That's what the Court did today, by a 5-4 vote, in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission. The main opinion was written by Chief Justice Roberts. Justice Thomas, concurring in the judgment, would have gone further and overruled Buckley v. Valeo, which, among other things, upheld certain individual limits on contributions to particular candidates. No surprise […]
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“The Federal Trade Commission has moved to close down a multi-million dollar telemarketing fraud that targeted U.S. seniors across the nation, scamming tens of thousands of consumers,” according to an FTC press release. The defendants used a telemarketing boiler room in Canada … to cold-call seniors claiming to sell fraud protection, legal protection, and pharmaceutical […]
No, explains the Eleventh Circuit, reversing summary judgment against a consumer who was hounded by State Farm with 327 autodialed calls over a span of six months in an attempt to collect somebody else's debt. The plaintiff told State Farm to stop calling. Even if the FDCPA required him to do so in writing, the […]
When an essential consumer safety rule is issued after a prolonged delay, do you cheer the life-saving rule, or bemoan the delay? For me, some of each. We've posted before about the problem of deadly "backover" crashes (collisions in which a vehicle moving in reverse strikes a person behind the vehicle, whom the driver can't […]
I don't like repeating posts, but an exception is warranted here. I am reproducing Jeff Sovern's post about the "Making the fine print fair" conference set for this Friday, April 4, at Georgetown law. Note that the conference is free and open to the public. So, if you are in D.C. on Friday, feel free to […]
Our readers may be interested in a couple new items about the minimum wage. First, this piece by Emily Badger discusses the difficulties faced by low-wage workers living in places where the cost of housing is high. Badger highlights a new report by the Naitonal Low Income Housing Coalition, which claims that a minimum-wage worker […]
Registration is now open for the Teaching Consumer Law Conference, to be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 30-31. Presented by the Center for Consumer Law at the University of Houston Law Center, this year's Conference features more than thirty speakers discussing issues of importance to those teaching consumer law, interested in teaching consumer […]
by Paul Alan Levy I have blogged a few times about the libel suit brought by Washington, DC contractor Christopher Dietz against one of his customers, Jane Perez, who posted on Angie’s List and Yelp unfavorable reviews of his work on her newly purchased condo and included an assertion that, after their contractual relationship broke […]
Here is the groups' press release: New Report Examines Both the Promise and the Potential Dangers of the New Financial Marketplace Leading Reform Groups Call for New Regulations to Protect Consumers from Unfair and Discriminatory “Big Data” Practices, Groups File Report with the White House “Big Data” Review Proceeding Washington, DC: U.S. PIRG Education Fund […]
Public Citizen was in court Monday arguing the case of Vera Scroggins, who has been protesting and documenting the damage caused by fracking the Marcellus Shale in northeastern Pennsylvania. A few months ago, she was hit with an injunction barring her from any property that fracking company Cabot Oil and Gas owns, or to which […]