That's the name of this article by Caroline Flynn. Here's the abstract: The First Amendment prohibits the government from leveraging its employment relationship with a public employee in order to silence the employee’s speech. But the Supreme Court dramatically curtailed this right in Garcetti v. Ceballos by installing a categorical bar: if the public employee […]

In an 6-3 decision authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court held today in Amgen v. Connecticut Retirement Plans that plaintiffs in a federal securities-fraud class action need not prove that the defendant's allegedly fraudulent statements were material to obtain class certification. Justice Ginsburg's opinion contains this nice synopsis: The issue presented concerns the […]

As explained in this article by Jessica Dye, U.S. district judge Jed Rakoff has thrown out a suit brought by a lawyer against Westlaw and Lexis claiming a copyright in documents he created and filed in court. That may be good news for consumers looking for access to court documents. The case is called Edward […]

by Jeff Sovern Here. But their definition of "few" still seems high.  "Only" 4.2% of the consumers whose homes were foreclosed upon are said to have been "harmed" by robosigning.  That seems to come from a report from the OCC which has historically been captured by the banks, though since the appointment of Thomas Curry […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today refused to reconsider its opinion last fall upholding the settlement of a class action asserting claims based on Facebook's "Beacon" program, under which Facebook posted information about purchases and video rentals Facebook users made from companies that participated in the program. The settlement provides for […]

I thought our readers might be interested in reading this speech given today by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray to the National Association of Attorneys General. Among other things, he stressed (1) a need to make mortage lending simpler and more transparent; (2) a preference that more consumer-protective state laws not be preempted; […]

The Supreme Court held today that an unsuccessful FDCPA plaintiff in a non-frivolous case must pay the defendant's costs (which could be hundreds or occasionally, as in this case, thousands of dollars), even though the statute's text provides for attorney-fee- and cost-shifting only where "an action under this section was brought in bad faith and […]

In a 5-4 decision today, the Supreme Court held that lawyers, journalists and human-rights workers whose work requires that they communicate with individuals abroad whose communications the federal government is likely to target under its broad new surveillance authority lack standing to challenge the statute granting the government that broad authority. The majority dismisses as […]

A number of significant legal opinions were released today on procedural and/or substantive issues affecting consumers. We'll be highlighting each of them in turn today. First, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a settlement of three class action lawsuits arising out of the fraudulent signing of affidavits without personal knowledge in order to […]

That's the title of this article in which law professor Suzanna Sherry argues that criticisms of "judicial activism" are misguided. If anything, Sherry says, the Supreme Court should override federal and state legislative judgments more often than it does. She notes that the Supreme Court's "universally condemned" decisions more often left legislation standing than struck […]