That's the name of this article by Catherine Sharkey. Here's the abstract: In tort preemption cases, when federal law ousts conflicting state tort law, two fundamental functional premises should hold true: (1) the federal standard of care is more than a minimal standard and (2) the state standard of tort liability has a significant regulatory […]
Author Archives: Brian Wolfman
As Sari Horwitz and Danielle Douglas report, JP Morgan, the nation’s largest bank, has reached a tentative agreement with the Justice Department to pay a record $13 billion to resolve allegations that it knowingly sold faulty mortgage securities that contributed to the financial crisis, a person familiar with the talks said Saturday. If finalized, the deal […]
The Supreme Court has protected the right under the First Amendment to anonymous speech, except when it hasn't (as when it has upheld campaign contribution disclsoure laws, where the interest in anonymity was overriden by other important social goals). In Does 'The Freedom of the Press' Include a Right to Anonymity? The Original Understanding Robert Natelson […]
We have covered extensively (for instance, here, here, and here) the ban on the sale of large, sugary drinks by New York City's health department. A state-law-based challenge to the ban by merchants and others succeeded in a New York trial court and an intermediate court of appeals. Yesterday, however, New York's highest court (the […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's student loan ombudsman, Rohit Chopra, issued his annual report today. Here is the executive summary: * In the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Congress established an ombudsman for student loans within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB began accepting student loan complaints in March 2012. * This […]
We have covered the question whether raising the minimum wage will help or hurt workers and the "living wage" movement more generally (for instance, go here and here). Now, this article by Michael Fletcher discusses a cost of the low-wage econony: the outlay of public benefits for people whose wages are so low that they […]
In Madigan v. Levin, the Supreme Court granted cert to decide this significant question (stated from the petitioner's perspective): Whether the Seventh Circuit erred in holding, in an acknowledged departure from the rule in at least four other circuits, that state and local government employees may avoid the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act’s comprehensive […]
Last Thursday, Jon Sheldon posted about the National Consumer Law Center's comprehensive report on property exemption laws around the country. A testament to the value of NCLC's report is Chris Morran's lengthy and useful summary in The Consumerist, which notes that, in Vermont, debt collectors can’t seize your goats or bees, but your car may […]
That's the name of this article by Xiaoling Ang of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and law professor Dalie Jimenez. For many years, federally guaranteed student loans have been non-dischargeable in bankruptcy, unless the debtor can show "undue hardship" (which the courts have interpreted very narrowly). Congress later extended that non-dischargeability policy even to entirely […]
by Brian Wolfman Well at least the debt-collection lawyers don't, as explained in this article by Jenna Greene. According to the incoming head of the debt-collection lawyers' trade group, the CFPB is "the bane of our existence." Here is an except from Greene's article: When scores of debt-collection lawyers descend on Washington this week for […]