Sotomayor’s Consumer Decisions – National Consumers League

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

While the Senate hearings for Supreme Court Justice nominee were going on last week, the National Consumers League took a look at President Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee — Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s — and her record on consumer issues. NCL reviewed a series of cases that had been identified by the nonprofit group, Alliance for Justice, as related to consumer matters.

What we found gave us comfort. Judge Sotomayor’s handful of consumer-related decisions demonstrate a sympathy for the average consumer against those who would scam them or hide provisions in the fine print. Sotomayor upheld the Federal Trade Commission’s efforts to levy a hefty fine on one company and restitution for its victims.  She also seems reluctant to throw plaintiffs out of court on a technicality, protecting protects their right to seek redress.

Read our analysis, Judge_Sotomayor’s_Record_on_Consumer_Issues, of decisions on cases that we thought would be of interest to consumers and other readers of this blog.