6-27-2011 Corporations are having their way with American elections just as they've already had their way with our media. But at least we have the courts, right?
Wrong. The third branch of government's in trouble too. In fact access to justice – like access to elected office, let alone a pundit's perch – is becoming a perk just for the rich and powerful.
Take the young woman now testifying in court in Texas. Jamie Leigh Jones claims she was drugged and gang-raped while working for military contractor KBR in Iraq (at the time, a division of Halliburton). Jones, now 26, was on her fourth day in post in Baghdad in 2005 when she says she was assaulted by seven contractors and held captive, under armed guard by two KBR police, in a shipping container.
When the criminal courts failed to act, her lawyers filed a civil suit, only to be met with Halliburton's response that all her claims were to be decided in arbitration – because she'd signed away her rights to bring the company to court when she signed her employment contract. As Leigh testified before Congress, in October 2009, "I had signed away my right to a jury trial at the age of 20 and without the advice of counsel." It was a matter of sign or resign. "I had no idea that the clause was part of the contract, what the clause actually meant," testified Jones.
You've probably done the very same thing without even knowing it. When it comes to consumer claims, mandatory arbitration is the new normal. According to research by Public Citizen and others, corporations are inserting "forced arbitration" clauses into the fine print of contracts for work, for cell phone service, for credit cards, even nursing home contracts, requiring clients to give up their right to sue if they are harmed. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/27/us-supreme-court-rape
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3-2-2009 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court let stand on Monday the dismissal of lawsuits by Vietnamese nationals and U.S. military veterans against Dow Chemical Co, Monsanto Co and other chemical makers over the use of the herbicide Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. Without comment, the justices declined to review a ruling last year by a U.S. appeals court in New York that the plaintiffs could not pursue their claims for their alleged injuries from their exposure to the chemical defoliant. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-agentorange-lawsuit/supreme-court-wont-review-agent-orange-lawsuits-idUSTRE5213N120090302
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5-24-16 Whatever you believe, the law aims to have every child vaccinated. There is no law on the federal level mandating vaccination. But in all 50 states, vaccinations are required for children to enter the school system. https://www.theepochtimes.com/parents-sue-california-for-law-that-forces-kids-to-get-vaccinated_2066347.html
2-22-2011 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court ruled that federal law shields vaccine makers from product-liability lawsuits in state court seeking damages for a child’s injuries or death from a vaccine’s side effects. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pharma-vaccines-lawsuit/supreme-court-rules-for-vaccine-makers-on-lawsuits-idUSTRE71L41420110222
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10-15-2017 the opioid war had claimed 200,000 lives, more than three times the number of U.S. military deaths in the Vietnam War. Overdose deaths continue to rise. There is no end in sight....A handful of members of Congress, allied with the nation’s major drug distributors, prevailed upon the DEA and the Justice Department to agree to a more industry-friendly law, undermining efforts to stanch the flow of pain pills, according to an investigation by The Washington Post and “60 Minutes.” The DEA had opposed the effort for years.
The law was the crowning achievement of a multifaceted campaign by the drug industry to weaken aggressive DEA enforcement efforts against drug distribution companies that were supplying corrupt doctors and pharmacists who peddled narcotics to the black market. The industry worked behind the scenes with lobbyists and key members of Congress, pouring more than a million dollars into their election campaigns. The chief advocate of the law that hobbled the DEA was Rep. Tom Marino,a Pennsylvania Republican who is now President Trump’s nominee to become the nation’s next drug czar. ...
The new law makes it virtually impossible for the DEA to freeze suspicious narcotic shipments from the companies, according to internal agency and Justice Department documents and an independent assessment by the DEA’s chief administrative law judge in a soon-to-be-published law review article....Loretta E. Lynch, who was attorney general at the time, declined a recent interview request. Obama also declined to discuss the law.
(flashback to 2006: Back home, each 30-pill vial of oxycodone was worth $900. DEA officials realized they needed a new strategy to confront this new kind of drug dealer.) https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/dea-drug-industry-congress/?utm_term=.ae35a42a87db
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US Dept. of Justice defended the Federal Reserve System in these court cases: e.g., TCF National Bank v. Bernanke, 643 F.3d 1158 (8th Cir. 2011) On June 30, 2011, the plaintiff voluntarily dismissed the action.; McKinley v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 647 F.3d 331 (D.C. Cir. 2011) FOIA Project Annotation: Judge Amy Berman Jackson has ruled that the Federal Reserve conducted an adequate search for records pertaining to the potential consequences of a collapse of Lehman Brothers and AIG and properly claimed Exemption 4 (confidential business information),; Fox News Network, LLC v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 601 F.3d 158 (2d Cir. 2010). a federal appeals court said the Federal Reserve must disclose records on emergency lending programs to banks bailed out by the government in the financial crisis. https://www.quora.com/If-the-Federal-Reserve-gets-sued-does-the-Justice-Department-defend-them-If-not-then-who-does
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8-19-2006 Switzerland's supreme court dismissed a lawsuit accusing International Business Machines Corp. of aiding the Nazi Holocaust because too much time has elapsed, the Gypsy organisation that filed the case said Friday. http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/Swiss-high-court-rejects-Gypsy-Holocaust-suit-versus-IBM-cites-time-limit/2006/08/19/1155408031630.html
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The telecom giant has another big win in US courts Photograph: Getty
So pervasive and reliable is the rule of elite immunity - even in the face of the most egregious crimes - that one finds extreme examples on a weekly basis.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/10/supreme-court-telecoms-win-immunity
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The telecom giant has another big win in US courts Photograph: Getty
So pervasive and reliable is the rule of elite immunity - even in the face of the most egregious crimes - that one finds extreme examples on a weekly basis.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/10/supreme-court-telecoms-win-immunity
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