Category Archives: Uncategorized

Effort to Suppress Trump Niece’s Book Shows the Need to Construe NDA’s Narrowly

by Paul Alan Levy The lawsuit filed by Robert Trump against his niece, Mary Trump, seeking to block her from publishing a book that apparently has several damning facts to disclose about Robert’s brother, and Mary Trump’s uncle, our Dear Leader Donald J. Trump, is based on a non-disclosure clause that was part of the […]

“Severability” to the Rescue Again: A Further Note on Today’s Supreme Court Robocalling Decision

Steve Gardner has given a great and succinct summary of todays decision in Barr v. AAPC. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act lives, minus its obnoxious exception for government debt collection robocalls. What's not to like about that bottom line? I want to make an additional point about the significance of the decision. For the second […]

CFPB Directors Now Under President’s Thumb

The Supreme Court issued its ruling in Seila Law v. CFPB today, holding by a 5-4 vote that the Congress violated the principle of separation of powers by placing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under a single director removable by the president only for cause. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion, with Justice Kagan […]

A Shot Across the Bow for Copyright Trolls: Forcing Higbee Clients to Pay for Frivolous Demand Letters and Intimidation Tactics

by Paul Alan Levy As I have discussed in several previous posts, Mathew Higbee has built up a significant copyright enforcement business that depends on the issuance of threatening demand letters that are followed up by a small army of “compliance resolution specialists” who nag and threaten large awards of damages, the issuance of judgment […]

Dep’t of Education ordered to cancel student loans of all former Corinthian Colleges students in MA

"A federal judge has ordered the Department of Education to cancel the student loans of all 7,200 former Corinthian Colleges students in Massachusetts. This is the first time a federal court has ordered a borrower defense discharge of federal student loans. "The victory in Vara v. DeVos comes nearly two years after the Department of […]

States use consumer protection laws to fight climate change

The D.C. attorney general sued four of the world’s largest oil and gas companies — BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell — Thursday, asserting that they have engaged in a decades-long campaign to deceive District consumers about the effects of fossil fuels on climate change. The lawsuit, based on the DC Consumer Protection Procedures Act and […]

How can businesses demand laws preventing liability for negligently infecting consumers with COVID when so many carelessly don’t require employees to wear masks?

by Jeff Sovern Businesses are lobbying to overturn laws that impose liability for negligently infecting customers with the coronavirus, claiming that they fear frivolous law suits and that they will observe heath guidelines to prevent the spread of the virus. But in fact, plenty of businesses are not even requiring employees to wear masks–and that's […]

Do restaurants and similar public-facing businesses have a duty to tell consumers when their employees have COVID?

by Jeff Sovern This article in the Houston Chronicle says that Texas health laws don't require restaurants to tell diners whether employees have COVID, though some restaurants have voluntarily disclosed that employees have been infected. Health laws around the nation should be amended to prevent employees with COVID from knowingly or negligently working at restaurants, […]

The Trump Administration’s Attacks on Regulatory Benefits

Read The Trump Administration’s Attacks on Regulatory Benefits by law prof RIchard Revesz. Here's the abstract: For the last four decades, benefit-cost analysis has been a mainstay of the U.S. federal regulatory process and, under Executive Orders in effect since 1981, such analysis must generally be used to justify significant federal regulations. While administrations of […]