The Latest & Key Resources"Consumers' Right to Sue," from The New York Times "Is class action on its last shaky legs?," from UPI Opinion: "Operating Instructions," from Slate "High Court Strikes Down Ariz. Campaign Finance Law," from The New York Times "Supreme Court has given firms a stronger hand," from the Los Angeles Times
In New SCOTUS Term, a New Test for Corporate Accountabiilty This week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case about whether a consumer protection law that explicitly says “you have a right to sue” can be overridden by the fine print in a credit card contract. High Court Blocks Class Action Sex Discrimination Lawsuit against Wal-Mart The U.S. Supreme Court today blocked an expansive sex discrimination class action lawsuit lodged against the nation’s largest retailer Wal-Mart. Danielczyk: Overreaching or Prophecy? By Rick Hasen, Visiting Professor, University of California, Irvine School of Law and the author of Election Law Blog. When President Obama in his 2010 State of the Union speech criticized the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, he got a lot of conservative flak. Citing a recent action by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), John C. Bogle writes in a column for The New York Times, “Shareholders – not self-interested corporate managers – should, and can, decide policies on corporate political contributions.” The Roberts Court’s Unabashed Activism on Behalf of Corporations: An Examination by Jim Hightower Jim Hightower, the best-selling author and national pundit, unknown for mincing words, takes it to the Roberts Court in a piece recently re-published by AlterNet. Specifically, Hightower tags Chief Justice John Roberts and the court's four other right-wing jurists, Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Anthony Kennedy as "extremist judicial activists" who have "been hurling bombs at our democracy." The Movement for Benefit Corporations: Another Way to Bypass Citizens United You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that that makes the existing model obsolete. -- Buckminster Fuller The modern American corporation is bound by law to pursue a single objective in everything it does: increasing company profit. If it deviates from profit maximization, shareholders can bring the house down in a derivative suit. The Chamber of Commerce: A Friend of the Court (and vice versa) By David Franklin, an associate professor at DePaul University College of Law and author of the new ACS Issue Brief, Why Does Business (Usually) Win in the Roberts Court? On Tuesday, the Supreme... Join ACSVideoEmail SignupFind a Lawyer Chapter or Student Chapter |
Corporations and the CourtsRecent scholarship suggests that corporate interests increasingly are faring better than individuals in the federal courts, and in the Supreme Court in particular. Decisions highlighting this trend include Citizens United v. FEC, holding that corporations have free speech rights to spend freely on political campaigns; Wal-Mart v. Dukes, which limited class action opportunities in discrimination cases; AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, which limited class action opportunities in consumer and other contract cases; and Ashcroft v. Iqbal and Bell Atlantic Corps v. Twombly, which greatly increased the burden in civil actions for individuals for seeking redress in the courts. The material below includes scholarly articles, video of featured programs and interviews with individual experts, and blog posts highlighting other resources about these cases and the increasing disparity in the balance of power between individuals and corporations who seek justice before the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts. Case-by-case Coverage
Supreme Court Limits Individuals’ Access to Justice through Procedural Rulings, Says Prof. Hart
Majority in Wal-Mart Voted Against "Right to Have Our Voices Heard," Betty Dukes Says
Class Action at the Crossroads: An Answer to Wal-Mart v. Dukes, an Harvard Law and Policy Review article by Suzette Malveaux
The Future of Employment Discrimination Class Actions: A Briefing on Wal-Mart v. Dukes
The Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony today on how several recent Supreme Court decisions are undermining corporate accountability and limiting individuals’ abiilty to seek justice through the courts. By Sarah Crawford, Director of Workplace Fairness, National Partnership for Women & Families. The Supreme Court’s decision in Wal-Mart v. Dukes was deeply disappointing for those who care whether workers can vindicate their statutory rights. Class Action Expert on ‘Core Issue’ of Wal-Mart v. Dukes Workers, consumers and many other individuals without the means to lodge lawsuits on their own against massive corporations may find an important avenue to courts cut off if the Supreme Court rules... Following a recent ACS event on Wal-Mart v. Dukes, the class action employment discrimination before the Supreme Court, law professor Suzette Malveaux talked with ACSblog about the stakes involved in... In Walmart v. Dukes, Oral Arguments Show Split Along Gender Lines The Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, the gender discrimination case that could decide the future of class actions, and the justices appeared to divide largely along... ACS Video: Explaining What's at Issue in Wal-Mart v. Dukes A gender discrimination case before the Supreme Court today that will decide whether women employees and former employees of Wal-Mart can proceed with a class action lawsuit against the company is... Wal-Mart v. Dukes: Why Do Women Need Class Actions Anyway? By Emily J. Martin, Vice President and General Counsel, National Women's Law Center. The Supreme Court heard oral argument today in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, the case that will decide whether the hundreds... Right Over Might: The Women of Wal-Mart Fight for Fair Pay By Sarah Crawford, Director of Workplace Fairness, National Partnership for Women & Families Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Wal-Mart v. Dukes - the high profile class... Too Big to be Held Accountable? The Women of Wal-Mart Deserve Their Day in Court By Sarah Crawford, Director of Workplace Fairness, National Partnership for Women & Families. Too often, the interests of workers and businesses are assumed to be at odds. According to a friend-... Wal-Mart v. Dukes: Is Wal-Mart Too Big To Be Held Accountable for Sex Discrimination? By Emily J. Martin, Vice President and General Counsel, National Women's Law Center. Today the National Women's Law Center, together with the American Civil Liberties Union and 32 other organizations... Wal-Mart Case and Implications for the Class Action Lawsuit Later this year the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, involving the nation's largest class action worker discrimination lawsuit. The question before the justices... Dukes v. Wal-Mart: The Class Wins Again and Again; Should the Supreme Court Join the Fray? By Piper Hoffman. Ms. Hoffman is an employment attorney and writer. She blogs at piperhoffman.com. Dukes v. Wal-Mart, the largest class action in history, continues its tortuous journey through the...
A Troubling Trend: Supreme Court Continues to Limit Access to the Court System
A Briefing on AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion
Law firms devoted to the interests of large corporations are not surprisingly taking advantage of a road being forged by the Supreme Court’s conservative wing to hobble efforts of consumers and... Concepcion Decision Showed Clear Bias for Business, Chemerinsky Says The Supreme Court’s recent decision in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion is “nothing other than a conservative majority favoring the interests of businesses over consumers, employees... Supreme Courts Says Federal Law Trumps Calif. Law on Class Action Arbitration The Supreme Court led by its conservative wing issued an opinion limiting states’ ability to nullify contracts that prohibit class action arbitration. In AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion,... Even a narrow ruling in favor of AT&T Mobility in a case before the Supreme Court regarding class action waiver in a contract clause could create more difficulty for class action proceedings,.. The Supreme Court Majority Ignores the Text of the Federal Arbitration Act By Rochelle Bobroff, Directing Attorney, Herbert Semmel Federal Rights Project, National Senior Citizens Law Center While many have decried the result in AT&T v. Concepcion – the...
Restoring Access to Justice: The Impact of Iqbal and Twombly on Federal Civil Rights Litigation, an issue brief by Joshua Civin and Debo P. Adegbile Salvaging Civil Rights Claims: How Plausibility Discovery Can Help Restore Federal Court Access After Twombly and Iqbal, an issue brief by Suzette M. Malveaux ACS Convention Panel: Access to Federal Courts after Iqbal and Twombly  |
