Many media outlets have reported on this week's D.C. Circuit hearing in a challenge to President Obama's three recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board. You'll recall that the President used his recess appointment power at the beginning of the year to make several appointments during pro forma Senate sessions that were specifically designed […]
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by Paul Alan Levy I am dealing with a case in which a company has sued investors for defamation, alleging statements made about shenanigans of some of the individuals employed by the company. The "of and concerning" requirement under state law was federalized as a First Amendment requirement in New York Times v. Sullivan, but […]
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve of the London School of Economics and James Fowler of the University of California at San Diego Law School say yes in this article. Here's the abstract: Economists have long realized the importance of credit markets and borrowing behavior for household finance and economics more generally. More recently, twin studies have shown […]
This major article in today's Washington Post concerns what the author claims is a growing number of defamation lawsuits over online reviews on sites such as Yelp, Angie’s List and TripAdvisor and over Internet postings in general. They say the freewheeling and acerbic world of Web speech is colliding with the ever-growing importance of online […]
My litigation plate is too full right now for a detailed analysis, but the Washington Post carries an interesting story today about a libel suit by a local contractor over a negative review of his business on Yelp. The story says there is a preliminary injunction hearing today. It will be interesting to see what […]
That possibility is discussed in this article by Molly Ball. The idea is that the Supreme Court's decision in the Citizens United case unshackled the unions not only to spend, but to electioneer beyond its members to the public at large. (The article emphasizes that although unions did whatever they could to take advantage of […]
Consumer Reports tells you why extended consumer product warranties generally are a waste of your money. Among the reasons: The warranties don't cover as much as you think; they are quite expensive; and sometimes the needed fix is easy and cheap. But the one I like best — and something I reflect on frequently — […]
by Paul Alan Levy Several bloggers, including redoubtable free speech blogger Marc Randazza, have addressed a defamation case that is being pursued by Cody Saltsman, a high school student in Steubenville, Ohio, and his parents against a crime blogger and several anonymous commenters on her blog, over statements accusing him of involvement in the gang […]
Student loan debt in this country is now north of $1 trillion. As we have reported many times (go, for instance, here and here), a lot of student loan debtors are behind on their payments. A large percentage of this debt — and over 90% of new loans — is owed to the federal government. […]
With all the rhetoric swirling around the debate over the fiscal cliff and the consequences of "going over," I found this interactive feature from the Washington Post quite enlightening — it enables the user to calculate how the outcome of the fiscal cliff negotiations will affect particular households based on household composition and income. An […]