Author Archives: Brian Wolfman

Consumer groups call for cancer warnings on alcohol

Various consumer and health groups –  including the Consumer Federation of America, the American Institute for Cancer Research, the American Public Health Association, Breast Cancer Action, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and the U.S. Alcohol Policy Alliance — have called for the following warning on alcohol beverage labels: GOVERNMENT WARNING: According to […]

Are state attorneys general enforcing Dodd-Frank in a fair, non-partisan way?

Professors Brian Feinstein, Chen Meng, and Manisha Padi took a look at that question from one angle in State Attorneys General & Lender Behavior. Here is the abstract: The Dodd-Frank Act empowers state attorneys general to enforce, with limited exception, both state and federal laws concerning predatory lending, unfair and deceptive practices, information disclosure, and […]

“How Payday Lenders Spent $1 Million at a Trump Resort — and Cashed In”

That's the title of this ProPublica piece by Anjali Tsui and Alice Wilder. Among other things, this article explains that the payday loan industry's trade group has held its last two annual conventions at a Trump property while at the same time that the Trump Administration's regulatory stance has been decidedly pro-payday lending. The article […]

Supreme Court: Virginia law banning uranium mining is not preempted by federal law

In yesterday's opinion in Virginia Uranium, Inc. v. Warren, the Supreme Court held that a Virginia law banning uranium mining is not preempted by the Atomic Energy Act. The vote was 6 to 3, with the six Justices in the majority divided between two separate opinions—the first announcing the judgment of the Court, written by […]

Essay on common characteristics and problems in aggregated litigation

In The Continuum of Aggregation, law prof Alexi Lahav discusses the commonalities in various types of aggregated litigation. Here is the abstract: This essay, written for a conference marking the fiftieth anniversary of the multidistrict litigation statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1407, traces the evolution in thinking about aggregation, analyzes the forms of aggregate litigation — […]

The rule of law in multi-district litigation

I think our readers might be interested in The Rule of Law in Multidistrict Litigation by law prof David Noll. Here's the abstract: From the Deepwater Horizon disaster to the opioid crisis, multidistrict litigation — or simply MDL — has become the preeminent forum for devising solutions to the most difficult problems in the federal […]

Supreme Court decides Class Action Fairness Act removal case, Home Depot v. Jackson

The Supreme Court decided Home Depot v. Jackson, No. 17-1471, this morning about whether a third-party counterclaim defendant can remove a case to federal court under general federal removal provisions or under the Class Action Fairness Act's removal provision, 28 U.S.C. § 1453. The Court held, in a 5-4 opinion by Justice Thomas, that removal […]

Reassessing strict-liability standards in prescription-drug injury cases

Law prof Mary J. Davis has written Time For a Fresh Look at Strict Liability for Pharmaceuticals. Here's the abstract: Over the ensuing 50 years from the promulgation of § 402A, products liability in general has seen a retrenchment from strict liability. The Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability openly adopted negligence principles for design […]

D.C. Circuit rejects arguments from the federal and D.C. governments that would have weakened fee-shifting statutes

In a 2-1 decision in DL v. District of Columbia, No. 18-7004 (May 21, 2019), authored by Judge David Tatel, the D.C. Circuit has rejected the federal and D.C. governments' efforts to cut the hourly rates payable for a lawyer's legal work under federal fee-shifting statutes. (Senior Judge David Sentelle dissented.) Here is Judge Tatel's […]