As our readers know, on April 25, 2013, the Solicitor General petitioned the Supreme Court to review the D.C. Circuit's Noel Canning decision, which held that three putative recess appointments made by President Obama to the National Labor Relations Board were, in fact, not proper recess appointments and were thus invalid. Here's how the the […]
Category Archives: Uncategorized
This article by Lori Montgomery explains that, according to a a new Congressional Budget Office report, The 10 largest breaks in the U.S. tax code will save taxpayers more than $900 billion this year, with a little more than half the benefits flowing to the richest 20 percent of households …. Whether that's a good or […]
In Hooks v. Forman, Holt, Eliades & Ravin, No. 12-3639-cv (May 29, 2013), the Second Circuit has held that a debt collector's collection notice violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by stating that the plaintiffs could only dispute the validity of a debt in writing. The court's ruling is consistent with earlier Ninth Circuit […]
We've written before about the potential effects on class actions of the Supreme Court's decision this Term in Comcast v. Behrend: see here, here, and here. Yesterday's Ninth Circuit opinion in Levya v. Medaline Industries is a welcome development in the growing body of post-Comcast jurisprudence in the lower courts. The opinion, written by the […]
The Class Action Fairness Act provides jurisdiction in federal district court (originally and by removal) for most minimally diverse class actions and for "mass actions." Under CAFA, a mass action is any civil action (except a civil action within the scope of [28 U.S.C.] section 1711(2)) in which monetary relief claims of 100 or more […]
…is the title of this illuminating Fresh Air interview, about the evolution of retirement savings in this country and the perils awaiting the unwary individual retirement investor.
As states begin implementing the Affordable Care Act, will they offer a range of options at prices preferable to what is available today? Chad Terhune has written this article about what California is doing. Here's an exceprt: After weeks of negotiations, California said it has selected 13 health plans for a new state-run insurance marketplace […]
by Paul Alan Levy Anonymous Internet users based in Tanzania are fighting a subpoena from Wineland-Thomson Adventures, a company that runs super-luxury safaris and climbs on Mount Kilimanjaro under the name Thomson Safaris, seeking to identify the authors of a web site that takes Thomson to task over allegations of brutal attacks on Masai villagers […]
by Brian Wolfman In recent years, July 1 has been the crisis date for the federal program that subsidizes student loans. The loans are subsidized in a number of ways, principally by having below-market interest rates. Unless Congress acts, on July 1, the current 3.4% interest rate will double to 6.8%. A reform idea would […]
by Paul Alan Levy A useful ruling last week from the federal court in Northern Indiana dismissed its face a complaint brought by an obscure company that makes “Clean Slate” software, which can be used to wipe all user activity off a computer network. The plaintiff complained that Warner Brothers' The Dark Knight Rises showed […]