If Your Daughter Has Been Rape At Halliburton, She May Have to Arbitrate Her Rape

It's in our nature as Americans to insist upon "fair play." From politics to the pulpit, Americans want "fair play," especially when it comes to justice.

But now-a-days, Big Business doesn't "play fair;" they want a "stacked deck." They want a sure thing, a winning hand, especially when it comes to justice. But, this can be difficult to get when juries call the shots. So, how does Big Business stack the deck when it comes to justice? It's easy! Simply let an indifferent conservative court force arbitration.

The conservative indifferent U.S. Supreme Court has expanded a 1925 law to a level no member of Congress ever thought possible. They have allowed Big Business to create corporate owned kangaroo courts.

Corporate-owned companies like the National Arbitration Forum prostitute justice by limiting the liability of Big Business to insure that corporate dirty linen stays out of public courtrooms, hidden in the dark world of back room deals called mandatory arbitration.

Mandatory arbitration hides all manner of financial chicanery, and all manner of abuse of workers. Including rape! Just ask Jamie Jones.

Jamie Leigh Jones was 19 and working for Halliburton/KBR in Houston when she volunteered to go to Iraq. Four days after she arrived, she was drugged and gang-raped. Her enemy wasn't rebel militias, but thugs employed by KBR. Jamie sued. But KBR said, "No way the public hears these stories in court. This goes to arbitration."

Ah, justice is a fickle thing...

John Vail, Op-Ed, National Law Journal, 8-4- 08

Surprise, Surprise: U.S. Supreme Court Favors Corporations During Last Term

Supreme Court’s decisions during the last term again revealed the court’s leanings toward general business interests. The court’s focus on punitive damages, the civil provisions of the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), preemption of state law and arbitration were a familiar return to issues of interest to business and industry.

Here's the interesting thing.

The Supreme Court has limited punitive damages and RICO civil penalties . Without a corporate death penalty, punitive damages and RICO civil penalties are there only thing we have to stop corporations from doing really bad things. Here are some examples:

Union Carbide leaked 40 tons of toxic methyl isocyanate gas, leading to the Bhopal disaster. The death toll of the disaster was about 3,000 initially, with at least 20,000 additional deaths from related illnesses in the years following the disaster.

The Exxon Valdez spilled 10.8 million US gallons (40.9 million liters) of crude oil and has been recorded as one of the largest spills in U.S. history and one of the largest ecological disasters in the world.

Or Enron's corporate abuse and accounting fraud that cheated working folks out of their retirement.

Finally, it's funny how "state sovereignty" is important except when states protect life over corporate profit. Then, the matter becomes federal preemtion and states must back off. While forced arbitration, especially in consumer cases, continues to undermine justice in America. See, National Arbitration Forum. Rent-A-Judge! How Arbitration Is Undermining Justice for Consumers

Ah well, justice is a fickle thing, isn't it?

Adam H. Charnes and James J. Hefferan Jr., Law.com 08/15/2008 Read Article: Law.com

Justice Roberts Pulls A Scalia and Sticks It To Middle Class Investors Again!

In Stoneridge Investment Partners v. Scientific-Atlanta Inc. and Motorola Inc., the U.S. Supremes stuck it to the middle class again.

A conservative Republican Supreme Court ruled that people who buy shares in companies that defraud them can't sue those who helped cook the books. The Supreme's "hey, suck it up" approach was not totally unexpected in view of the Supreme Court's unabashed protection of business fraud.

But hey, you who philosophize disgrace take the rag away from your face, cause now ain't the time for your tears. Here's the real outrage.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, the pinnacle of honesty, pulled a "Jutice Scalia" move. At first, Roberts recused himself in the case, because he owned stock in Cisco, the parent company of defendant Scientific-Atlanta. But then, Roberts rejoined case and ruled in favor of the corporate thieves, after selling his stock in Cisco.

To add salt to the investor's wound, Solicitor General Paul Clement at first sided with the Securities and Exchange Commission, who sided with investors, but changed his position and sided with the corporate thieves in response to pressure from the Bush administration. (Here's the Clement's brief favoring the corporate thieves).

