The U.S. Supreme Court, 6-3, has ruled that class action defendants can't defeat lawsuits just by offering lead plaintiffs everything they sought to recover, The New York Times' Adam Liptak reports. That means companies can't pick off class representatives and thus defeat class actions.
The plaintiff received unwanted text messages and sued under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The case is Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez.
The Illinois Supreme Court has issued a ruling that could lead to more expert testimony on the unreliablity of eyewitness evidence, the Chicago Tribune's Dan Hinkel reports.
The reversal of defendant Eduardo Lerma's conviction of murder was affirmed by the Illinois Supreme Court. The trial judge was found to have abused his discretion by barring defense lawyers from calling experts about the fallibility of eyewitness evidence.
The scope of the power of the Consumer Finanical Protection Bureau is under challenge by a New Jersey lender, which is arguing the CFPB Director Richard Cordary illegally imposed a $109 million penalty against it, The Wall Street Journal's Yuka Hayashi reports.
An in-house CFPB judge originally ruled that PHH Corp. took "kickbacks" from mortgage insurers and increased costs for mortgage borrowers. The CFPB says PHH referred borrowers to mortgage-insurance companies and would collect up to 40 percent of the premiums. On appeal, Cordray imposed a penalty that was 18 times more than the in-house judge had sought. Cordray concluded that PHH had violated the law each time it received a monthly payment.
The case is now pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and "revolves around the CFPB’s new hard-line interpretation of the four-decade-old Real Estate Settlement Procedure Act, designed to keep lenders and realtors from inflating home-sale transaction costs."
A conservative legislator in South Carolina has introduced a bill that would require journalists to register with the government in order to work in the state, The Post and Courier's Gavin Jackson and Schuyler Kropf report. The bill also would create requirements for South Carolina journalists before they could being work.
State Rep. Mike Pitts, a Republican, said he introduced the bill because Second Amendment rights are demonized by the press.
The reporters note that the bill has "virtually no chance of advancing but is meant to reflect a lawmaker’s personal political statement."
The Huffington Post's Melissa Jeltsen has a feature about how women often have to choose between leaving partners who are abusing them and having housing. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, domestic violence is the third leading cause of homelessness among families. Jeltson, who focused her piece on New York City, reports that there are going to be 683 city-run units where families can stay indefinitely. "But in a city of 8 million people, it’s simply not enough to meet the need," Jeltsen writes.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week on whether Puerto Rico has the legal authority to try two gun dealers for allegedly illegal firearm sales after they plead guilty in federal court, USA Today's Richard Wolf reports.
The Obama administration has taken the position that Puerto Rico, as a U.S. territory, can't do so. But the Puerto Rico constitution gives the territory autonomous self-government.
A majority of the justices appeared to side with Puerto Rico during the oral arguments, Wolf reports.
The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office is arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court that a former member of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court did not need to recuse himself from hearing death penalty cases that he signed off on as the city's top prosecutor, The Legal Intelligencer's Lizzy McLellan reports.
In the appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court, former Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille approved the decision to pursue the death penalty for Terrance Williams, and he heard Williams' appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed a lower court order granting Williams post-conviction sentencing relief.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has rejected the argument of the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity and the Thomas More Law Society that their First Amendment rights were violated by a California law requiring them to turn over their list of donors to the California attorney general, Election Law Blog's Rick Hasen reports. The groups said they should be exempted from the law because disclosure of their donors could cause them to be harassed.
The Ninth Circuit reversed the injunction that had been put in place by the district court. The Attorney General is not disclosing the information to the public.
Goldman Sachs will pay $5 billion to settle both federal and state inquiries into its sale of "shoddy mortgages," AP's Ken Sweet reports. The sum includes $1.8 billion in mortgage forgiveness and refinancing, $2.39 billion in civil penalties and $875 million in cash payments.
The deal is with the U.S. Department of Justice, the New York attorney general, the Illinois attorney genearl and other regulators.
Poynter's Benjamin Mullin has a piece about how 2016 could be the breakout year for drone journalism because the FAA is slated to issue new rules about the commercial use of drones: "It will be a watershed development for American photojournalism writ large, one that will put relatively inexpensive aerial photography, videography and airborne sensors in play for journalists across the United States."
The most common use will be taking footage of land, especially during times of disaster. Currently, the FAA is allowing some media organizations to use drones, but their drone operators have to have pilot's licenses. Under the new rules, journalists and other commercial drone operators would be able to get an alternative licensure to a pilot's license in order to be approved to operate drones.
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