Category Archives: Uncategorized

Preparing for the 20th Anniversary of the Streisand Effect: Cooley v. Afroman

It was almost twenty years ago that Barbra Streisand filed a lawsuit that attempted to block access to a photograph of her oceanfront estate, bringing unwanted attention to the photo and leading to her being enshrined by Techdirt’s Mike Masnick in tech/legal terminology as the progenitor of “the Streisand Effect.” Now we have Cooley v. […]

Fifth Circuit rejects non-delegation challenge to FCC Universal Service Fund

On Friday, a unanimous panel of the Fifth Circuit rejected a challenge brought by the anti-regulation advocacy organization Consumers’ Research to Congress’s creation of the Universal Service Fund. The Fund imposes charges on telecom providers and then uses the money to fund access to telecommunications services for low-income consumers, schools, libraries, and rural health-care providers, […]

Pro Publica reports that health insurer Cigna doctors denied 300,000 claims spending an average of 1.2 seconds per claim

Here. Excerpt: [A doctor’s] claim was just one of roughly 60,000 that [medical director Dr.] Dopke denied in a single month last year, according to internal Cigna records reviewed by ProPublica and The Capitol Forum. The rejection of van Terheyden’s claim was typical for Cigna, one of the country’s largest insurers. The company has built […]

Fifth Circuit lets big tobacco continue to harm youth

Public health campaigns over the past decades have been successful in reducing the prevalence of cigarette smoking in the U.S., particularly among adolescents. The tobacco industry has thus pivoted to e-cigarettes and vaping. Studies show young people, in particular, mistakenly believe such products are not unhealthy, and have been flocking to such products in droves. […]

FCC establishes robotext protections

The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to require providers that receive and deliver phone traffic to implement call authentication standards mandated under its STIR/SHAKEN robocall regime and to implement basic protections from problematic robotexts. Under the previous rules, only voice service providers that originate and terminate calls were required to implement analytical tools that […]

Conservative pro-bank Rep. Luetkemeyer doesn’t read the fine print either

The New Republic, asked conservative Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer, who often espouses the positions asserted by the banking industry during hearings of the House Financial Services Committee, if he reads the fine print on his contracts. The answer: ““I don’t read the fine print on any of that stuff,” he said. “I’m a busy guy.” Among […]

Second Circuit rejects latest Takings Clause challenge to rent stabilization

As noted in today’s Second Circuit opinion, there have been nearly a dozen constitutional challenges to New York’s rent regulation regime over the years. The court of appeals rejected the latest challenge, brought by Mayer Brown on behalf of landlords, arguing that the rent-stabilization laws were facially unconstitutional as physical takings and irrational in violation […]

Report on Biden’s Record on Judicial Nominations

The People’s Parity Project released a report, which reviews and assesses President Biden’s progress so far with judicial nominations. The organization, which describes itself as a “network of law students and new attorneys organizing to unrig the legal system and build a justice system that values people over profits,” emphasized the need for more professionally […]

District Court finds 2019 non-consummated settlement bars investigation of realtors group

In 2019, DOJ’s Antitrust Division opened an investigation into practices and policies of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) — the trade and lobbying group representing most of the nation’s real estate agents, brokers, and other professionals, and defendant in several earlier antitrust cases. Among the practices DOJ sought to investigate were NAR’s “clear cooperation […]