Consumer Watchdog’s President and Chairman of the Board is an award-winning and nationally recognized consumer advocate. Capitol Weekly, naming Jamie to its “Top 100” list of unelected movers and shakers in California politics, wrote, “Court has made a career of battling all comers in the interest of the public, and his take-no-prisoners approach has earned him plenty of enemies.” Jamie’s latest book is The Progressive’s Guide To Raising Hell: How To Win Grassroots Campaigns, Pass Ballot Box Laws And Get The Change You Voted For (Chelsea Green, 2010).
“Americans angry about the state of their government might find in Court’s persuasive manifesto a cause for action,” Publishers Weekly writes. “With great accessibility and a fired-up attitude, Court brings his lessons in empowerment to the people.” He is also the author of Corporateering: How Corporate Power Steals Your Freedom And What You Can Do About It (Tarcher Putnam, 2003) and co-author of Making A Killing: HMOs and the Threat To Your Health (Common Courage Press, 1999). Jamie has led dozens of major corporate and political campaigns to reform insurers, banks, technology companies, oil companies, utilities and political practices. He helped to pioneer the HMO patients’ rights movement in the United States, sponsoring successful laws in California and aiding them elsewhere, and was an early champion of many of the most important consumer protections in the federal Affordable Care Act years before they were enacted. In recent years, he has led the campaign to hold California oil refiners accountable for price gouging at the pump which resulted in the toughest oil refinery regulation in America.
A frequent media commentator and op-ed contributor, Jamie is a high-profile and stalwart defender of consumers’ rights. The Los Angeles Times calls him “a tireless consumer advocate.” The Wall Street Journal writes, “He’s notorious for his dramatic, sharp-tongued attacks on the health- and auto-insurance industries, and on any politician who takes their campaign cash.” His public interest career began as an advocate for the homeless and as a community organizer. Jamie’s Alma mater is Pomona College, where he graduated with a BA in History in 1989.
By Staff Reporters, CAP Radio – Sacramento, CA: Click below to listen to the audio of this radio broadcast segment. By Laura…
Sep 25, 2025Sacramento, CA – A bipartisan group of governors are threatening to leave the East Coast grid operator PJM unless they get the right…
Sep 25, 2025By Staff Reporters, KCBS-AM – Los Angeles, CA: Click below to listen to the audio of this radio broadcast segment.
Sep 23, 2025Consumer Watchdog have filed a ballot measure guaranteeing insurance coverage to homeowners who meet wildfire mitigation standards set by the state.
Sep 22, 2025If the goal of Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s goal is to bring new intervenors into the process, regulations will do the opposite.
Sep 21, 2025By Staff Reporters, KNX-AM – Los Angeles, CA: Click below to listen to the audio of this radio broadcast segment.
Sep 19, 2025The bills Newsom is signing that his office called “big beautiful legislation that promises to lower electricity costs, stabilize the petroleum market…
Sep 19, 2025Governor Newsom, McGuire, and Rivas celebrated “Landmark Clean Energy, Climate and Affordability Solutions” .. It’s a load of horse poop.
Sep 12, 2025Sacramento, CA — Eleventh-hour California legislation creating a regional grid eliminates all the guardrails added by the Senate and opens California consumers to price gouging, having to pay for coal power…
Sep 10, 2025John Burton's death is reminder to us all that you can be principled and thrive in politics.John had the “Rage for Justice”
Sep 8, 2025By Staff Reporters, KNX-AM – Los Angeles, CA: Click below to listen to the audio of this radio broadcast segment.
Sep 3, 2025“Much of this harkens back to the year 2000, when the legislature unanimously passed and the governor signed a bill deregulating electricity,…
Sep 3, 2025Sacramento, CA — Consumer Watchdog warned California legislative leaders that ignoring legislative rules and racing through a utility-backed regional electricity deregulation plan in the…
Sep 2, 2025Sacramento, CA – The Newsom Administration’s California Energy Commission voted to freeze for five years deliberations on a gasoline price gouging penalty…
Aug 29, 2025Sacramento, CA — Consumer and environmental groups have written California legislative leaders taking issue with Governor Newsom’s latest claim that a Western grid…
Aug 28, 2025Sacramento, CA – Consumer Watchdog wrote Governor Newsom and the Vice Chair of the California Energy Commission (CEC) Siva Gunda today to remind…
Aug 27, 2025