When Conservative Courts Attack! ...... Airline Passengers Get the Shaft

[marmar]

from AP, via AOL:


Court Overturns Passenger Rights Law
By LARRY NEUMEISTER,AP
Posted: 2008-03-25 21:03:39


NEW YORK (March 25) - A federal appeals court Tuesday struck down a state law requiring airlines to give food, water, clean toilets and fresh air to passengers stuck in delayed planes, saying the measure was well-intentioned but stepped on federal authority.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said New York's law — the first of its kind in the country — interferes with federal law governing the price, route or service of an air carrier.

The law was passed after thousands of passengers were stranded aboard airplanes for up to 10 hours on several JetBlue Airways flights at Kennedy International Airport on Valentine's Day last year. They complained they were deprived of food and water and that toilets overflowed. A month later, hundreds more passengers were stranded at the same airport after a daylong ice storm.

The law was challenged by the Air Transport Association of America, the industry trade group representing leading U.S. airlines.

The court said that while the goals of the law were "laudable" and the circumstances prompting its adoption "deplorable," only the federal government has the authority to pass such regulations.

"If New York's view regarding the scope of its regulatory authority carried the day, another state could be free to enact a law prohibiting the service of soda on flights departing from its airports, while another could require allergen-free food options on its outbound flights, unraveling the centralized federal framework for air travel," the court wrote.

Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, the prime sponsor of New York Airline Passenger Bill of Rights, said in a statement that the ruling "is a disappointment to anyone who has suffered at the hands of airlines that care more about profits than their customers."

"This is far from over," the Democrat said. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.aol.com/business/story/_a/court-overturns-passenger-rights-law/20080325135309990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

[Thothmes]

1. All Assemblyman Gianaris

has to do is get the Democratically Congress of the United States to pass an airline passenger "bill of rights".

[trotsky]

2. It's not fair to blame this one on conservative courts.

The Federal government has control over the airlines. That is logically and logistically the only way to do it. So the court ruled correctly on the law. As the poster above notes, all our DEMOCRATIC Congress needs to do is pass the same thing and it will be fine.