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Northwestern University Law Review

2015

Employment law

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

The Cat’S Paw Supervisor: Vance V. Ball State University’S Flexible Jurisprudence, Daniel Leigh Jul 2015

The Cat’S Paw Supervisor: Vance V. Ball State University’S Flexible Jurisprudence, Daniel Leigh

Northwestern University Law Review

It is easier to hold a company liable for workplace harassment perpetrated by a supervisor than by a coworker. In Vance v. Ball State University, the Supreme Court attempted to clarify the crucial yet enigmatic definition of “supervisor.” In doing so, the Court created a definition that early commentators criticized as too narrow and too inflexible to capture the varied structures of the modern workplace. In contrast to those commentators, this Note argues that Vance’s definition is flexible enough to encompass all workplaces. Vance’s definition does this by incorporating the tort concept of proximate causation into employment …


Free Exercise Reconceived: The Logic And Limits Of Hosanna-Tabor, Christopher C. Lund Jan 2015

Free Exercise Reconceived: The Logic And Limits Of Hosanna-Tabor, Christopher C. Lund

Northwestern University Law Review

Two terms ago, in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC, the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment precludes ministers from bringing employment-related claims against their churches. In some ways, Hosanna-Tabor changed little. The lower courts had all reached that conclusion already, though the Supreme Court slightly expanded the breadth of the so-called ministerial exception. More important is how Hosanna-Tabor reconceptualized things, especially in how it pushed back somewhat against the Supreme Court’s imperial decision in Employment Division v. Smith, where the Court had broadly held that the Free Exercise Clause did not entitle religious believers to exemptions …