Law Commons^™

Frivolous Floodgate Fears, Blair Druhan Bullock

Indiana Law Journal

When rejecting plaintiff-friendly liability standards, courts often cite a fear of opening the floodgates of litigation. Namely, courts point to either a desire to protect the docket of federal courts or a burden on the executive branch. But there is little empirical evidence exploring whether the adoption of a stricter standard can, in fact, decrease the filing of legal claims in this circumstance. This Article empirically analyzes and theoretically models the effect of adopting arguably stricter liability standards on litigation by investigating the context of one of the Supreme Court’s most recent reliances on this argument when adopting a stricter …

Purchasing Population Growth, Edward W. De Barbieri

Indiana Law Journal

State and local lawmakers compete to attract new populations of workers to purchase homes, grow the tax base, and develop local economies. Even before the pandemic, lawmakers used a variety of tax incentives and other legal levers to attract new residents. Increasingly, in some cases bolstered by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds, local governments are attracting high-paid, well-skilled, remote workers with cash gifts and other direct economic benefits.

Although cash incentives for remote workers have been increasing in popularity, they remain unproven with respect to intended outcomes and have yet to face legal challenge. The …

Mobilizable Labor Law, Scott L. Cummings, Andrew Elmore

Indiana Law Journal

In the history of new labor localism, city-level living wage ordinances—emerging in the 1990s with Los Angeles leading the way—have generally been understood as a second-best, limited antipoverty device designed to raise wage floors, with only indirect effects on organized labor. Drawing upon original archival materials, this Article offers an alternative reading of the history of the living wage in Los Angeles, showing how it was designed and operationalized as a proactive tool to rebuild union density and reshape city politics. Doing so makes four key contributions. First, the Article theorizes and empirically examines the living wage as a pioneering …

Power And Pay Secrecy, Michael M. Oswalt, Jake Rosenfeld, Patrick Denice

Indiana Law Journal

The legal momentum toward pay transparency is widespread and fast-moving. Since 2010, over a dozen states have passed laws prohibiting employers from telling workers they may not talk about wages. Proponents see these and related transparency laws as crucial steps to combat sex- and race-based pay discrimination in the workplace. But do state anti-secrecy laws actually reduce pay secrecy in the first place? That basic question remains largely unexplored. This Article fills the gap through a unique national survey that includes information about pay discussion rules and a range of other relevant employer and employee characteristics across the fifty states. …