On July 21, we noted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's 3-year anniversary. If you want some detail on what the CFPB has been up to, over a wide-range of topics, read Ed Mierzwinski's The CFPB at Three: A Child Prodigy.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
A judge on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has ruled that the government violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by waiting until after the fall 2013 government shutdown was over to pay federal workers. Plaintiffs' counsel estimates that up to 1.3 million workers could be affected, the Post reports. Read the opinion, largely denying […]
We all know weddings can get expensive, but here's something most couples do not budget for: fines charged by the hotel if a wedding guest leaves a negative review online. Astonishingly, that's what the website of the Union Street Guest House in Hudson, N.Y., promised guests the hotel would do, according to this story in […]
Law prof Linda Mullenix addresses that issue in Designing Compensatory Funds: In Search of First Principles. Here is the abstract: The World Trade Center Victims’ Compensation Fund of 2001 ushered in a new age of fund approaches to resolving claims for mass disasters in the United States. Since then, numerous funds have been created following […]
Teresa Schmid has written The Lawyer-Rent Seeker Myth and Public Policy. Here is the abstract: Two enduring fallacies in public policy are that lawyers are rent seekers who impair rather than stimulate the economy, and that there are too many of them. While lawyers may disagree with the first premise, they tacitly accept the second. […]
by Paul Alan Levy Readers of this blog may recall that Brett Kimberlin has filed a defamation action against two dozen bloggers and other defendants; Public Citizen is in the case for the limited purpose of defending the anonymity of one of the bloggers. Since that blog post, there have been a number of developments, […]
Allison recently posted on the Obama Administration's excecutive order prohibiting government contractors from using forced arbitration in contracts with their employees in some circumstances. To watch a news story on the order, go here or click on the embedded video below. HT to Paul Bland.
Remember in March, when Senate Intelligence Committe Chair Dianne Feinstein took to the floor of the Senate to accuse the CIA of having hacked the computers of the committee, which was at the time investigating CIA abuses in the war on terror? At the time, CIA director John Brennan vehemently denied the charge. But this […]
Check out this troubling idea for an ad campaign: giving kids fake pill bottles filled with candy. Probably not encouraging the right associations. When confronted with this observation, the company, to its credit, agreed and stopped distributing the bottles. Consumerist has the story. A testament to the power of consumer speech to change minds and […]
by Ted Mermin (guest blogger — pictured to the right) Just a quick follow-up on Allison Zieve's post on the country-of-origin-labeling case decided yesterday by the DC Circuit. As Allison notes, the case addresses the constitutional standard under which government-mandated disclosures should be reviewed. In particular, the decision will affect the manifold federal administrative regulations […]

