Listen to the interview here.
Archives for August 2014
08/26/2014
Washington Free Beacon: Democracy Alliance Bankrolled Court-Packing Scheme
Read the full story: Washington Free Beacon
Experts argued these activities appeared to cross the line from education to lobbying.
“It bills itself as a tax-exempt educational organization, but obviously the American Constitution Society is engaging in policy-making activities,” said Daniel Epstein, the executive director of Cause of Action and an expert at the conservative Federalist Society. “They created the intellectual arsenal behind filibuster reform.”
“[The Democracy Alliance is] investing a lot of money to get the American Constitution Society to do things that are going to benefit the Democratic Party politically,” he said.
08/25/2014
08/25/2014
The Blaze: Gov’t Watchdog Says IRS Lawyer Admitted Lois Lerner’s ‘Lost’ Emails Were Backed Up
Read the full story: The Blaze
Cause of Action Director Dan Epstein also blasted the IRS on Monday for failing to run basic searches on Lerner’s Blackberry for the lost emails.
“The IRS knew Lerner’s hard drive was not recoverable while the blackberry was operating,” he said. “This should have triggered a search and preservation of the blackberry contents – but the IRS failed to do that.”
08/20/2014
Kansas City Star: Consignment sales’ super bargains make for merry moms
Read the full story: Kansas City Star
In 2013, the U.S. Department of Labor ruled that the business model, as represented by Rhea Lana’s, violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. It was a decision that has put the future of sales across the country in question.
Most sales are still operating because Rhea Lana’s, represented by the advocacy group Cause of Action, filed a lawsuit against the ruling in January.
Rhea Lana Riner, the founder and CEO of Rhea Lana’s, says she believes the sales operate within the law because there is a clear economic benefit for all of the participants in the sale. The suit is awaiting review by a judge.
08/19/2014
FOIA Follies: Department of Commerce Accidentally Says No Responsive Records, Then Wrongfully Withholds 30 Pages
Cause of Action is continuing to investigate improper White House review of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by asking agencies to produce their communications with the White House. We recently sued 12 agencies that have failed to provide a final response to our FOIA Requests. We submitted a FOIA request to The Department of Commerce (Commerce) asking for its communications with the White House on November 26, 2013. After eight months of waiting, Commerce responded on June 25, 2014 saying that there were no responsive documents.
Cause of Action received a supplemental response from Commerce 25 minutes later informing us to disregard the previous email and provided a new final response. The new response: “The responsive documents located in response to your FOIA request are being withheld in their entirety.” Commerce withheld 30 pages of documents in full, citing FOIA exemptions 5 and 6. By contrast, every other agency that has responded to our request provided documents with only some redactions and nothing withheld in full.
In less than 30 minutes, “no responsive documents” becomes 30 pages of documents “withheld in their entirety.” This is transparency in the “most transparent administration in history.”