Privacy
Dump the donors
The Los Angeles Times Tonight, Arnold Schwarzenegger is to return to the Beverly Hilton for the first time since his contrite apology…
Mar 20, 2006Jamie Court
President
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.
Articles by Jamie Court
Healthcare
Commerce Clause and Health
Marketplace Radio Program (NPR) Last week, the House of Representatives passed legislation stopping states from having food-warning labels that are tougher than…
Mar 14, 2006
Energy
Going Low Octane
The following commentary by FTCR President Jamie Court was broadcast on the Marketplace Morning Report radio program on NPR on Tuesday, February…
Feb 22, 2006
Insurance
Going Low Octane
Marketplace Morning Report (NPR Radio) The truth is, unless you're driving a higher performance car, or an old muscle car of the…
Feb 21, 2006
Privacy
Killer prices?
NPR Marketplace Radio Program Genentech's drug Avastin is a highly effective treatment for colon, breast, and lung cancer. It's also incredibly expensive.…
Feb 17, 2006
Privacy
Killer prices?
Genentech doubling price of cancer drug which clinical trial was government-funded Genentech's drug Avastin is a highly effective treatment for colon, breast,…
Feb 17, 2006
Insurance
Sacramento’s scandal-in-waiting
The following op-ed commentary by JAMIE COURT, author of "Corporateering", and president of the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights,…
Jan 25, 2006
Insurance
Sacramento’s scandal-in-waiting
The Los Angeles Times The Abramoff scandal has proved nothing if not that the line between public and private service needs to…
Jan 24, 2006
Healthcare
Arbitrary Rights?
Use of mandatory, binding arbitration clausesMarketplace Morning Report (MN Public Radio) So a company that's mischarged thousands of consumers, and arbitrated with…
Dec 28, 2005
Insurance
Shop carefully for health-care insurance
Marketplace Morning Report - NPR For some workers, it's time to choose a health plan for the coming year or make changes…
Dec 14, 2005
Healthcare
False Accounting: How Medical Malpractice Insurance Companies Inflate Losses to Justify Sudden Surges in Rates and Tort Reform
In this study, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR)1 reviews the loss projections of medical malpractice insurance companies, beginning with…
Dec 7, 2005
Privacy
Release The Cells!
The following commentary by FTCR President Jamie Court was broadcast on Wednesday, November 30, 2005 on the Marketplace Radio program on NPR.…
Dec 1, 2005
Insurance
Release the cells!
Locked cell phones frustrate users, but solutions are availableMarketplace Radio Program (NPR) You very likely paid for your cell phone when you…
Nov 30, 2005
Insurance
The governor’s odd traveling companions;
A host of big-buck contributors and cronies are along for the ride in China, and they're looking out for themselves, not California.Los…
Nov 15, 2005
Privacy
Hasta la vista special interests? Not quite.
Marketplace Radio Program (NPR) The $250 million being spent on ballot measures in California's special election makes it one of the most…
Nov 8, 2005
Energy
Russell Roberts of George Mason University & Jamie Court, Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, discuss the taxation and regulation of the oil industry
Kudlow & Company Show (CNBC-TV) Mr. COURT: I favor regulation of supply, and I think that for three years we've had big…
Nov 3, 2005
Insurance
The secret force behind the propositions;
Using Schwarzenegger's initiatives, some of the country's leading conservative minds hope to paint California red in 2008.Los Angeles Times Some of the…
Oct 30, 2005