» class action

The revolution will not be televised

Although in slow motion, a revolution has come to light with the 60th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). In Brown, a unanimous Supreme Court struck down the separate-but-equal doctr… Read More

Strength in diversity and multi-faceted advocacy

Many labor, employment law, civil rights, and consumer protection advocates have become concerned about the evidently growing power of well-financed interests aligned against them. The dysfunction in Congress and elsewhere in Washington, D.C. has mad… Read More

A rare victory before the Supreme Court for consumers and the public interest

As has been discussed in prior postings here, the Supreme Court has typically decided matters before it in a way that favors corporations to the detriment of employees, civil rights, or consumer protection. In a case brought by the Attorney General o… Read More

Employment litigation in 2014: mostly more of the same

Much of the court caseloads in recent years has focused on class actions and collective actions prosecuted concerning wage-and-hour violations as opposed to discrimination, retaliation, harassment, or other civil rights claims. For over a decade, in… Read More

Spymaster smack-down

In the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001, President George Bush instituted perhaps the largest and most aggressive expansion ever of domestic surveillance. It is especially noteworthy, then, that one of his judicial appointments has issued an… Read More

The Supreme Court’s radical ruling for the proverbial 1%

The latest decision by the Supreme Court about the arbitration of statutory claims will, going forward, preclude court action even when doing so deprives small businesses and many people of any meaningful legal recourse. In rendering such an extreme… Read More

A wake-up call for those addressing corporate wrongdoing

One of the most important tools for ending misdeeds and for compensating the resulting victims is litigation prosecuted on a class-wide basis. Consistent with its apparently escalating hostility toward such systemic legal action, the Supreme Court re… Read More

Class actions under arbitral attack

The Supreme Court has continued to exhibit a preference for arbitration over court litigation in a number of recent rulings, including those that have limited the ability to pursue class actions and collective actions. The Supreme Court’s agenda se… Read More

United we stand or divided we fall

The Chicago Teachers Union recently filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of African-American members, alleging that the Chicago Public School’s “turnaround” policy discriminates against African-American employees. Under this “turnaround”… Read More

Taking on the giant of giants

For decades, Walmart has dominated much of the retail market, often at the expense – literally and figuratively – of local communities. With the rapid growth of Walmart, everything from the proverbial mom-and-pop shop to community infrastructure… Read More