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.
Capitol insiders are abuzz with news that Governor Schwarzenegger is considering eliminating the four year old Department of Managed Health Care in…
Nov 26, 2003As ArnoldWatch reported Thursday, in its effort to get to the truth underlying the crisis in workers' comp, the Senate has taken…
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Nov 24, 2003'Housecleaning' puts special interests first. In his first week, the governor who was going to oust special interests has managed not only…
Nov 23, 2003'Housecleaning' puts special interests first.Los Angeles Times In his first week, the governor who was going to oust special interests has managed…
Nov 23, 2003
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Nov 22, 2003Arnoldwatch has learned that insurance company executives will have to testify under oath in the state senate -- risking perjury -- about…
Nov 21, 2003We've seen all kinds of celebrity impersonators show up at car dealerships for a grand opening or end-of-year sale. But to get…
Nov 21, 2003In the workers' compensation reforms Arnold introduced today, insurance companies drew a "get-out-of-reform-free" card from the community chest. Arnold's proposal, known as…
Nov 20, 2003How Arnold Schwarzenegger balances the interests of business and society will be the biggest challenge of the gubernatorial career he begins today.…
Nov 18, 2003In Executive Order No. 2, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has frozen all pending state regulations for a duplicative review of their impact on…
Nov 18, 2003An author and consumer advocate warned that new GOP-backed health care and energy legislation on capitol hill would exacerbate the failures of…
Nov 17, 2003The FTC has acknowledged that the epidemic of identity theft claimed almost 10 million victims last year. But on the same day…
Oct 28, 2003Says consumers need to 'fight back'Orange County Register (California) In a Sept. 17 address to a People for a National Health Program,…
Oct 9, 2003The San Diego Union-Tribune The impact of the legal redefinition of the corporate form made it a sovereign entity with the power…
Oct 3, 2003The impact of the legal redefinition of the corporate form made it a sovereign entity with the power to dominate people and,…
Oct 3, 2003Consumer advocate and author Jamie Court called on Congress to propose a constitutional amendment that clarifies that corporations do not have First…
Oct 1, 2003