Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Antonin Scalia has recently passed away, an event that may actually make it a little harder for guilty corporations to get away with slimy tactics.
Now that the defender of Big Corporations who steal and lie their way through court is gone, what will companies like Dow Chemical do? Notorious for his defense of companies like Dow, Antonin Scalia’s death leaves a legacy of corporate chicanery in question.
To highlight this turn of event, Dow Chemical has changed its mind about appealing a big case. The company decided to settle an antitrust case for millions of dollars rather than trying to overturn a jury award.
Dow planned to challenge a $1.06 billion award to purchasers of compounds for urethanes, toxic and carcinogenic chemicals that are used to make foam upholstery. A jury decided that Dow conspired with four other companies to fix prices on the toxic chemicals. Dow planned to take the decision to its buddy, Scalia, who sat on the Supreme Court and who had a history of protecting corporate interests, no matter how sinister their behavior.
Related Read: Dow Fails to Appear in Court for 3rd Time over Toxic Disaster
But Dow decided to go a different route. I wonder why.
A Little Background
In 2011, Scalia wrote the 5-4 ruling that stated female workers could not sue Wal-Mart for gender discrimination. In 2013, Scalia also voted to protect Comcast from a monopoly suit. That same year he sided with American Express over merchants attempting to sue the company via antitrust law. Of course, Dow was expecting him to save their proverbial butts.
Whether its price fixing or creating toxic pesticides like neonics that harm our bees and butterflies, they’ll have to find a new insider to protect them in legal battles.
Source:
AlterNet