Read Senator Whitehouse's essay. Here's the intro: In recent years corporations have racked up significant victories before the U.S. Supreme Court — a corporate windfall that has come at the expense of Americans who are unable to win redress for their injuries. These decisions have also worked an often overlooked harm: They have made it […]
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by Brian Wolfman As many of our readers know, the Dodd-Frank financial reform law authorizes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to regulate consumer arbitration. Under that law, the CFPB must conduct a study of consumer arbitration and then issue a report to Congress before it does anything to regulate pre-dispute aribtration clauses in consumer finance […]
Here. And an FTC infographic below:
As you will recall, in late April, the Supreme Court decided McBurney v. Young, holding unanimously that neither the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV nor the dormant Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution prevents a state from limiting the right of access to the state's public records to its own citizens. (For […]
We have posted frequently about the ramifications of the states' decisions to opt-in (or not) to the Affordable Care Act's massive medicaid expansion, including just a few days ago, when we noted the large number of states that have either decided not to opt in (19) or are still thinking about it (8). A new […]
A stunning revelation this week about consumer privacy: the federal government has obtained a secret order from a secret court to obtain "telephony metadata" — i.e. who's called whom when and for how long — for all Verizon calls made to or within the United States. The Washington Post story quotes an anonymous expert as […]
Allison has already noted that Sid Wolfe has relinquished his position as Director of Public Citizen Health Research Group in favor of Michael Carome, but I want to add my personal appreciation of his willingness to step aside after so many years of leadership. Organizations that hope to renew themselves depend on leaders who both […]
My office just submitted an amicus brief in the Second Circuit that I thought our readers might find interesting. The brief on behalf of 15 leading national disability rights organizations and academic researchers in Authors Guild, Inc. v. Hathitrust, No. 12-4547, urges the court of appeals to uphold a district court ruling that the HathiTrust's efforts to […]
by Brian Wolfman Last October, we told you that California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that establishes a regulatory framework for allowing self-driving cars on California roads. If self-driving cars work as planned they will greatly reduce crashes that kill and maim tens of thousands of people every year. They'll improve fuel economy too. […]
After 42 years as head of Public Citizen Health Research Group, Dr. Sidney Wolfe is handing the reins over to his deputy director Dr. Michael Carome, effective today. Sid founded the Group in 1971, with Ralph Nader. Under Sid’s direction, Public Citizen helped to have 25 dangerous drugs removed from the market and pushed the […]