WATCH: Public Justice's Paul Bland Explains What Media Should Know About Class Actions And The Pro-Business Roberts Court
Written by Coleman Lowndes & Meagan Hatcher-Mays
Published
Cheered on by right-wing media, the conservative justices of the Roberts Court are steadily dismantling Americans' ability to access justice through class actions, case after case.
The latest chance for the Supreme Court to roll back consumer protections in favor of big business is in Halliburton v. Erica P. John Fund, a case that could make it more difficult for investors to bring class action lawsuits against corporations who commit fraud. Right-wing media have been busy misinforming about the case, calling securities litigation a “situation basically directly out of a Kafka novel,” a “windfall” for plaintiffs lawyers, and have attacked class actions as “frivolous” and “ineffective.”
For its part, the conservative Roberts Court has repeatedly sided with corporations, all the while making it difficult for consumers to fight back. Under Roberts, the Court has slashed at its own precedent in an effort to make class actions obsolete, making it more difficult for women and people of color who have been systematically paid less by their employers to join together as a class to sue.
Paul Bland, the executive director of Public Justice, has dedicated his professional life as a lawyer and consumer advocate to protecting people from corporate wrongdoers and bad Supreme Court decisions. Watch as he explains how the pro-business tilt of the Court has harmed not just his clients, but everyone.
Previously:
Right-Wing Media Continue to Deny Pro-Business Agenda Of Roberts Court
What Media Should Know About The Next Big Class Action Case At The Supreme Court
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce: Where Right-Wing Media's Anti-Class Action Talking Points Are Born