BUSINESSES ‘SMELLED BLOOD’

“Since the [Ronald] Reagan Administration Republican Presidents have filled the [Supreme] Court with Justices steeped in the ideology of the conservative legal movement. As Brian Fitzpatrick, a law professor at Vanderbilt [University] who once clerked for [Justice Antonin] Scalia, told me, ‘Conservative Justices start from a world view that says we have too much litigation in general and it's a sap on the economy.’ Conservative nominees to the [Supreme] Court have been far more worried about government overreach than about corporate misbehavior. They have been skeptical of the use of class-action suits to achieve social goals or enforce regulations. And, once corporations recognized that the [Supreme] Court was predisposed to favor their interests, they began pursuing those interests more aggressively. As the legendary NYU law professor Arthur R. Miller told me, ‘The business community smelled blood and went after it.’ Most notably, the Chamber of Commerce has become assiduous in pushing corporate cases to the [Supreme] Court.” James Surowiecki, “Courting Business,” New Yorker, March 17, 2016, page 21.

James Surowiecki, “Courting Business,” New Yorker, March 17, 2016, page 21.