Supreme Court rules that companies can block class-action lawsuits

Supreme Court rules that companies can block class-action lawsuits

www.rawstory.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday handed businesses such as AT&T Inc a major victory by upholding the use of arbitration for customer disputes rather than allowing claims to be brought together as a group.

By a 5-4 vote, the high court ruled that an AT&T unit could enforce a provision in its customer contracts requiring individual arbitration and preventing the pooling together of claims into a class-action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration.

(visit the link for the full news article)

"Because companies can ask all of their consumers, employees, and perhaps even shareholders to sign arbitration agreements, this decision has the potential to permit companies to escape class action liability in almost all of their activities," he said.

Here is another case, where the SCOTUS shows its true colors by favoring the corporations over the people they are supposed to be serving. For those of us paying attention, it is becoming more and more clear that the SCOTUS is bought and paid for, by the same influences that have also purchased our elected officials, though that shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone.

Normally, I'm all for private contracts which would exclude government intervention, however that's only if government is excluded from the equation all together. Because of the environment in which government shows favoritism to corporations, it is absolutely impossible to live a "legal" life without patronizing and/or contracting with these corporations, thus in a lot of ways, we are forced into them. We can literally be strong-armed into signing these contracts, on the corporations' terms.

It is of my opinion, that SCOTUS is in on the conspiracy to wrestle away the very few rights and liberties we have left, turning them over to the corporate elite. I say "conspiracy" because I believe much of these rulings and policies to be unConstitutional, thus illegal and I believe that there are certain back-door deals going on between the justices, politicians and the corporate elite. For anyone interested, just do a little research on the family members of SCOTUS Justices and the corporate boards they serve on.

This latest ruling, comes on the heels of the infamous Citizens United ruling, where the SCOTUS basically ruled that corporations have the same rights and protections as individual American citizens, even though there is no Constitutional charter for such a notion. It can even be argued that the Constitution prohibits such a fallacy.


--airspoon


www.rawstory.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by airspoon


What a surprise.

You know, the damage corporations are doing to our economy, and our Constitution and thus America itself should allow us to label them "enemy combatants." They could not be destroying America any more effectively if they were shelling us.

And that would allow us to try our politicians who are aiding and abetting them as traitors.

Economic war and destruction is still war and destruction.

Welcome to America Inc.

reply to post by airspoon


Now we know who owns not only our whores in congress but also the whores in the supreme court.

Is that a surprise for some? no for me.

so its fair for the people on the side called a 'company' to defend against one person called a human
but if a bunch of people want to go against the company they cant?

i dont understand

so if all those people all of a sudden get together and start a business or a company and all say this other company stopped us in the past from becoming a company
can they then start a case ?
haha i know that sounds stupid but surely theres away that they can be all recognized as the one 'person' then attack together???

The corporate citizen vs. humans.

The government subjugates the humans for the benefit of the corporate citizen.... how so?

By eliminating avenues of redress and further actualizing the essential business doctrine of 'externality.'

Humans in this model are to consume and labor; .... consume all that which the corporate citizen can attach profit margins to, and labor for the corporate citizen in the most economically beneficial way for the employer.

Thanks, Supreme Court Justices... guild members of the legislated BAR monopoly, and progenitors of the concept that corporations are citizens.... you've underwhelmed me again.

reply to post by airspoon


Perhaps people should read the fine print in their contracts instead.

By a 5-4 vote, the high court ruled that an AT&T unit could enforce a provision in its customer contracts

If people don't like the terms of a contract that they sign, they are free to find another service provider.

reply to post by Maxmars


The money flow from big corrupted corporate America into the coffers of those that make, sign in and uphold our laws is just outrageous.

Nowhere in the world we have a nation more corporate corrupted that the US of Amerika.



