Ruling in a case brought by the nation’s largest flight attendant union, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled on Friday that the Federal Aviation Administration acted within its authority when it decided, in 2013, to allow airline passengers to use cellphone and other electronics during takeoffs and landings. The Association of […]
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion on Friday holding that private attorneys under contract with the Ohio attorney general’s office to collect debts owed to the state improperly used the office’s letterhead to scare debtors into paying. The court held that use of the letterhead of the Ohio attorney general’s office was […]
A big victory for consumers, as the New York Times explained late last week: Two of the nation’s biggest banks will finally put to rest the zombies of consumer debt — bills that are still alive on credit reports although legally eliminated in bankruptcy — potentially providing relief to more than a million Americans. Bank […]
In a lawsuit filed today against the Food and Drug Administration, the drug manufacturer Amarin Pharma claims that the FDA's bar on drug companies marketing their products for uses that have not been approved by the FDA violates the company's right to free speech. In this case, not only is the use unapproved, but the […]
Last week, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Rep. Maxine Waters of California introduced the Court Legal Access and Student Support (CLASS) Act of 2015, which would eliminate forced arbitration clauses and class-action bans from college enrollment contracts. This protection, if enacted, would particularly timely in light of all the schools that have been discovered […]
The FBI has announced it will be submitting to greater oversight (i.e., seeking warrants for) its practice of scanning cell phone signals from airplanes to sweep up information about thousands of individuals. The detailed Wall St. Journal story on this is behind a paywall, so here's an accessible report.
In the first federal appellate ruling on the issue, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled that the federal law authorizing government record collection does not cover the bulk collection of Americans' metadata. (The collection program, you'll recall, was revealed as a result of the leaks by Edward Snowden). The ruling […]
A lot of interesting stuff in this week's issue, including the G.E. Capital column I mentioned earlier in the week, plus these two stories that may be of interest: -A political profile of Elizabeth Warren that chronicles her rise as a champion of the consumer, the fight for the CFPB, and her efforts to push […]
On April 16, the House of Representatives voted to repeal the estate tax for everyone. Yes, that would exempt people who have many billions of dollars, including people who inherited much or most of their wealth, like members of Sam Walton's family and the Koch brothers. The Center for Effective Government has posted information on […]