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05/23/2014

Warren’s Washington Internet Daily: FTC Testimony in Data Security Case to Address Standards, May Affect Hill Debate, Say Observers

Read the full story: Warren’s Washington Internet Daily

Despite the multiple dismissals, LabMD will continue its legal battle outside the ALJ process, Rubinstein told us. Federal judges have been receptive to LabMD’s argument, he said. Judge William Duffey, presiding over the May 7 hearing in Atlanta, repeatedly berated the FTC’s investigative process as inadequate and “mean-spirited” (http://bit.ly/1mOWPXx). “You are living through a hearing of ‘I’m sorries,'” Duffey told Department of Justice lawyer Perham Gorji, representing the FTC. “It comes from the fundamental refusal of you and your colleagues with candor and with transparency to say, ‘Here is where we are going on this.'” Rubinstein said Duffey’s “utter incredulity at what the FTC has done” is why LabMD must press on. “There’s still a substantial amount of confusion — at least certainly from Judge Duffey’s perspective and from ours — as to exactly what their case is and what they have to prove,” he said.

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05/20/2014

Dan Epstein on the Lars Larson Show 5/20/2014

Cause of Action’s Dan Epstein talks with Lars Larson about how the CPSC’s actions regarding Craig Zucker are not about consumer safety, they’re about punishing an entrepreneur who dared to speak out against the federal government. 

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05/19/2014

Reason: The Government’s Bogus Lawsuit Against Buckyballs’ Creator Craig Zucker Ends In a Settlement

Read the full story: Reason

“I believe the case against Mr. Zucker should never have gotten started without an affirmative Commission vote approving the issuance of a complaint against him,” she wrote. This lawsuit consumed two years of Zucker’s life and will cost him as much as $375,000 plus more in legal fees; now, after the case is settled, she speaks out?

With the announcement of a settlement, the government accountability law firm Cause of Action is dropping the countersuit it filed on Zucker’s behalf, but will continue its efforts to uncover why the agency went after him in the first place through Freedom of Information Act litigation. It’ll be interesting to see what Cause of Action can uncover.

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05/19/2014

Wall Street Journal: Zucker Wins Against the Machine

Read the full story: Wall Street Journal

Individuals increasingly find themselves with little choice but stand up against President Obama’s regulatory machine. So congratulations to Craig Zucker, who scored a modest if still costly victory against the Consumer Product Safety Commission earlier this month.

 

Mr. Zucker cofounded Maxfield & Oberton, which in 2009 began marketing powerful rare-earth magnets as desk toys for office workers. By 2012 Buckyballs were generating $10 million in sales. Then in July 2012 the CPSC filed an administrative suit against the company, citing the risk of children swallowing the magnets and essentially banning Buckyballs from the marketplace. It did not matter that Maxfield & Oberton had included multiple warning labels and kept Buckyballs out of stores that sell children’s toys.

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05/15/2014

Washington Free Beacon: Nonprofit Challenges Government Definition of a Media Outlet

Read the full story: Washington Free Beacon

Cause of Action also points out that the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., recognized a similar watchdog group as a member of the media in a 2003 decision.

“The FTC’s repeated denial of our status as a news media organization threatens all new media and nonprofit news organizations that seek fee waivers for FOIA requests,” Cause of Action president Dan Epstein said in a statement. “Simply because the FTC feared that unfavorable information would be made public, we were unfairly denied access. If every agency behaves like the FTC, it will be devastating to those who fight for government accountability and transparency. The FTC’s job is not to play news editor and decide what is or isn’t news.”

This is the first time a federal appeals court has considered the issue. Because Cause of Action’s appeal will set precedent, the amicus brief argues the case “has implications beyond the outcome for the parties directly involved, and could make it difficult for the news media to fully report on the workings of government for the benefit of the public.”

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05/15/2014

WSB-TV Channel 2 Atlanta: Ch. 2 investigation finds hundreds of VA patient deaths linked to malpractice

Read the full story:  Channel 2

 

Channel 2 Action News brought our findings to national government watchdog Daniel Epstein with Cause of Action.


 
“That not only signals an enormous waste of taxpayer dollars and a mentality and a culture at the top that is totally inappropriate, but it also shows that they’re not really concerned about the problem,” Epstein said. 

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05/13/2014

Washington Post: Buckyballs founder agrees to product recall in settlement with federal regulators

Read the full story: Washington Post

Cause of Action, a conservative legal group assisting Zucker with his legal defense, said the businessman agreed to pay less than 1 percent of the $57 million the commission once estimated the recall effort would cost.

Zucker claimed the CPSC sued him as an act of retaliation after he criticized the agency for heavy-handed enforcement actions the allegedly crippled his business. Cause of Action said in a statement on Monday that the Buckyballs case represented “yet another example of a federal agency gambling with taxpayer dollars to test its own power.”

Cause of Action said it is pursuing litigation against the CPSC to uncover documents that might show the commission “values retaliation against its critics above its own mission to protect consumers.”

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