Category Archives: U.S. Supreme Court

Senate hearing on constitutionality of CFPB and Dodd-Frank

This afternoon (at 2pm), I'll be testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Dodd Frank Act. The title for today's hearing gives you a flavor of the sweeping (and fringe) legal theories being advanced by the CFPB's opponents: "The Administrative State v. The Constitution: Dodd-Frank […]

Jean Sternlight: Asking Tough Questions About Mandatory Arbitration and Article III

Sternlight has been writing about arbitration for years, and has some interesting comments about the Supreme Court's opinion last week in Sharif at the Indisputably blog.  An excerpt: The Supreme Court’s most recent Article III decision, Wellness Int’l v. Sharif (2015), raises substantial questions as to the constitutional legitimacy of the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 […]

Fitzpatrick article on “The End of Class Actions?”

Prolific class action scholar (and former Scalia clerk) Brian Fitzpatrick of Vanderbilt Law has just posted to SSRN an interesting new paper foreseeing and lamenting the effects of his former boss's handiwork in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion and American Express v. Italian Colors (both cases in which I had the privilege of representing the losing […]

Richard Cordray’s remarks on the CFPB arbitration report

Here's the text of CFPB Director Richard Cordray's remarks on the arbitration report, to be delivered at today's field hearing in Newark.  He summarizes the legal backdrop to the Bureau's report, its empirical approach, and its key findings (which I've highlighted in bold). Well worth reading in full.                                                                            Prepared Remarks of Richard Cordray Director […]

For the Third Time, Supreme Court Takes Up Disparate-Impact in Fair Housing

by Deepak Gupta Perhaps betting that the third time's a charm, the Supreme Court this morning once again granted a petition over whether disparate-impact claims — based on seemingly neutral practices with discriminatory effects — are cognizable under the Fair Housing Act. The case, Texas Deparatment of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities […]

Media Matters Talks to Paul Bland about Class Actions and Justice

Co-blogger Paul Bland, the new Executive Director of Public Justice, was recently interviewed by Media Matters.  In an engaging interview in his office Paul discusses his singular career as a champion for consumer rights, the importance of class actions as a means of challenging corporate wrondoing, and the pro-corporate bent of the Roberts Court. It's a […]