Class actions to end: “In the past, most class action suits were filed through state courts. In some of the better-known cases, against cigarette and later gun manufacturers, actions swept across states to become a tidal wave of litigation.

A case has recently been won in Madison, Illinois, against Philip Morris, where a judge awarded plaintiffs $12 billion after finding that the cigarette-maker failed to inform consumers that ‘light’ brands were no less harmful than full-tar cigarettes.

But the House of Representatives has voted by 253 to 170 to thwart the vast majority of class action suits in state courthouses, limiting all but the smallest claims to federal courts, where the big companies, say citizens’ groups, find it easier to delay the progress of suits and ‘shop’ for courts more favourable to their interests.” Guardian/Observer

If you are curious about how your representative voted, here’s the roll call. If you are curious about whom this will benefit, look no further than tto the fact that big business is jubilant about taking its business to the federal courts, the same ones the Republicans are packing with right-wing extremists even as they complain there is a partisan crisis in the judicial confirmation process. The GOP will talk all about tort reform, stopping giveaways to bottom-feeding lawyers (arguably the pot calling the kettle black, I would say, although trial lawyers are a perennial favorite GOP target.) and unclogging the courts of frivolous lawsuits, but the real agenda is clear and is of a piece with most of Bush’s domestic policy. Can you spell g-i-v-e-a-w-a-y? The Senate still has to approve this before it will become law. That’s the Republican-controlled Senate. Democrats: can you spell f-i-l-i-b-u-s-t-e-r (although several Democratic Senators have already lined up behind the bill)? And don’t even get me started on what the Bill Frist is trying to do to the cloture rule…