CL&P Blog

Matt Bruckner article on the roles of the states in protecting student loan borrowers from misbehaving schools

Matthew A. Bruckner of Howard has written The Forgotten Stewards of Higher Education Quality, 11 U.C. Irvine L. Rev. 1 - 41 (2020). Here's the abstract:

A “triad” of regulators is supposed to ensure that student loan borrowers are not harmed by low-value institutions of higher education, including exploitative profiteers operating fly-by-night or predatory institutions of higher education. The triad has failed. Millions of students have borrowed billions of federal student loan dollars that they won’t ever repay, causing borrowers to suffer needless economic harm and psychological anguish. But these harms were, are, and remain mostly preventable. This Article appears to be the first law review article to consider the states’ role in policing institutional quality and ensuring that student borrowers are not preyed upon by low-value institutions of higher education. It suggests concrete steps states could take, such as adopting a state version of financial responsibility scores, the gainful employment rule, or a cohort default rate metric, to avoid being characterized as the forgotten stewards of higher education quality.

Virginia Search Warrant Seeking to Identify Peaceful Protestors

by Paul Alan Levy

Yesterday, we filed a motion to quash a search warrant seeking to obtain from Facebook the confidential files of an activist group that has been protesting the refusal of Virginia authorities to step in to protect the health of immigration detainees in a private prison in Farmville, Virginia.  The motion builds on successful work three years ago along with the ACLU in opposing the Trump Administration’s attempt to raid online files of a group that ran protests at his inauguration. The ACLU's argument back then was based on the Fourth Amendment, influenced by the First Amendment; our briefs were based entirely on the First Amendment right to speak anonymously.

Steiger Consumer Law Fellowships that pays law students $6,000 for summer work now accepting applications

Here's the announcement:

In its seventeenth year, the Janet D. Steiger Fellowship Project offers paid summer clerkships for law students to work on consumer protection issues in the offices of State Attorneys General across the country.

The Janet D. Steiger Fellowship Project provides law students the extraordinary opportunity to work in the consumer protection departments of state and territorial Offices of Attorneys General and other consumer protection agencies, including the National Association of Attorneys General and the Attorney General’s Office of the District of Columbia, throughout the United States. The eight to ten-week paid Fellowships were initiated in 2004 by the ABA Antitrust Law Section, in cooperation with the National Association of Attorneys General, as a consumer protection outreach initiative to introduce law students to the rewards of legal careers in public service. A total of 425 Steiger Fellowships have been awarded through the summer of 2020.

The law students who have served as Steiger Fellows have characterized their experiences as truly rewarding, often well beyond their expectations. A number of students have said that for the first time they are considering law careers in public service, and several have already entered public service upon graduation.

Each of the highly motivated Steiger Fellows provides tangible, meaningful assistance to states, territories and other consumer protection agencies that are in substantial need of additional resources to fulfill their consumer protection mission. Offices that have hosted Steiger Fellows in the past have characterized the Fellows’ work as exemplary and have often described the students as some of the most talented interns the offices have ever attracted.

The Council of the Section approved funding for states and other entities to participate in the 2021 Steiger Fellowship Project.  Each selected student will receive a $6,000 stipend (subject to certain federal taxes and administered through the offices of the various consumer protection agencies). This Project continues to be a tribute to the memory of the late Janet D. Steiger, one of America’s great public servants who, during her remarkable tenure as FTC Chairman, dramatically improved cooperation, communication and coordination between state and federal consumer protection and antitrust enforcement agencies.

The locations that will receive Steiger Fellows during the summer of 2021 are:

• ^Arizona | *Arkansas | %Colorado | *Connecticut | * Delaware | *District of Columbia |%Florida |*Georgia | ^Hawaii | %Illinois | %Indiana |%Iowa | *Kansas | %Maryland | %Massachusetts |%Minnesota | % Mississippi | % Montana | % National Association of Attorneys General | * Nebraska | *Nevada | %$ New Hampshire | %New Jersey |  %New York | *Pennsylvania | *~Puerto Rico | % Rhode Island | %South Dakota | *South Carolina | %Tennessee | *Texas | *Utah | ^Vermont | ^Virginia | ^Washington | ^West Virigina | %Wisconsin |  %#Wyoming
  
  Note:    ^8 Week Term of Service           %10 Week Term of Service        *No Term of Service Preference                ~ Fluency in Spanish Required         #1L Candidates Only $2L Candidates Only

Applications and more available here.

(H?T: Leslie Fair)

Instead of Liability Waivers, Reduce the Spread of Covid-19

by Jeff Sovern

My latest Bloomberg Law Insight piece. Excerpt:

No doubt the same people who want to free businesses of accountability for sickening people would oppose the outlawing of Covid-19 liability waivers as an infringement on liberty. But practically no one reads contracts—not even consumer law professors. And if consumers do read them, they probably can’t understand them. A study I co-authored found that few consumers grasped the meaning of a clause that took away their right to sue in court.

In short, the liberty involved is almost certainly only that of the companies, not the consumers.

Covid-19 cannot be blocked by a signature on a piece of paper. Congress should make sure that the same is true of responsibility for spreading it. Otherwise, we will have lots of legal documents but more people will die of the virus.

FDA warns companies to stop misleading consumers by promoting herbal products to treat Covid-19

The FDA has issued warning letters to two companies -- Griffo Botanicals and Prairie Dawn Herbs -- telling them to stop promoting non-FDA-approved herbal products "to mitigate, prevent, treat, diagnose, or cure COVID-19." 

These letters include this language:

FDA is advising consumers not to purchase or use certain products that have not been approved, cleared, or authorized by FDA and that are being misleadingly represented as safe and/or effective for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19. Your firm will be added to a published list on FDA’s website of firms and websites that have received warning letters from FDA concerning the sale or distribution of COVID-19 related products in violation of the FD&C Act. This list can be found at http://www.fda.gov/consumers/health-fraud-scams/fraudulent-coronavirus-disease-covid-19-products.