Articles

Eliminating California's obstacles to freedom of contract

December 02, 2015 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

Supreme Court briefing is now underway in one of this Term’s major arbitration cases: MHN Government Services, Inc. v. Zaborowski. The case will determine whether the California Supreme Court’s severability rule—used almost exclusively to invalidate arbitration contracts—will survive scrutiny under the Federal Arbitration Act. The N ...

Articles

Game on! U.S. Supreme Court to review California anti-arbitration rule

October 01, 2015 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

Today, in the first order list of the 2015 Term, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in MHN Government Services, Inc. v. Zaborowski, in which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals applied a severability rule created by the California Supreme Court in Armendariz v. Foundation Health Psychcare Services to invalidate an arbitration contract. Severabilit ...

Articles

Tell me if you’ve heard this one…

July 13, 2015 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

Because the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear so few cases every year, cases raising important issues frequently are denied, and denied, and denied, until finally the Court says yes. And so, we have yet another cert petition seeking review of an anti-arbitration decision reflecting California courts’ hostility to the rights of adults to contr ...

Articles

Can Obamacare work without the Mandate?

March 25, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

Brian Calle of the Orange County Register asks whether the Supreme Court will strike down all of the ACA if it rules the Mandate unconstitutional. … ...

Articles

The final question in Obamacare : severability

March 21, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

Does the entire Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act have to stand and fall as a whole? Or can it be separated into various parts, so that one part can be struck down and another still remain in place? That’s one of the questions the justices will consider on the last day of oral arguments. … ...

Articles

Obamacare and the Tax Anti-Injunction Act

March 15, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

The first day of oral argument in the Obamacare cases involves jurisdiction, and specifically, a federal statute called the Tax Anti-Injunction Act. This is a law that limits what cases federal courts are allowed to hear: specifically, it holds that federal courts cannot hear a case “for the purpose of restraining the assessment or collectio ...