Political Quotes

“Madam Chair, I thank the gentleman from Rhode Island for yielding. Madam Chair, we have heard the stories, and we will continue to hear them, of all of the employees and the consumers who have been tricked into giving away their constitutional right to a jury trial to have their rights enforced. It doesn't really matter all the constitutional rights you have or all the statutory rights that you have; if you don't have a right to enforce these in court, all of your rights are washed away. So when consumers and employees get tricked into signing away their right to go to court, all of their rights are washed away. We have heard the stories. And I wanted to add to the list the story of Barbara Jones-Davis, who is 98 years old. She had glaucoma and dementia. She was in a nursing home in northwest Philadelphia. They let her wander. In violation of all their own policies, she wandered outside. She wandered outside for more than 20 minutes. She went over a 15-foot precipice and fell to her death with a broken skull. Her family got forced into arbitration. The nursing home didn't admit responsibility. They forced her into one of these secret and rigged arbitrations. These things are unconstitutional. They take away your right to go to court. This is a constitutional right that our Founding Fathers fought and died for: that we would be able to resolve our disputes in court, in open court, fairly chosen, not one of these secret and rigged proceedings that is mandatory.…”