3 min read Remember ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, that intellectual chop-shop responsible for modeling corporate-friendly laws for state legislators too lazy to do their own jobs? Well, it’s still beavering away at its work, which has been largely obscured by the grotesque scandals of the current moment. From The New Republic :
If you can think of an example of everyday people holding huge corporations accountable for harming the public, it was probably made possible in large part by a single legal theory: public nuisance. Public nuisance was a primary basis for the litigation against Big Tobacco in the 1990s, and was the foundation of the opioid cases over the past decade. It’s played a prominent role in lawsuits on lead paint, predatory lending, water pollution, and “forever chemicals” like PFAS. It was the most important hook in recent successful cases against social media companies like Meta for designing their platforms to addict and endanger children. And most recently, it has been a key cause of action in litigation in several states against data centers for the air, water, and noise pollution they cause. Well, this is not very business-friendly, is it? Th...