On Thursday, April 9th, 7th Circuit Appeals Judge, Richard Posner, dismissed a longstanding class-action lawsuit against four major mobile service providers: Verizon, T-mobile, Sprint, and AT&T, who were accused of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act by coordinating a rate increase on text messaging. The origins of the case, which began as a series of over
In a Saturday, April 11th New York Times article, Adam Liptak illustrates how there are no attorneys from top-level firms urging the Supreme Court to vote against gay marriage in the upcoming hearing involving four different gay marriage-civil rights cases. The Court is allowing 2 ½ hours of oral arguments on April 28th, with attorneys
National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) Administrator, Mark Rosekind, has indicated that the nation’s top automotive regulator may take a more aggressive stance toward Fiat-Chrysler following a massive $150 million judgment against the company over the burning death of 4 year-old Remi Walden due to an exploding gas tank on his Aunt’s 1999 Jeep Grand
Amazon has been a pioneering company in a number of respects, from becoming the world’s largest online retailer to introducing cloud computing technology to the masses, and 20 years ago, when they implemented the user product review. On Wednesday, April 8th, the company took major strides in protecting the integrity of the review process when
Because it couldn’t stand to be outdone by rivals Arkansas and Florida, or the once-polite state of Indiana, Louisiana has entered the religious freedom battle, coming strong with a bill that just might pass intact. Representative Mike Johnson (R-Bossier City) introduced HB 707 last week, the Louisiana Marriage and Conscience Act. The bill would allow
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted unanimously on Thursday, April 9th to issue the largest fine for a utility company in state history, and the largest fine in U.S. history for a natural gas utility. The $1.6 billion fine against PG&E was issued in response to a 2010 pipeline explosion in the San Francisco
In the previous section of this report, I highlighted how multiple political and budgetary factors are limiting the number of judges needed to address the growing case overload in federal courts. 43 positions remained vacant by the end of 2014 due to confirmation politics, and the Judicial Conference of the United States has asked Congress
An April 6th Wall Street Journal report highlights a growing crisis of case overload within the U.S. judicial system. In 2014, a record number of 337,302 civil cases remained pending in U.S. federal courts, a 20 percent increase since 2004. These cases involve fairly common complaints such as discrimination, Social Security, and personal injury, among
On Tuesday, April 7th in Brownsville, Texas, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled against a request by the Obama administration to lift the injunction he placed on it regarding immigration reform. The ruling comes as a precursor to an April 17th hearing in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in which the Justice Department
Two recent federal judicial rulings in New York may play a pivotal role in formally defining the vague legal premise surrounding insider trading. In December, 2nd Circuit Appeals Court judge, Richard J. Sullivan overturned the convictions of traders Todd Newman and Anthony Chiasson. In the case, Newman and Chiasson were accused of using information, informally