We've previously discussed the pending Supreme Court case King v. Burwell, in which the Supreme Court will consider whether the subsidies Obamacare provides to low-income purchasers of health insurance will be drastically cut back. Earlier this week, Brian discussed the government's brief in the case. Now the government's position is garnering support from some quarters […]
Author Archives: Scott Michelman
Last week, the FTC filed a complaint in a Texas federal court against Commercial Recovery Systems for threatening consumers that unless they paid their debts, they would be sued or have their wages garnished. The problem? These representations weren't true. As the FTC's press release details: According to the complaint, since at least 2010, CRS’s […]
We've discussed before the threats to privacy posed by secret government data collection programs of various kinds (see, for instance, here and here). Challenges to such programs are hard to bring because of the difficulty of establishing standing — i.e., the challenger must show (to a very high likelihood or certainty) that his or her […]
We're written before about the problem of civil asset forfeiture — the law enforcement practice, disproportionately affecting low income people and people of color, of taking property from people on the suspicion that it had something to do with a crime. This month, following on the heels of forfeiture reform in D.C., Attorney General Holder […]
As we've discussed recently, the Supreme Court is set to decide by June whether the Fair Housing Act covers policies and practices that contribute to racial segregation in housing where there has been no showing they were intended to do so. (See here and here, for instance.) This morning, Brian discussed some of the historical […]
Vindicating a simple principle in a case with a complex procedural background, the Court held unanimously today in Gelboim v. Bank of America that investors who sued banks for manipulating the globally influential LIBOR interest rate in violation of federal antitrust law had the right to take an appeal when their case was dismissed. The […]
…is the title of this op-ed from the NYT over the weekend. The piece highlights a recent Pew study finding that most wealthy Americans think that poor people have it easy then debunks that myth with some sobering numbers. These include the fact that an estimated 11 million Americans work without making enough to move […]
Last month, we recommended an NPR story discussing the problem of collections against low-income hospital patients. In response to this problem (as reported by the New York Times), "The Obama administration has adopted sweeping new rules to discourage nonprofit hospitals from using aggressive tactics to collect payments from low-income patients. Under the rules, nonprofit hospitals […]
Resolving a split among the federal courts of appeals in favor of consumers, the Supreme Court held today in Jesinoski v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., that a consumer may exercise the right to rescind a loan under the federal Truth in Lending Act simply by notifying the creditor rather than (as the creditor contended and […]