Contact the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) if you would like to enter a federal complaint. The office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) has complete information on the complaint and investigation process.
Read moreStudent Debt Relief Brief
Image by 3D Animation Production Company from Pixabay
Last week, President Joe Biden announced a new student debt relief plan that will grant millions of federal student loan borrowers up to $20,000 in debt forgiveness. For details and helpful explainers on the Biden-Harris Student Debt Relief Plan, visit the links within.
Read moreA Look at the United States Postal Inspection Service
The United States Postal Inspection Services one of the oldest branches of federal law enforcement. In fact, it traces its history all the way back to 1775, before the Declaration of Independence, when Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin appointed William Goddard to “audit postal accounts” and investigate thefts involving postal service operations. Fighting crime for 245 years has led to some of the biggest busts in US history, from the 1898 lynching of Lake City, South Carolina’s Postmaster Frazier Baker, to Charles Ponzi’s infamous scheme, to the Unabomber, to this summer’s high profile arrest of former White House advisor Steve Bannon.
Roughly 2,442 workers are employed by the Postal Inspection Service, including about 500 uniformed Postal Police Officers. As sworn federal law enforcement officers, the men and women of this elite force work cases large and small, from busting up child pornography rings, to ensuring the Postal Service is not used to move illegal narcotics throughout the country. Back in August, the Postal Inspection Service made headlines when Postal Police arrested Steve Bannon on charges of mail fraud.
Some duties of Postal Police Officers are less glamorous, and more resemble the duties of a beat cop. Though it may not have cracked through the din of our current election/pandemic news cycle, last week USPS top brass pulled Postal Police off of all regular patrol routes. Many within the Postal Service in general, and the Postal Inspection Service in particular, are concerned about the ability of the Postal Service to safely deliver mail-in ballots without being able to guard letter carriers and mail boxes. The Postal Police Officers Association opposes the move.
Neglect of .govs Impacts Consumer Safety and Privacy During Government Shutdown
January is Consumer Law Resources Month at the Harris County Law Library. Consumer law research materials from our print collection are on display throughout the library until the end of the month. In particular, we are featuring titles from the National Consumer Law Center as well as self-help sources published by Nolo. Topics run the gamut from product liability and food safety to financial market transparency and identity protection.
With consumer law occupying our thoughts this month, we were naturally drawn to the headlines in recent days (see below) announcing the potential for compromised consumer safety during the federal government shutdown, now entering its 25th day.
Consumer protection services falter during government shutdown (The Daily Dot)
Consumer protection websites are down due to the government shutdown (The Verge)
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, BBC, the Washington Post, and several other news organizations, a potentially increasing number of .gov websites are now blocked or completely inaccessible due to the inability of individual government agencies to renew their HTTPS security certificates. Tech Crunch explains:
Every time your browser lights up with “HTTPS” in green or flashes a padlock, it’s a TLS certificate encrypting the connection between your computer and the website, ensuring nobody can intercept and steal your data or modify the website. But TLS certificates are notoriously delicate things. Certificates expire — a common mistake as people often forget to renew them. Depending on the security level, most websites will kick back browser errors while other sites won’t let you in at all until the expired certificate is renewed. Except in this case, they can’t — because there’s nobody there to buy and install a new certificate
Websites affected by the shutdown include the US Department of Justice, the Courts of Appeals, and NASA. Also impacted is the Federal Trade Commission, which helps protect consumers from identity theft and scams by offering free credit reports and maintaining the “Do Not Call” registry. As a consequence of the shutdown, the Washington Post reports, a surge in robo-calls has already begun. Neither DoNotCall.gov nor IdentityTheft.gov is currently operational, thus reducing privacy protections and preventing victims from reporting their stolen personal and financial information.
As the shutdown continues, more website certificates will expire. This will expose the unprotected sites to vulnerabilities that hackers may exploit to gather data on citizen-consumers who, during periods of full government funding, enjoy the protections of the regulatory agencies operating in the best interest of all Americans.
For a full history of all 20 previous federal government shutdowns dating back to 1976, take a look at this timeline from Vox, and for a humorous take on many of the government agency shutdown notices, ranked from panicked to indifferent, click here to get the rundown from Quartz.
Finally, don’t forget that the Law Library of Congress is operational, and access to this beginner’s guide to consumer protection is a great place to start your consumer law research.
Latest & Greatest: Litigation with the Federal Government
By Gregory C. Sisk
Published by West Academic Publishing
KF 9065 .L472 2016
It is relatively common knowledge in the legal community that the Federal Government is a party to every federal criminal case. Yet few are aware that the Government is a party in nearly 20 percent of all civil cases filed in the federal courts. In these matters come the special rules surrounding sovereign immunity and the waiver of that immunity. In his book, Litigation with the Federal Government, author Gregory C. Sisk seeks to explain the concept of sovereign immunity and provide a summary of the various statutory waivers of sovereign immunity, both specific and general. He discusses, in some detail, the requirements needed to bring suit under the Federal Torts Claim Act and both the standards for and exceptions to liability under the statute. Other statutes include Suits in Admiralty Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Social Security Act, to name a few. Sisk also devotes some discussion to claims against federal officers and employees, including those seeking money damages and those looking to compel the officer or employee to perform a specific duty. The author also addresses the notion of equitable estoppel in the instance when the Federal Government is bound by the unauthorized representations by its employees. Lastly, the author discusses the Federal Government’s power to sue as a plaintiff.
Note that this book is part of the Hornbook Series, a set of one-volume treatises designed as study aids that simplify a legal topic by providing a summary or overview of the topic. They are good resources for those who want to understand more about a legal subject without having to sort through complex cases as well as for those who are representing themselves.
