Corporations Find a Friend in the Supreme Court

[xchrom]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/business/pro-business-decisions-are-defining-this-supreme-court.html?ref=business



NOT long after 10 a.m. on March 27, a restless audience waited for the Supreme Court to hear arguments in the second of two historic cases involving same-sex marriage. First, however, Justice Antonin Scalia attended to another matter. He announced that the court was throwing out an antitrust class action that subscribers brought against Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company.

Almost no one in the courtroom paid attention, despite Justice Scalia’s characteristically animated delivery, and the next day’s news coverage was dominated by accounts of the arguments on same-sex marriage. That was no surprise: the Supreme Court’s business decisions are almost always overshadowed by cases on controversial social issues.

But the business docket reflects something truly distinctive about the court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. While the current court’s decisions, over all, are only slightly more conservative than those from the courts led by Chief Justices Warren E. Burger and William H. Rehnquist, according to political scientists who study the court, its business rulings are another matter. They have been, a new study finds, far friendlier to business than those of any court since at least World War II.

In the eight years since Chief Justice Roberts joined the court, it has allowed corporations to spend freely in elections in the Citizens United case, has shielded them from class actions and human rights suits, and has made arbitration the favored way to resolve many disputes. Business groups say the Roberts court’s decisions have helped combat frivolous lawsuits, while plaintiffs’ lawyers say the rulings have destroyed legitimate claims for harm from faulty products, discriminatory practices and fraud.

[Newest Reality]

1. Because it is not

good for a corporate person to be lonely and on their own.

Everybody needs a friend, no matter how much of a psychopath they may be. Think of the poor corporate persons slinking around the headquarters, hiding in the shadows in the basement watching the workers, lost in obsessions about how to cut their pay, slash any benefits they may have, and lay them off.

I just hope hanging around with the judges of the Supreme Court does them some good. It might be interesting for them.

[HiPointDem]

2. when didn't they? so far as i know, only the warren era...

sort of.

[mother earth]

3. Say cheese, you friggin sell-outs...money trumps everything, democracy for sale. nt

[marmar]

4. All of our highest institutions are completely corrupted.

[xchrom]

5. +1

[Laelth]

6. k&r for exposure. This is very important. n/t

-Laelth