That's what the Court did today, by a 5-4 vote, in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission. The main opinion was written by Chief Justice Roberts. Justice Thomas, concurring in the judgment, would have gone further and overruled Buckley v. Valeo, which, among other things, upheld certain individual limits on contributions to particular candidates. No surprise […]
Author Archives: Brian Wolfman
I don't like repeating posts, but an exception is warranted here. I am reproducing Jeff Sovern's post about the "Making the fine print fair" conference set for this Friday, April 4, at Georgetown law. Note that the conference is free and open to the public. So, if you are in D.C. on Friday, feel free to […]
Our readers may be interested in a couple new items about the minimum wage. First, this piece by Emily Badger discusses the difficulties faced by low-wage workers living in places where the cost of housing is high. Badger highlights a new report by the Naitonal Low Income Housing Coalition, which claims that a minimum-wage worker […]
Here is the groups' press release: New Report Examines Both the Promise and the Potential Dangers of the New Financial Marketplace Leading Reform Groups Call for New Regulations to Protect Consumers from Unfair and Discriminatory “Big Data” Practices, Groups File Report with the White House “Big Data” Review Proceeding Washington, DC: U.S. PIRG Education Fund […]
As reported here, "the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have updated their previous estimates of health care-associated infections through the two reports, one of which is published in the New England Journal of Medicine, NEJM and details 2011 hospital infection estimates from a survey of hospitals in 10 states." Extrapolating from the data […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released what it calls a "data point" on payday lendingAf. It's a small study based on data that the CFPB obtained from payday lenders in conjunction with the agency's supervisory authority over those lenders. The data indicate that many payday borrowers are habitual payday borrowers. After the jump are […]
by Brian Wolfman A couple weeks ago, in McMahon v. LVNV Funding (and a companion case), the Seventh Circuit held that debt collectors' letters to consumers offering to "settle" time-barred debts (that is, debts that would be subject to a successful statute-of-limitations defense) could mislead consumers and, thus, could violate the federal Fair Debt Collection […]
Kevin Davis has written this article reviewing legal issues raised by airbnb, the on-line apartment and home rental site that says it facilitates "[r]ent[als] from people in over 34,000 cities and 192 countries." Among the issues are (1) whether airbnb renters should have business licenses in cities and towns that require them generally, and (2) […]
Some contributors to this blog have expressed general skepticism about the value of disclosure as a means of consumer protection (and have argued that some types of disclosure are more likely to be effective than others). The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is interested in improving disclosures for prepaid cards. Here's how the CFPB describes the […]
by Brian Wolfman Tesla wants to sell its electric cars from its own stores directly to consumers. Some states require consumers to buy new cars from car dealers supposedly on the ground that requiring consumers to go through a dealer promotes competition. Really? Sounds like protectionism for car dealers, doesn't it? Tesla isn't saying that […]