USDA set to release new “organic” standard

The Hill reports that the White House Office of Management and Budget completed its review of the organic livestock and poultry practices Wednesday, giving the Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service the green light to release the final rules on treatment of animals whose meat will be sold as “certified organic.” Under the rules, proposed […]

SCOTUS to Decide if NLRB Class Action Waiver Ban is Enforceable.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear three cases related to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision in D.R. Horton in which the NLRB held that companies that require employees to sign class action waivers violate their rights to act collectively under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The three cases to be […]

Ninth Circuit considers when debt collector enforcing a security interest is subject to FDCPA.

In Mashiri v. Epstein Grinnell & Howell, the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s dismissal for failure to state a cause of action under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). On appeal, Defendants argued for the first time they were merely enforcing a security interest and subject to only §1692f(6). The court rejected Defendants’ […]

Am Banker: Trump team signals it will oust CFPB’s Cordray

by Jeff Sovern Here (behind paywall). Excerpt: Exactly how President-elect Donald Trump intends to get rid of Cordray is unclear. Under the Dodd-Frank Act, Cordray can only be fired "for cause," and some speculate that the Trump administration is already building a case against the CFPB chief. One source with knowledge of the situation told […]

Cass Sunstein in Bloomberg View: “Why Trump Can’t Just Say ‘You’re Fired’ to” CFPB’s Cordray

Here.  Excerpt: Any effort to discharge Cordray would be illegal — and it might even precipitate something close to a constitutional crisis. * * * Both Republican and Democratic presidents have not loved the idea of independent agencies, operating outside of their daily control. But in 1935,[in the Humphries Exec case], the Supreme Court unanimously agreed […]

Book Announcement: Duke’s Edward J. Balleisen: Fraud: An American History from Barnum to Madoff

More here.  Chapters that look as if they may be of particular interest to CL&P blog readers include The Enduring Dilemmas of Antifraud Regulation, The Shape-Shifting, Never-Changing World of Fraud, The Call for Investor and Consumer Protection (1930s to 1970s),  Moving toward Caveat Venditor,  Consumerism and the Reorientation of Antifraud Policy The Promise and Limits of […]

Paul Bland in Money: Potential CFPB Head is a “Complete Hack for the Industry”

Here.  Excerpt: Trump is expected to almost immediately dismiss Richard Cordray, who has been the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) since its creation in 2011. * * * "Consumer protection is important to a well-functioning financial marketplace," Neugebauer wrote in one of his arguments for a new CFPB structure. But "this protection […]

Bloomberg BNA: Trump and Cordray: Five Scenarios for the CFPB

Here. Excerpt: It’s also possible that Trump and Cordray may yet find common ground. * * * The Trump-Pence transition team, while generally tagging the Dodd-Frank Act as a brake on economic growth, has said nothing specific about the CFPB or its director. And although the conventional wisdom is that there’s little common ground between […]