Toxic Democratic Party neoliberalism is on display

When it comes to capitalism, the Democrats often look too much like the Republicans. Capitalism trumps the public interest. The Lever (high fact accuracy, solid left bias) reports on a Biden administration effort to protect Norfolk Southern railroad’s effort to shield itself from lawsuits. The Lever writes:

Biden DOJ Backing Norfolk Southern’s Bid To Block Lawsuits

The company whose train derailed in Ohio is asking the Supreme Court to kill a suit by a sick rail worker — and help the firm block future lawsuits

A looming Supreme Court decision could end up making it easier for the railroad giant whose train derailed in Ohio this month to block lawsuits, including from victims of the disaster.

In the case against Norfolk Southern, the Biden administration is siding with the railroad in its conflict with a cancer-stricken former rail worker. A high court ruling for Norfolk Southern could create a national precedent limiting where workers and consumers can bring cases against corporations.

In its fight against the lawsuit, Norfolk Southern is asking the Supreme Court to uphold the lower court ruling, overturn Pennsylvania’s law, and restrict where corporations can be sued, upending centuries of precedent.

If the court rules in favor of Norfolk Southern, it could overturn plaintiff-friendly laws on the books in states including Pennsylvania, New York, and Georgia that give workers and consumers more leeway to choose where they take corporations to court — an advantage national corporations already enjoy, as they often require customers and employees to agree to file litigation in specific locales whose laws make it harder to hold companies accountable.  

Limiting lawsuits is exactly what the American Association of Railroads (AAR), the industry’s primary lobbying group, wants. The organization filed a brief on the side of Norfolk Southern in the case, arguing that a ruling in favor of the plaintiff would open up railroads to more litigation.

It is also apparently what the Biden administration wants — the Justice Department filed its own brief in favor of Norfolk Southern.  

Pennsylvania has what’s known as a “consent-by-registration” statute — something states have had on the books since the early 19th century — which stipulates that when corporations register to do business in the state, they are also consenting to be governed by that state’s courts. Norfolk Southern asserts that being forced to defend the case in Pennsylvania would pose an undue burden, thereby violating its constitutional right to due process.  

Corporate lobbying groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the American Trucking Association have weighed in on the case on behalf of Norfolk Southern. Many have warned that a ruling in favor of the former railroad worker could allow people to sue corporations in whatever venue they’d like — a practice known as “forum shopping.”

Once again, we see the toxic side of Democratic Party, pro-corporation, anti-consumer neoliberal ideology at work. As the article notes, corporations can force consumers to go to court in states with laws stacked in favor of the corporation. That is forum shopping in the extreme. But corporations scream and howl in self-righteous indignation about consumers having forum shopping rights in some states. The law is stacked against consumers. Most Democrats in power, or at least Biden, apparently like it that way. 

Note that Biden is from Delaware, one of the most pro-corporate (therefore anti-consumer) states in the country. That’s why tens of thousands of corporations incorporate there to get shielding from staunchly pro-corporation Delaware laws. 

Here is a second example of the anti-consumer neoliberalism that poisons the Democratic Party. The Lever writes:

Buttigieg Pretends He’s Powerless To Reduce Derailment Risks

Facing pressure to act, America’s chief rail regulator now insists he is “constrained.” He’s not.

Facing pressure from lawmakers in his own party after a spate of train derailments, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has now resorted to falsely suggesting that he does not have power to compel the rail industry to upgrade its safety equipment and procedures.

In a Twitter thread posted more than a week after Norfolk Southern’s fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Buttigieg indicated that he cannot reinstate an Obama-enacted, Trump-repealed law requiring some trains carrying hazardous materials to replace their Civil War-era braking systems with new Electronically Controlled Pneumatic (ECP) brake technology.

.... nothing prevents Buttigieg from using his existing rulemaking authority to expand the definition of a “high-hazard flammable train” to cover trains like the one in Ohio.

Under the existing limited definition, the Ohio train — which was carrying five tanker cars of vinyl chloride, a Class 2 flammable gas and known carcinogen — was exempted from the classification’s more stringent safety regulations.

Meanwhile, Buttigieg’s agency is currently considering a separate rule that would weaken brake testing standards.

As far as consumers are concerned, with friends like the Democratic Party, who need enemies like the radical right Republican Party? Or, is that assessment over the top because, e.g., Dems are not as bad as Repubs?