Law Commons^™

Labor Rights, Human Rights And A Critical Sociology Of Law, Richard R. Weiner

Faculty Publications

Arguing for a transnational labor movement increasingly poses transnational labor rights as transnational human rights. Sociologically, how can such transnational labor rights be secured by institutions at a global level? Moving from human rights to transnational social rights? A seemingly aporia between the concepts of labor rights and human rights can be dialectically mediated by the tradition of a critical sociology of law in yielding a critical sociology of rights.

A Religious Organization’S Autonomy In Matters Of Self-Governance: Hosanna-Tabor And The First Amendment, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

In Hosanna-Tabor, a teacher suing her employer, a church-based school, alleged retaliation for having asserted rights under a discrimination statute. The School raised the “ministerial exception,” which prohibits ministers from suing their religious employer. The Court held the exception was constitutionally required. Before giving the facts that convinced it that this teacher was a “minister,” the Court had to distinguish the leading case of Employ. Div. v. Smith. Plaintiffs in Smith held jobs as counselors at a drug rehabilitation center. They were fired for illegal drug use (peyote), and later denied unemployment compensation. The Native American Church ingests peyote during …

Title Vii Works - That's Why We Don't Like It, Chuck Henson

Faculty Publications

In response to the universal belief that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is not fulfilling its purpose, this Article presents a different perspective on the reality of this federal employment discrimination law. Title VII is fulfilling the purpose of the Congress that created it. The purpose was not the eradication of all discrimination in employment. The purpose was to balance the prohibition of the most obvious forms of discrimination with the preservation of as much employer decision-making latitude as possible. Moreover, the seminal Supreme Court decision, McDonnell Douglas v. Green, accurately implemented this balance. This Article …

Taking In Strays: A Critique Of The Stray Comment Doctrine In Employment Discrimination Law, Kerri Lynn Stone

Faculty Publications

This Article traces the genesis of this misguided doctrine, its proliferation, and it’s many flaws. It explains what the doctrine has come to mean and which facets of a comment can render it “stray” as a matter of law. Part II evaluates this unwieldy and untenable doctrine and its haphazard and misguided application over the past two decades. Specifically, it was never intended to be a formal doctrine. As employed by courts, the term “stray” means too many things and is too ambiguous for the doctrine to be coherent or effective. Moreover, courts ascribe varying degrees of significance to the …

The Gamification Of Work, Miriam A. Cherry

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In the science fiction novel Ender's Game, a young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, believes that he is at military school, learning how to play a computer war simulation game. In reality, Ender has been genetically engineered to excel in military tactics and is the final hope of humanity, which is under attack by the Formics, an alien insect species. For his final examination, Ender must defend the Earth from a series of attacks. He passes the exam by attempting a desperate aggressive maneuver, which utterly wipes out the attacker's home world but which also destroys part of his …

Overcoming Our Global Disability In The Workforce: Mediating The Dream, Elayne E. Greenberg

Faculty Publications

The unparalleled global support for the 2008 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ("CRPD") highlights the global schism between the public extolling of human rights for individuals with disabilities and the private castigating of such individuals in their daily lives and in the workforce. The CRPD explicitly mandates that work is a right accorded to individuals with disabilities, and global employers are now being challenged to implement that right. Yet, in order to ensure meaningful, universal compliance with its directives, the CRPD imposes affirmative duties on Supporting States to develop a customized, workable plan that effectively …

Virtual Whistleblowing, Miriam A. Cherry

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In approximately 2004, Michael DeKort, a forty-one-year-old Lockheed Martin project manager, became concerned about security flaws in ships his employer was selling to the United States Coast Guard. The new ships were part of a planned $24 billion equipment upgrade that would make the United States Coast Guard a more active part of the war on terror. However, according to DeKort, the vessels featured security cameras with significant blind spots and communications equipment that was not secure. Further, DeKort alleged that other equipment on board could not operate at the extreme temperatures required by Lockheed's contract with the government. …

Before Wisconsin And Ohio: The Quiet Success Of Card-Check Organizing In The Public Sector, Rafael Gely, Timothy D. Chandler

Faculty Publications

Card-check laws, which have been unsuccessfully pursued by private-sector unions, mandate that employers recognize the union as the representative of employees on the basis of signed authorization cards without reliance on a representation election. Card check authorization benefits unions because it short circuits the usual organizing process by eliminating the union's need to further prove majority support in a secret ballot election.' But by doing so, it imposes costs on employers by restricting their efforts to erode union support through aggressive campaign tactics. Our paper seeks to better understand the development of these laws and their effects, and in that …