Class Action Against Microsoft, Best Buy to Proceed

They got caught! They got caught!

The Supreme Court, conservative bent notwithstanding, upheld a ruling Monday that will allow a class action lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. and Best Buy Co. to go forward.

The federal class action lawsuit involves thousands of consumers, just like you and me, that were cheated when Microsoft Corp. and Best Buy Co. surreptitiously charged them for services they did not want.

Microsoft Corp. and Best Buy Co. had asked the Supremes to dismiss the lawsuit which alleges violation of racketeering laws.

AP, LA Times 10/16/2007 Read Article: LA Times

The Rule of Law: Fact or Fiction? Inns of Court and The Federalist Society

When I began this piece, I wasn’t sure how much could be reasonably presented in a concise statement of the nature of the problem: is the rule of law fact or fiction?

For sure, America prides itself as a nation that lives by “the rule of law.” Law exist everywhere: statutes, ordinances, and judicial decisions. If there's a problem with the “rule of law,” the problem must arise where laws are made. Right?

Since most, if not all, forms of American government (local, state, and national) reflect a “divisions of power,” legislatures must be the source of the problem. But that's not the case. Legislatures merely reflect the biases of the generation in power. Rarely are the laws of a previous generation abrogated to make way for the laws of the new generation. Often, opposing principles are left standing without regard for the contradiction.

Where else then? The courts?

For sure, whoever controls the courts will control the interpretation of the law. But, legal hermeneutics originates elsewhere. It starts long before the appointment or election of judges. It begins with lawyers. Then it must be in our law schools. Wrong! Law schools rarely, if ever, educate in legal theory. No, it takes place in think tanks that, for the most part, go unnoticed because they're obscure. Let’s look at two.

Inns of Court

The Inns of Court began in England as a professional association to one of which every English barrister must belong. The English Inns of Court have supervisory and disciplinary functions over their members. Beginning in the late 1970s, U.S. Chief Justice Warren Burger led a movement to create U.S. Inns of Court. Burger, a Republican, was an Eisenhower appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court and an elitist.

Today, U.S. Inns of Court flourish. In many instances U.S. Inns of Court have denigrated into a place where judges and lawyers forge friendships that often reflect an underlying bias against “the rule of law.” It's the place where the young lawyer and would-be judge learns how to "think." There are literally dozens of such U.S. Inns of Court where membership is by invitation only.

The Federalist Society

The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies was founded in the early 1980s as a "conservative legal fellowship" attempting to mold judicial practice in the U.S. Notable members of The Federalist Society are Robert H. Bork, Orrin G. Hatch, Donald Paul Hodel, Edwin Meese, John Stewart Bryan,III, Chairman, President/C.E.O. Media General Cable, Joseph Cannon, C.E.O./Chairman, Geneva Steel, R. Crosby Kemper, III, President, United Missouri Bank, John G. Medlin, Jr., Chairman, Wachovia Corporation, Nicholas John Stathis, Vice President, Orpheon, Inc., Paul S. Stevens, General Counsel, Investment Company Institute, Robert L. Strickland, Chairman, Lowe's Companies, Inc., Kenneth Starr, U.S. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. The purpose of The Federalist Society is to proselytize, indoctrinate, and groom lawyers to become judges who “think right.”

Friends in high places: Conservative Republican Supreme Court protects corporate greed.

Several recent decisions from the conservative Republican Supreme Court have accomplished what slick Dick Cheney and lobbyist Jack Abramoff were unable to do.

Dominated by the Far-Fetched Four, i.e. Roberts, Alito, Thomas, and Scalia, the conservative Republican Supreme Court has handed down decision after decision that hurt working families who try to protect themselves against corporation greed.

The Far-Fetched Four and their conservative compatriots have undermined public safety and have protected and promoted corporate greed by throwing out verdicts against tobacco companies and automakers and shielded various industries from various forms of liability.

How can anyone justify being "conservative" with justice?

David G. Savage, LA Times 06/21/2007 Read Article: LA Times