A few days ago, we posted about the cert petition pending in the Supreme Court in Whirlpool Corp. v. Glazer. In that case, the plaintiffs allege that their Whirlpool washing machines have a design defect that makes them prone to mold and noxious odors. The Sixth Circuit decision had affirmed class certification. Whirlpool's cert petition […]
Author Archives: Brian Wolfman
Remember when Attorney General Eric Holder testified recently that the big banks are too big to prosecute? (Go here as well.) U.S. PIRG's Ed Meirzwinski poses a possible solution: If some of the banks are too big to be held accountable under law, maybe the law needs to break them up.
For the radio program "This American Life," Chana Joffe-Walt has written "Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America." Here are a few stats cited in Joffe-Wait's essay: (1) In West Virginia, 9% of all working-age people (people between 18 and 64) receive federal disability benefits. (2) In some U.S. counties, that figure […]
That's the name of this article by Joseph Seiner. Seiner sets out what he says are the best ways for discrimination victims to vindicate their rights in the wake of the Supreme Court's class-action decision in Wal-Mart v. Dukes. (The problems for plaintiffs created by Wal-Mart arguably have been exacerbated by the Supreme Court's decision […]
That's the title of this article by Ronald Mann. Here's the abstract: This essay compares the results from a survey administered to payday loan borrowers at the time of their loans to subsequent borrowing and repayment behavior. It thus presents the first direct evidence of the accuracy of payday loan borrowers’ understanding of how the […]
by Brian Wolfman Last September, the Whirlpool Corporation filed a cert petition in Whirlpool Corp. v. Glazer. The case has been on hold pending the Supreme Court's decision in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend, which was issued this past Wednesday. (Go here and here for our posts on the Comcast ruling.) Now that Comcast has come down, […]
This analysis by Jia Yang explains that large U.S. companies with operations abroad pay far less in U.S. corporate income taxes than they used to. For instance, Yang writes, in 1969, corporate giant Procter and Gamble (based in Cincinnati) paid 40% of its total profits in U.S. corporate income taxes, while today it pays about […]
As explained in this article by Matthai Kuruvila, Oakland residents who use the debit function of the city's long-awaited municipal identification card will be charged much more in fees than they would pay if they chose a comparable prepaid card from a store, according to Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports. The organization, […]
The Obama Administration has said that the Affordable Care Act will bring down health care costs. Next year, much of the Act will go into full effect. But private health insurers are apparently warning brokers that premiums will go up significantly next year because of the Act. Read about it here.
Over at Slate, Blake Reid has written "The Digital Millenium Copyright Act Is Even Worse Than You Think," which argues that the DMCA keeps e-books, online video, and other material inaccessible to people with disabilities. Here are some excerpts: The [cell-phone] unlocking furor is just the latest example of popular opposition to the DMCA’s dreaded […]