Supreme Court

Consumer watchdog funding fight goes before justices

Consumer watchdog funding fight goes before justices

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In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Congress consolidated the task of enforcing federal consumer finance laws into one agency. It created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect consumers in the marketplace and, in part, regulate predatory financial products, like the high-risk mortgages that had contributed to the crash. As part of its efforts to foster the agency’s independence, funding for the CFPB would come not from the annual appropriations process in Congress, but instead from the … Read the rest

Civil Law

ESAs report on the landscape of ICT third-party providers in the EU

On 27 September 2023, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) co-published a report on the landscape of information and communication technology (ICT) of third-party providers (TTP) in the EU.

The report sets out the results of a high-level analysis, carried out by the ESAs together with Member State competent authorities with the objective of getting a preliminary overview of the provision of ICT services to EU financial entities by ICT TTPs. The analysis was performed … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Court denies Alabama’s request to use voting map with only one majority-Black district

Court denies Alabama’s request to use voting map with only one majority-Black district

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Alabama’s request to allow it to use a congressional map in the 2024 elections that a lower court had concluded likely violates the Voting Rights Act. The brief unsigned order, from which there were no public dissents, came less than four months after a divided Supreme Court agreed that the 2021 iteration of the map violated federal law by weakening the collective voting power of Black voters in the state.

Tuesday’s order from … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Florida man subject to lifetime sex-offender registration requirements argues that he is “in custody” for purposes of federal post-conviction laws

Florida man subject to lifetime sex-offender registration requirements argues that he is “in custody” for purposes of federal post-conviction laws

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The Petitions of the Week column highlights a selection of cert petitions recently filed in the Supreme Court. A list of all petitions we’re watching is available here.

A person held in state prison can challenge the constitutionality of their criminal conviction in federal court through a legal tool known as a writ of habeas corpus. Habeas relief is available to anyone “in custody,” which the Supreme Court has interpreted to mean not only physical confinement but also … Read the rest

Civil Law

Can Florida Courts Confirm Appraisal Awards and Appoint Umpires?

The property insurance policy calls for a court to appoint umpires. Parties typically file a petition to appoint an umpire and then a request to confirm the appraisal award after the appraisal panel renders a decision. A reader of this blog asked me to comment on the following ruling from a recent Florida appellate case:1 

State Farm Florida Insurance Company (‘State Farm’) appeals the final judgments entered in four related cases that confirmed appraisal awards set by a

… Read the rest
Supreme Court

The morning read for Friday, September 22

The morning read for Friday, September 22

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Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles, commentary, and other noteworthy links related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Friday morning read:

  • Clarence Thomas secretly participated in Koch network donor events (Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, and Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica)
  • Sports betting fight heading to Supreme Court (Dara Kam, News Service of Florida)
  • Coerced, censored, shut down: How will Supreme Court manage social media’s toxic sludge? (John Fritze & Jessica Guynn, USA Today)
  • Supreme Court ruling could
… Read the rest
Civil Law

Illinois Federal Court Dismisses One False Advertising Suit Based on Malic Acid, While Sustaining Another

A pair of malic acid decisions recently issued by Judge Coleman in the Northern District Court of Illinois reaffirmed that the statements “natural flavors with other natural flavors” and “no artificial flavors” receive different treatment under state false advertising laws, at least in that district.

In Boss v. Kraft Heinz Co., the plaintiffs alleged that Kraft Heinz’s MiO water-flavoring products contained synthetic malic acid, rendering false and misleading the claim “natural flavors with other natural flavors” on the products’ … Read the rest