Cyrus Dugger

Obama’s Civil Justice Related “C”

Over on the Tortellini there’s an excellent post on the questionable access to justice credentials of the rising Democratic star Barack Obama. I might also note that Obama got a “C” on the Drum Major Institute’s Middle-Class Scorecard in large part because of his support for the ironically labeled Class Action Fairness Act of 2005.

The Tortellini post is excerpted below, and my previous commentary on the Class Action Fairness Act is here:
The Top Seven Bad Things About the Class Action “Fairness” Act, Top Three Misconceptions on Which the Class Action “Fairness” Act is Based, The Top (and only) Two Good Things About the Class Action “Fairness” Act

Obama’s anti-consumer vote

As Obama-mania sweeps across the land and has Democrats everywhere buzzing, I find myself a bit wary of it all. Not that I’m a single-issue voter, but when it comes to civil justice issues, Illinois senator Barack Obama is a bust. His willingness to buy the corporate line about class action “reform” last year prevents me from joining the hallelujah chorus.

The 2005 Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), a pet cause of George W. Bush, essentially forced most state consumer class actions into the backlogged and Republican dominated federal courts. Like the bankruptcy bill before it, class action reform was a special interest extravaganza, with the insurance, credit card, banking, pharmaceutical and auto industries hiring so many lobbyists that there was nearly one for every member of Congress. (You can read more about some of the chicanery involved in selling CAFA in my book.) (keep reading)

Posted at 4:13 PM, Dec 07, 2006 in Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)