Author Archives: Brian Wolfman

Student debt relief from a civil-rights perspective

Law profs Dalie Jimenez and Jonathan Glater have written Student Debt is a Civil Rights Issue: The Case for Debt Relief and Higher Education Reform for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Here is the abstract:  For an ever-growing number of students aspiring to higher education, borrowing is essential. Yet the burdens of indebtedness […]

CFPB: Five ways to recognize a social-security scam

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has published Five ways to recognize a Social Security scam. Last summer, the agency warned in this short memo about the increasing number of scams aimed at getting social-security numbers or benefits. It explained how to identify scams (as opposed to legit inquiries from the Social Security Administration) and how consumers […]

Industry knows damn well that forced arbitration is unfair

Isn't that why the HR director at Wells Fargo, in explaining why his company was getting rid of forced arbitration of sexual-harassment claims, observed that "Wells Fargo has zero tolerance for sexual harassment"? So, for really bad stuff, it's only fair to let people go to court. Is that it? Does the company tolerate just […]

Trump looks to gut student-loan forgiveness programs

I was surprised to see this headline given Trump's reverence for education and that he once headed a university himself. But it appears to be true. In Trump looks to kill student loan forgiveness program, Annie Nova explains that  As student debt continues to climb, President Donald Trump on Monday released a budget for 2021 […]

D.C. Circuit holds that members of Congress lack standing to sue over Trump’s (alleged) Emoluments Clause violations

The 12-page decision, by a per curiam panel composed of Judges Henderson, Tatel, and Griffith, is here. The decision includes this paragraph: The Members [of Congress] can, and likely will, continue to use their weighty voices to make their case to the American people, their colleagues in the Congress and the President himself, all of […]

The effect of ALL CAPS in consumer contracts

Take a look at All-Caps by law profs Yonathan Arbel and Andrew Toler. Here is the abstract: A hallmark of consumer contracts is long blocks of capitalized text. Courts and legislators believe that such “all-caps” clauses improve the quality of consumer consent and thus they will often require the capitalization of certain key terms in […]

Seventh Circuit rules on a court’s authority to issue notice to members of an FLSA collective action subject to contested arbitration agreements

Take a look at the Seventh Circuit's January 24 decision in Bigger v. Facebook, Inc., No. 19-1944. The Seventh Circuit succinctly sets out the dispute and its holding: This case presents the question whether a court may authorize notice to individuals [who are putative members of a Fair Labor Standards Act "collective" action and] who […]

Why a Wealth Tax is Definitely Constitutional

That's the name of this article by law profs John Brooks and David Gamage. Here is the abstract: Wealth tax reform proposals are playing a major role in the 2020 presidential campaign. However, some opponents of these wealth tax reform proposals have claimed that a wealth tax would be unconstitutional. Other prominent critics have argued […]