Washington, DC – On news this morning that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the challengers in Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez by a 6-3 vote, holding that an unaccepted offer of judgment to a representative of a class in a class action lawsuit does not moot the case, Constitutional Accountability Center issued the following reaction:

CAC Civil Rights Director David Gans said, “The Constitution’s guarantee of access to courts allows individuals to sue to vindicate their federal rights. It does not, as Justice Ginsburg’s opinion explained, ‘place the defendant in the driver’s seat.’ She also showed her colleagues that when courts look at common law history, it supports access to courts.”

“Justice Thomas wrote a surprising and welcome concurrence today with his explanation of how common law history supports access to the courts,” added CAC Appellate Counsel Brianne Gorod. “Hopefully he will also look to the relevant common law history in other court access cases this term. Meanwhile in dissent, Chief Justice Roberts maintained his unbroken record of trying to limit access to courts and made clear that, unlike other areas of the law, he has made up his mind in this one.”

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Resources:

CAC “friend of the court” brief in Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez: http://theusconstitution.org/cases/campbell-ewald-company-v-gomez-us-sup-ct 

“No Day in Court: Big Business’s Attack on Access to Courts,” David Gans, Balkinization, October 9, 2015: http://balkin.blogspot.com/2015/10/no-day-in-court-big-businesss-attack-on.html 

“A Threat to Class Actions Looms in High Court,” Judith E. Schaeffer, National Law Journal, September 21, 2015: http://theusconstitution.org/news/threat-class-actions-looms-high-court-0 

Roberts at 10: Roberts’s Consistent Votes to Close the Courthouse Doors, Brianne Gorod, January 20, 2015: http://theusconstitution.org/sites/default/files/briefs/Roberts-at-10-Access-to-the-Courts.pdf

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Constitutional Accountability Center (www.theusconstitution.org) is a think tank, public interest law firm, and action center dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of the Constitution’s text and history.

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