the rule of law when its officers don't want to comply.