The Secret Chamber of Commerce and its Tort Reform Mission

[Guest guest]

A Scientific View Of the Health Effects of Mold, US Chamber Institute for

Legal Reform

_http://www.uschamber.com/publications/reports/030717_ilr_mold.htm_

(http://www.uschamber.com/publications/reports/030717_ilr_mold.htm)

The Secret Chamber of Commerce and its " Tort Reform " Mission

This week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's " tort reform " branch, with its

friendly sounding name Institute for Legal Reform, held its 10th Annual Legal

Reform Summit. Among other things, ILR issued some easy-to-follow

instructions for states seeking to wipe out the legal rights of people injured

by

corporate wrongdoing, as well as a " how to " guide to make sure that states

appoint the right kind of judges, saying judicial selections shouldn't be

" political. " Well isn't that rich?

In 1998, the U.S. Chamber created the ILR to pursue the Chamber's so-called

" tort reform " agenda: protecting corporations from liability, weakening

the civil jury system and blocking the courthouse door for sick and injured

Americans. Let's put aside the jaw-dropping hypocrisy of an organization

that complains incessantly about lawsuits while _suing the Yes Men_

(http://www.uschamber.com/assets/091026_complaint.pdf) for punking them, or

complaining about climate change litigation (ILR had a whole panel on it) while

_threatening to sue the EPA_

(http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2009/08/25/25climatewire-chamber-threatens-lawsuit\

-if-epa-rejects-cli-62828.html) .

The Chamber has a several-pronged approach in its campaign to eviscerate

the public's right to take the country's more detested industries to court.

One is to funnel major industry money into state election campaigns,

especially races involving judges and state Attorneys General.

On September 11, 2001, a most unfortunate day for a major news story to

appear, the Wall Street Journal ran an _eye-opening article_

(http://zicklin.baruch.cuny.edu/centers/cci/downloads/political-cover-major-busi\

ness.doc) by

Jim VandeHei about how some of this country's largest corporations were

pouring millions of dollars into the Chamber, allowing companies to hide

behind the Chamber's logo while the group did their dirty work. VandeHei wrote,

Last fall, for example, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., DaimlerChrysler AG, Home

Depot Inc. and the American Council of Life Insurers all kicked in $1 million

each for one of the chamber's special projects: a TV and direct-mail

advertising campaign aimed at helping elect business-friendly judges.

Indeed, that year the Chamber raised over $5 million targeting judges in

Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Indiana and Alabama who had, according to the

Journal, " rendered verdicts against one or more of the companies

contributing to the effort. "

No wonder secrecy is a hallmark of the U.S. Chamber/ILR's strategy when

getting involved in these electoral races. Indeed, the organization sometimes

goes to great lengths to keep its involvement and funding a secret. The

Huffington Post is definitely on the right track with its new " _tip line_

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/26/who-funds-the-chamber-of_n_334654.html\

)

" seeking to find out who is backing them. We're guessing _Deborah Senn_

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-senn) thinks so too.

In 2004, Senn, who was Washington State's insurance commissioner, ran for

state Attorney General. She had been known as a pro-consumer commissioner,

committed to protecting the rights of her state's policyholders. She was

comfortably ahead in the polls but in September 2004, right before

Washington's Democratic primary, a group called the Voters Education Committee

(VEC)

ran a series of nasty and expensive attack ads against her. The state's

Public Disclosure Commission sought financial information about the VEC but was

denied. It was only after the state filed a lawsuit that _the truth came

to light_ (http://www.seattlepi.com/local/190503_ads13.html) -- that the

Chamber was VEC's sole contributor, spending $1.5 million on the anti-Senn

ads. Senn won the primary despite the smears, but the damage had been done.

After continuing PR attacks, she lost the general election.

The Chamber said that its activities constituted voter education and issue

advocacy, not campaigning or political advocacy that can be regulated by

election laws. However, the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission

disagreed, finding that its ads impugned the character and record of Deborah

Senn and thus was " express advocacy " -- not " issue advocacy. " The

_Washington State Supreme Court agreed,_

(http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003882844_websennads13.html)

telling the Chamber to reveal its

donors.

Since then, the ILR has come under heavy criticism in a few other ways.

Theodore Eisenberg, Professor of Law and Statistical Sciences at Cornell

University, has just published a _scathing attack_

(http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1470872) on the integrity,

validity and impact of

the ILR's annual " ranking " of states, which is simply a survey of corporate

lawyers many of whose clients have been taken to court for causing harm.

They have also created several " newspapers " around the country that present

readers with biased, anti-victim accounts of cases and pro- " tort reform "

commentary. Initially, the Chamber tried to hide that it created the papers

to use, as the Washington Post wrote, " as a weapon in its

multimillion-dollar campaign against lawyers who file those kinds of suits. "

But all of this secrecy has to be expected. After all, think of their goal:

to convince average Americans to give up their rights to go to court

against reckless corporations and to make sure the insurance industry can keep

a

little more money in its pocket. That's what " tort reform " is. And that is

some PR feat.

Read more at:

_http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joanne-doroshow/the-secret-chamber-of-com_b_33763\

4.html_

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joanne-doroshow/the-secret-chamber-of-com_b_33763\

4.html)

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joanne-doroshow/the-secret-chamber-of-com_b_33763\

4.html)