Perhaps we should demand to vote for corporations on elections rather than puppet presidents and political candidates.

reply to post by ViperChili


Even if people were to read and understand the "fine-print", there isn't much that can be done about it. It isn't like you are allowed to interject your own terms into the contract and consumer/employee/contractee choice is now eliminated in most cases due to an atmosphere of government favoritism. We are no longer in a position to argue our terms for the contract, yet we are forced into these contracts in many cases.


--airspoon

At least it was a split decision so there is hope that one day soon we can have Justices appointed who represent the will and common good of the people not the corporation. The USA truly has become for a nation governed by the corporations for the corporations.

reply to post by jrod

Originally posted by jrod
At least it was a split decision so there is hope that one day soon we can have Justices appointed who represent the will and common good of the people not the corporation. The USA truly has become for a nation governed by the corporations for the corporations.

I'm leaning towards these "split decisions" being nothing more than an illusion to make us believe that there is an opposition. As long as the people believe that there is an opposition, we retain faith in the system. We see the same thing in Congress, with both the Democrats and Republicans pretending to be in opposition to each other. While they seem to disagree on the relatively unimportant but emotional issues, they seem to be in complete covert agreement on the important matters, the matters that really have an impact on our interests.

--airspoon

Relax. Obama released his LFBC and everything will be fine.

I swear, this country is dead to me. Corporatism killed it.

reply to post by airspoon


The right of people to form unions of any kind that allow us competitive advantage against the unions of capitalists that are "corporations" is being eroded on all fronts.

This is war on humans, plain and simple. The corporate form is inherently "evil" in human terms, and we should be seriously looking at making the form itself illegal in the US. The are designed so that they have to pursue a profit motive despite any negative impact on human beings, the environment, society, a nations sovereignty, etc.

Everyone has been concerned with AI and machines taking over the world, when in fact, we have had a rapidly evolving artificial life form in our midst all the while that is every bit as dangerous to human life and happiness. We need to stop it while we can. IF we can.

It may take us longer than other countries to go into rebel mode but when we do.... oh boy its gonna be ugly.

reply to post by airspoon


Well this does it: instead of a class action lawsuit, they'll get a class action revolution instead.

TPTB are slowly leaving us with no other recourse

reply to post by ViperChili

If people don't like the terms of a contract that they sign, they are free to find another service provider.

Sure, until Verizon, Sprint, Virgin, and USA wireless all do the same thing (now that it's legal)

reply to post by Skerrako


Exactly... I'm talking the LA riots multiplied by 50. And then as they cower in the corners of their mansions, they'll cry, play victim and call us "savages and uncivil"... part of me actually can't wait, as bad as that sounds. There's a rip-off chain here at the top of my list that I'm going to absolutely destroy. The greed behind all of the nations problems is disgusting and its time for them to get spanked.

reply to post by Skerrako


Iknow its tempting to go there, but I strongly suspect that is what they want. Any physical uprising would be an excuse to suspend the Constitution and declare martial law. Which is what they want. They want people in the US (much like has been orchestrated in the Mid East) to be the ones to topple their own protective system of government.

Our government has been infiltrated by treasonous scum, but the solution is not to overturn the government. It is to use the very tools put in place BY the treasonous scum to remove them from office. We are walking a very fine line. But the strategy of using their own weapons designed for us against them is a safer bet than outright revolt. We are not just against a group of corporations and politician in the US, we are at war, economically, with a multinational economic mafia which has been perfecting its technique of using propaganda, election rigging, and the illusion of uprising around the world for years.

We need to do something, but we need to make very sure we are on the side of the law. While we still have law.

Originally posted by ViperChili
If people don't like the terms of a contract that they sign, they are free to find another service provider.

Um, no, they're not as regulators have allowed the AT&T monopoly to rise again. Remember when they busted it up into the baby Bells? Then, laughably, they were all bought up again by AT&T and now the FCC gave AT&T the go ahead to buy up T-Mobile, the most affordable and flexible provider.

So no, you don't have a lot of alternatives, especially depending on which area you are in. And now you can't join ranks and sue if they are jacking you. Have you ever tried to read a phone bill or a cell phone service agreement? LoL!!