Cases of Note

DALLAS - A Texas law requiring parental consent for children to create a social media account is now in effect partially. "Parents would be given the authority to consent to the platforms their children interact with online," said North Texas Republican Rep. Shelby Slawson, who authored House bill 18 that Gov. Greg Abbott signed in 2023. The SCOPE Act or   the Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment Act is a piece of U.S. legislation introduced to enhance consumer protections against harmful online practices. The act is primarily focused on regulating online platforms and marketplaces to prevent deceptive or dangerous product listings. It is part of a growing wave by lawmakers in multiple states to give more power to parents when it comes to their children’s digital footprint. In a committee hearing last year, Slawson described wide-ranging threats from unmonitored social media use, including cyberbullying and child predators. "A Texas teenager was rescue

President Joe Biden signed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act , or H.R. 4445 into law on March 3, 2022 at a White House ceremony. The law amends the Federal Arbitration Act and allows employees subject to pre-dispute mandatory arbitration agreements to pursue their claims in court related to sexual assault or sexual harassment.  As the #MeToo movement brought to light, in the worst cases, arbitration and nondisclosure agreements can shield serial harassers from accountability and allow them to habitually abuse employees. Court decisions and orders make the identity of violators of the law and their conduct public, which can serve to influence behavior and deter sexual harassment and assault from occurring in the first place. Some of America’s most prominent employers have already voluntarily discontinued mandatory arbitration for sexual harassment claims, and several states have passed laws directed at restricting mandatory arbitration of harassm