by Deepak Gupta The Arbitration Fairness Act of 2013 — legislation that would ban mandatory pre-dispute binding arbitration in consumer and employment contracts — was introduced today in both houses of Congress by Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.). New to this version of the bill–an exclusion for antitrust disputes. The House […]
Author Archives: PC Litigation Group Office Assistant
by Deepak Gupta Earlier today, Solicitor General Don Verrilli filed the government's petition to the Supreme Court, challenging the D.C. Circuit's Noel Canning decision. (Background: There's been a lot of blogging here about Noel Canning, which invalidated President Obama's intersession recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and thereby threatened the validity of his simultaneous […]
There are some consumer-law events coming up that readers may find interesting: ABA Fair Lending Panel Tomorrow (April 5): The recent exchange between Jeff Sovern and Chris Willis on disparate impact and fair lending (at this blog and the CFPB Monitor blog) reminds me to mention a panel on the same subject tomorrow at the spring meeting of […]
The CFPB has released its annual report on activities under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. You can read it here. The report summarizes consumer complaint data, the Bureau's new supervision program, amicus briefs, and enforcement actions (not much to report in that category), and significant enforcement and other actions taken by the FTC, among […]
Over at SCOTUSblog, I've got two posts up about Dan's City Used Cars v. Pelkey, an interesting preemption case that was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court this week. The case concerns whether transportation deregulation law preempts a suit under state consumer-protection law brought by a man whose car was towed away from his home […]
For those of you in Washington: Tomorrow afternoon at Georgetown Law, I'll be at debating C. Boyden Gray on the constitutionality of the CFPB and Rich Cordray's recess appointment. Here's the announcement: The Consumer Law Society, The Federalist Society, and The Georgetown Center for the Constitution present: The Constitutional Challenge to the Consumer Financial Protection […]
by Deepak Gupta Along with the historic Voting Rights Act arguments this morning, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in American Express v. Italian Colors — a major antitrust arbitration case that we've mentioned on the blog several times over the years (e.g., here and here). I've been serving as co-counsel for the plaintiffs/respondents in […]
On Monday, we told you about one company's efforts to bring its challenge to President Obama's recess appointments before the U.S. Supreme Court. The challenge came in the form of an emergency stay application directed to Justice Ginsburg, which she wasted no time in denying. The challenger — a company, known as HealthBridge Management, that […]
by Deepak Gupta Earlier than many had expected, a challenge to President Obama's recess appointments reached the doorstep of the U.S. Supreme Court this morning, but it was quickly rebuffed this afternoon by Justice Ginsburg in her capacity as Circuit Justice for the Second Circuit. Justice Ginsburg did not request a response or refer the […]
Jon Leibowitz announced his departure from the FTC today, the Blog of the Legal Times reports: After a four-year tenure marked by an increased focus on privacy and aggressive consumer protection, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz announced today that he is stepping down on February 15. "I don't have any regrets," Leibowitz said in […]