The Supreme Court Once Again Rules in Favor of Corporate America

Thanks to the conservative majority on the Supreme Court of the US, a ruling has been handed down that has the potential to end ALL class-action lawsuits.

A California couple's case against AT&T sparked the ruling, which allows companies to opt out of getting sued by large groups and instead settle the case individually in arbitration.  This option avoids the costly large settlements typically awarded to the winners of class-action of suits and prevents consumers from banding together in potentially damaging media-blitz large suits.


"Deepak Gupta, an attorney at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen who represented the couple, denounced the decision and said class actions had been an essential tool to achieve justice in U.S. society.  'The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a crushing blow to American consumers and employees, ruling that companies can ban class actions in the fine print of contracts,' he said.

"AT&T had argued that a federal law that encourages the use of arbitration, the Federal Arbitration Act, trumped a California consumer protection law at issue in the case.

"In its ruling, the Supreme Court's conservative majority agreed.

"'The California law in question stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment of the purposes and the objectives of the FAA. It is accordingly preempted,' Justice Antonin Scalia said for the majority in reading his opinion from the bench."

The Roberts court has long been a favorite of corporate America, notably awarding corporations the ability to contribute without limits to political campaigns.

IE:  To the Roberts court, corporations are more important than consumers.  Thanks guys!

[TheRawStory]