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unhappycamper

(60,364 posts)
Mon Jun 9, 2014, 06:15 AM Jun 2014

Louisiana governor signs law to block suits against oil industry

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-louisiana-lawsuit-jindal-20140606-story.html



The sun sets over flooded coastal wetlands in Venice, La.

Louisiana governor signs law to block suits against oil industry
By Neela Banerjee
June 6, 2014

Louisana Gov. Bobby Jindal signed a bill Friday to quash a landmark lawsuit brought by a local flood protection agency that sought damages from the oil and gas industry to restore the state’s vanishing coastline.

Jindal signed the legislation -- which prevents government bodies in Louisiana from pursuing such litigation -- despite warnings from the state attorney general and nearly 100 legal experts. Critics of the law say it is so broad it could potentially imperil hundreds of other lawsuits against oil and gas companies, including litigation against BP for its role in the 2010 Gulf oil spill.

“I am proud to sign it into law,” Jindal said in a statement, calling the litigation “frivolous." The Republican said the law "further improves Louisiana’s legal environment by reducing unnecessary claims that burden businesses so that we can bring even more jobs to our state.”

The bill was one of at least seven championed this year by the Jindal administration's legislative allies to kill coastal-damage lawsuits brought by state agencies against the oil and gas industry, a pillar of Lo
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Louisiana governor signs law to block suits against oil industry (Original Post) unhappycamper Jun 2014 OP
Fox in charge of hen house newfie11 Jun 2014 #1
wouldn't this violate the 7th Amendment? safeinOhio Jun 2014 #2
So much for the "invisible-hand-of-the-free-market-the-courts-will-work-it-out" bullshit. Scuba Jun 2014 #3

safeinOhio

(32,531 posts)
2. wouldn't this violate the 7th Amendment?
Mon Jun 9, 2014, 06:44 AM
Jun 2014

"In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law."

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