As Bloomberg reports today, Citigroup Inc. agreed to pay $7 billion in fines and consumer relief to resolve government claims that it misled investors about the quality of mortgage-backed bonds sold before the 2008 financial crisis. But is it enough? The Bloomberg article goes on to quote Eric Holder praising the agreement: “The bank’s misconduct […]
Author Archives: Scott Michelman
…is the choice being put to residents of Finleyville, PA (in the southwestern part of the state) by the natural gas company EQT. The question is also the headline of the Slate story on the proposal. $50,000 sounds like a big payoff. But as an insurance policy for the company, it may be a good […]
This week, New York's highest court has confirmed the right of towns to ban fracking. Though legally a case about the power of localities versus the preemptive effect of state law, the result is that opponents of fracking have a powerful tool — local ordinances — to prevent fracking in their communities. (Fracking is a […]
This week, the Seventh Circuit reversed the denial of class certification in Zanetti v. IKO Mfg., a case about roof tiles marketed with the allegedly false claim that they met a certain industry standard. The district court denied class certification — in the words of the Seventh Circuit — "under a mistaken belief that 'commonality […]
NPR reporter Steve Henn (who has covered both economics and technology) conducted an experiment: he asked a couple computer experts to follow his internet traffic for a week and see how much they could learn. The answer? A whole lot. They ended up knowing so much about Henn and his movements that they could have […]
When a group of class-action objectors appealed the settlement of the privacy case against Facebook for (among other things) the unlawful use of minors’ images for advertising without parental consent, class counsel sought to impose on each objector-appellant an appeal bond of $32,000. (For more background, see here.) One of class counsel’s arguments was that […]
As we've recounted, this is the case of the company that tried to litigate in secret and under a pseudonym in challenging the Consumer Product Safety Commission's decision to post a product report on its product safety database, saferproducts.gov. The district court granted the seal and permission to use a pseudonym, and at the same […]
Key holdings of today's 5-4 decision: corporations are entitled to protection under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act; requiring closely-held corporations to pay for contraception despite their owners' have sincere religious objections is a substantial burden on religious freedom; government's program is not narrowly tailored. However, the majority opinion suggests that the Department of Health […]
For those of you who have been following the saga of Palmer v. KlearGear (see here for a summary), a big development this week: On Wednesday afternoon in Salt Lake City, after hearing testimony from the plaintiffs John and Jen Palmer about the damages they suffered as a result of their ordeal, the judge awarded […]
In a unanimous opinion today in Lane v. Franks, the Court held that an employee who was fired by a public employer for giving subpoenaed judicial testimony about his state-funded program could maintain a claim for First Amendment retaliation. The key issue in the case was whether testifying was part of the employee's job responsibilities […]