President Trump is no friend of consumer arbitration. As longtime readers of the blog know, during his first term, Trump signed the Congressional Review Act resolution blocking the CFPB’s arbitration rule from going into effect. So it is intriguing to see Trump sue JPMorgan Chase over the bank’s debanking him when his contract with the bank includes an arbitration clause. But it is not necessarily hypocritical. After all, the president may well be among the many consumers who, research shows, neither read nor understand their arbitration clause.
Maybe the president getting forced into arbitration–and deprived of his day in court and before a jury (which the president has demanded)–is just what the consumer movement needs to persuade the president to seek the banning of consumer contract arbitration clauses.
