The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is considering rolling back payday and title loan regulations designed to protect consumers from dangerous debt traps. Considered part of America’s democratization of credit, payday and title loans are offered by a multi-billion-dollar industry that is growing at a rate that far exceeds the rest of the financial services [...]

Under current leadership, the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) seems committed to only grudgingly protecting consumers from unfair and exploitative financial products.  In its strategic plan, former Acting Director Mick Mulvaney explained that the Bureau had “committed to fulfill the Bureau’s statutory responsibilities, but go no further.”  This language aligns with Mulvaney’s earlier change [...]

Recently, a District Court Judge in Iowa struck down a law passed in the spring of 2018 which would have barred abortions after a fetal heartbeat could be detected by means of a vaginal ultrasound. The exceptions included cases of medical emergency, or medically necessity, severe fetal defects, or when the fetus was conceived through [...]

In the recent voting, Massachusetts heartily defeated a referendum that would have rolled back state transgender protections. In 2004, Massachusetts was the first state to recognize marriage equality. Subsequently, the Commonwealth enacted legislation to advance protections for members of the LGBTQ community. In 2011, Massachusetts passed legislation protecting those who identify as non-straight from discrimination [...]

This past Election Day, voters in Massachusetts made history by winning a popular vote on transgender rights at the statewide ballot box for the first time. At a time when so many transgender people are being attacked by the Trump administration and violence against transgender people remains an epidemic in America (with the highest rates [...]