| Volume 97 Number 9 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
In Texas, a tenant who moves into an apartment is entitled to a working smoke detector, a peephole in the front door, and proper security on all doors and windows, including a dead bolt on the front door.
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Netflix Streaming Prices Set to Increase
The monthly price for Netflix streaming will go up by as much as $2 per month sometime within the next few months. Existing members currently pay $7.99 per month for access to the entire Netflix streaming library. As the company plans to bump that up to $8.99 or $9.99 per month for new consumers, existing consumers will be allowed to continue at at the current rate for a "generous period of time."
Netflix has been negotiating with internet service providers over the amount of bandwidth it uses. In order to better accommodate its data-heavy content, Netflix has already entered into a connection deal with Comcast. Such deals allow consumers to get the highest quality video service, but also increases the costs Netflix must pay to distribute content to consumers.
Are you willing to pay an additional $2 per month to maintain your Netflix streaming service?
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SCOTUS Upholds Affirmative Action Ban
In 2006, Michigan voters passed a law banning the use of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in college admissions. After a lower court set aside the measure, the case made it all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court reversed the lower court, allowing the Michigan ban on affirmative action to effect.
Justice Sotomayor dissented from the majority of the court, suggesting that such a decision could limit marginalized groups from equal and meaningful participation in self-government.
Affirmative action continues to be a hotly debated topic. Does the Supreme Court's decision pave the way for other states to ban affirmative action?
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Your Money
Will you save by refinancing your mortgage?
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For the Lawyers
Arbitration clause survives the contract.
The Sixth Circuit recently answered the question of whether an arbitration clause survives the termination of the contract containing it.
A class of employees alleged FLSA violations by their employer. Each of their employment agreements had an arbitration clause and a “survival clause” which listed a few of the contractual clauses that survive termination of the agreement. But the survival clause did not mention the arbitration clause. The Sixth Circuit cited Litton v. NLRB, 501 U.S. 190 (1991), which “recognized a ‘presumption in favor of postexpiration arbitration of matters unless negated expressly or by clear implication [for] matters and disputes arising out of the …contract.’”
Because the survival clause in the instant case was silent about arbitration as well as about other clauses that would logically survive the contract’s termination, the court found that silence was not enough to expressly negate the survival of the arbitration clause.
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