It is widely believed that a major cause of the financial crisis and economic collapse that began in 2008 was the extension of home loans to people who could not afford them. The Clinton and Bush Administrations have been criticized for promoting policies of loose home lending backed by federal guarantees. Today, it's harder for […]
Following up on Brian's post yesterday about employment discimination against smokers, consider California's proposed ban on smoking in apartment buildings and other attached dwellings, discussed here by the Huffington Post (with a headline framing the ban critically) and here by the San Francisco Chronicle (with a more positive take). Public health measure? Unfair punishment for […]
by Jeff Sovern This is completely self-serving, but law professor readers of this blog may be interested to learn that the fourth edition of our casebook, Consumer Law, Cases and Materials, Fourth Edition is expected to be released in July, in time for fall classes. Our goal was to continue comprehensive coverage of core consumer law subjects (like deceptive […]
by Brian Wolfman At this blog, we have covered issues of employment discrimination. Our posts have mainly concerned employment discrimination on the basis of someone's characteristic or status. But employers sometimes discriminate against prospective or current employees based on behavior, such as whether the prospective or current employee is a tobacco user. Apparently, an increasing […]
It's not Groundhog Day, but, yes, you've heard this story before. During the presidential election campaign, student loan interest rates were going to double unless Congress acted to keep them low (3.4%), and Congress acted. And, now if Congress doesn't act by July 1, rates will double. Read about it here, or check out this […]
A few days ago, we posted about the cert petition pending in the Supreme Court in Whirlpool Corp. v. Glazer. In that case, the plaintiffs allege that their Whirlpool washing machines have a design defect that makes them prone to mold and noxious odors. The Sixth Circuit decision had affirmed class certification. Whirlpool's cert petition […]
Remember when Attorney General Eric Holder testified recently that the big banks are too big to prosecute? (Go here as well.) U.S. PIRG's Ed Meirzwinski poses a possible solution: If some of the banks are too big to be held accountable under law, maybe the law needs to break them up.
For the radio program "This American Life," Chana Joffe-Walt has written "Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America." Here are a few stats cited in Joffe-Wait's essay: (1) In West Virginia, 9% of all working-age people (people between 18 and 64) receive federal disability benefits. (2) In some U.S. counties, that figure […]
So says Time in Why Banks Love Debit Cards Again. The report begins as follows: Debit cards were supposed to be toast. The industry started writing their obituary when financial reform targeted overdraft fees and interchange or “swipe” fees, which had made debit cards extremely lucrative for banks. So why is it that banks are […]
That's the name of this article by Joseph Seiner. Seiner sets out what he says are the best ways for discrimination victims to vindicate their rights in the wake of the Supreme Court's class-action decision in Wal-Mart v. Dukes. (The problems for plaintiffs created by Wal-Mart arguably have been exacerbated by the Supreme Court's decision […]