Category Archives: Uncategorized

Thrown Out of Court–How corporations became people you can’t sue

That's the title of this article about binding consumer arbitration by Lina Khan, a reporter and policy analyst with the Markets, Enterprise and Resiliency Initiative at the New America Foundation. I was alerted to this article by arbitration expert Paul Bland at Public Justice. Paul called it "one of the best pieces of journalism ever […]

President Obama takes executive action on student-loan debt and urges Congress to do more

Here's what the White House says about the President's action yesterday on student loans: More students than ever before are relying on student loans to pay for their college education. 71 percent of students earning a bachelor's degree graduate with debt, averaging $29,400. While most students are able to repay their loans, many feel burdened […]

Ready for Bullying?

by Paul Alan Levy Last week, the pre-campaign PAC promoting Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy, Ready for Hillary, demanded that both Zazzle and CafePress, the rival print-to-order companies that designers use to fill orders for Tshirts and other paraphernalia displaying their designs, stop selling material displaying the following design: The design, created by Liberty Maniac’s Dan […]

Should business trade associations have tax-exempt status (as they currently do)?

That's the question discussed in Taxing the Unheavenly Chorus: Why Section 501(c)(6) Trade Associations are Undeserving of Tax Exemption by law professor Philip Hackney. Here is the abstract: Our federal, state, and local governments provide a subsidy that enhances the political voice of business interests. This article discusses the federal subsidy for business interests provided […]

Semi-literate Bullying from Santy Integrated over Its Use of Unpaid Interns

by Paul Alan Levy Michael Chichester, an Arizonan who does social media promotion on a contract basis for various firms, was annoyed when he saw an announcement from Santy Integrated, a local advertising company, recruiting "social media interns" to help promote its clients’ brands on a volunteer basis.  It was his belief — which seemed to […]

On proposed changes to the federal rules of civil procedure

Arthur Bryant of Public Justice has this post, entitled Access to Justice At Stake with Federal Rules Changes, about “the critical importance of the Federal Rules process” and the importance of fair rules to ensure access to the civil justice system. [Note, 6/5/14 – The link is not currently working. Seems to be a problem […]

Seventh Circuit throws out consumer class-action settlement in a far-ranging opinion

by Brian Wolfman In Eubank v. Pella Corporation, No. 13-2091 (June 2, 2014), Judge Richard Posner makes so many useful points about class-action settlements that it's not sensible to try to summarize them here. Read the opinion for yourself! Just one point for now: As I've mentioned before, class-action settlement proponents often argue that one […]

The Food & Drug Administration launches “Open FDA,” a program aimed at putting large data sets in the hands of researchers, the public, and industry

The federal Food & Drug Administration has launched what it's calling Open FDA. Here's how the agency is describing its new program: OpenFDA is specifically designed to make it easier for web developers, researchers, and the public to access and use the many large, important, health data sets collected by the agency. These publicly available […]

DC Court of Appeals Allows Interlocutory Appeals of Denials of Special Motions to Quash Under SLAPP Law

by Paul Alan Levy The DC Court of Appeals has reversed the denial of a special motion to quash a subpoena seeking to identify the anonymous defendant in a defamation action.  The suit, Burke v. Doe, was brought by  lawyer Susan Burke, who complained that her Wikipedia entry had been modified to include false statements relating […]