O.H. Skinner writes for the Washington Examiner about the political left’s pervasive negative influence on key components of daily living.
An unprecedented proliferation of left-wing “public nuisance” lawsuits is threatening access to staple consumer products and the everyday conveniences upon which consumers rely.
A traditional public nuisance lawsuit alleges unreasonable interference with a right common to the public. A lawsuit against a California Sriracha factory after residents complained that fumes stung their eyes and throats offers an example of how the cases are supposed to work and how uncommon they are supposed to be.
But in recent years, progressive cities such as Boulder or Oakland have formed alliances with trial lawyers to use public nuisance lawsuits to demand untold billions and directly or indirectly reshape the products people are able to buy.
There has been rightful attention on the cash-grab aspect of these cases and how trial lawyers are lining their own pockets with these suits. But it is crucial to look beyond the simple cash grab. These actors are weaponizing law to strongarm companies into changing their operations and even their product offerings. After all, the goal of a public nuisance claim is to abate the nuisance.
A tour through some of the recent public nuisance targets helps illustrate the all-out assault on everyday people and their shopping carts that the Left is executing.
One wave of lawsuits targets single-use plastic products. These nuisance claims broadly allege that defendants are overrunning global disposal and recycling capacities and polluting waterways in the name of profit. The targets are companies such as Danone, which makes a litany of the yogurts, milks, and other dairy products you see across your store aisle. And trial lawyers and environmentalists are also suing Coca-Cola and Pepsico over their single-use water bottles. (Think Smart Water, Dasani, and Aquafina.)
