The Supreme Court and the Consumer

Tomorrow, the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary will hold a hearing entitled "Short-change for Consumers and Short-shrift for Congress? The Supreme Court's Treatment of Laws that Protect Americans' Health, Safety, Jobs and Retirement." The committee will shed light on how seemingly obscure and highly technical regulatory Supreme Court decisions can have dramatic effects on the lives of everyday Americans. As usual, Jon Stewart about summed it up when he was talking about some regulatory development, suddenly stopped, and said, "Yes, it's boring, and that's how they get away with it." That's pretty much the point of tomorrow's hearing. These decisions may seem quite boring, but start paying attention unless you want to expect more of the same.

Most of the hearing will focus on preemption decisions that affect the ability of Americans to recover for wrongful decisions of their health insurers and their employers. I will be there to talk about some of the Supreme Court's decisions in the financial services area, decisions that have removed any effective protections consumers might enjoy from their own states from aggressive and deceptive lending practices. More information can be found on the hearing web page here including, when they become available, the senators' statements and the written testimony.