3 ms·

Unfortunately the Supreme court has become more and more pro-corporations, which means that buying a car or getting a job is a lengthy one-sided legal contract

Unfortunately the Supreme court has become more and more pro-corporations, which means that buying a car or getting a job is a lengthy one-sided legal contract likely waiving your right to trial by an elected judge, trial by jury, choice of forum/law, and arbitration costs that are significantly higher than if you were to go through a regular court. Of course the company has already picked the venue and arbitration company that is most favorable to them.

MarkSweep 5y ago
There has been some minor progress on this front. Arbitration agreements are no longer enforceable if you are sexually harassed or assaulted: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4445?s=7&r=11 https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4445... A 20% of the house voted no on it and several Congress critters said in hearings that arbitration agreements are fine because they “voluntarily entered into”. So a lot of Congress people unabashedly serve corporations.
- willcipriano 5y ago
  A lot of Congress people also engage in sexual harassment: https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/16/politics/settlements-congress-sexual-harassment/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/16/politics/settlements-congress...
- NationalPark 5y ago
  Here are the details of the vote if anyone else is curious (I was having trouble finding this on the official page): https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/117-2022/h33 https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/117-2022/h33 335 - 97 - 2. Ds voted yea on party lines, Rs split 113 - 97 (plus 2 not voting)
derbOac 5y ago
I'd be curious if there's a way to characterize "the prototypic expected human" as implicitly reflected in SCOTUS decisions and how that changes over time. For example, this decision implies people are expected to read the volumes of fine print on a ticket before they purchase it. Seems like if you decontextualized things it might point to absurdities in current law or its interpretation. I think many decisions are affected by certain kinds of hindsight cognitive biases that distort interpretation of context.
- nerdponx 5y ago
  That's a great idea. I would probably take countless hours of poring over legal documents. Maybe NLP tools could help identify relevant sections of text for this purpose.

MarkSweep 5y ago

There has been some minor progress on this front. Arbitration agreements are no longer enforceable if you are sexually harassed or assaulted: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4445?s=7&r=11 https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4445... A 20% of the house voted no on it and several Congress critters said in hearings that arbitration agreements are fine because they “voluntarily entered into”. So a lot of Congress people unabashedly serve corporations.

willcipriano 5y ago
A lot of Congress people also engage in sexual harassment: https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/16/politics/settlements-congress-sexual-harassment/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/16/politics/settlements-congress...
NationalPark 5y ago
Here are the details of the vote if anyone else is curious (I was having trouble finding this on the official page): https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/117-2022/h33 https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/117-2022/h33 335 - 97 - 2. Ds voted yea on party lines, Rs split 113 - 97 (plus 2 not voting)

derbOac 5y ago

I'd be curious if there's a way to characterize "the prototypic expected human" as implicitly reflected in SCOTUS decisions and how that changes over time. For example, this decision implies people are expected to read the volumes of fine print on a ticket before they purchase it. Seems like if you decontextualized things it might point to absurdities in current law or its interpretation. I think many decisions are affected by certain kinds of hindsight cognitive biases that distort interpretation of context.

nerdponx 5y ago
That's a great idea. I would probably take countless hours of poring over legal documents. Maybe NLP tools could help identify relevant sections of text for this purpose.