Law Commons^™

Overruling Precedent: "A Derelict In The Stream Of The Law", Michael Leroy

Michael H LeRoy

Will the Supreme Court overrule Hoffman Plastic Compounds v. N.L.R.B., 535 U.S. 137 (2002), its precedent that treats unlawful alien workers as criminals and denies them backpay for a violation of a labor law? More generally, what are the statistical indicators of a precedent that the Supreme Court overrules— and how well does Hoffman Plastic fit that profile? To answer these research questions, I analyze two unique databases— 128 federal and state rulings from 2002-2012 that involved Hoffman Plastic’s remedy issue, and a sample of 154 Supreme Court pairings of an overruled precedent, and the decision that explicitly …

Labor Disputes In Professional Sports: How Federal Judges Referee Antitrust Lawsuits-- False Starts And Technical Fouls, Michael Leroy

Michael H LeRoy

Using a database of 83 published court opinions from 1970-2011, I show that players have utilized conflicting federal laws to improve their labor market mobility. They formed unions under the National Labor Relations Act, and bargained collectively with leagues. Often, however, they lacked bargaining power to modify the draft or reserve clause, which bound them to a team. Players sued, therefore, under the Sherman Act to challenge these practices as restraints of trade. Thus, players have used a dual engagement strategy of bargaining with leagues under the NLRA while holding identical negotiations under the threat of Sherman Act treble damages. …

Are Arbitrators Above The Law? The "Manifest Disregard Of The Law" Standard, Michael Leroy

Michael H LeRoy

Arbitration is supposed to be final and binding. But federal and state laws, and judicial doctrines, allow courts to vacate arbitrator awards. This study contemplates the role of courts when they review awards that “manifestly disregard the law”— a term that means the arbitrator knew the law but chose to ignore it. Given the norm of arbitral finality, should courts vacate these rulings?

Hall Street Associates v. Mattel, Inc., 552 U.S. 576 (2008), failed to answer this question. The parties asked a court to review their award for errors of law. This standard is not in the Federal Arbitration Act …

Crowning The New King: The Statutory Arbitrator And The Demise Of Judicial Review, Michael H. Leroy

Michael H LeRoy

Judicial review of arbitration awards is highly deferential, but when does it become rubber stamping? Using original data, I find that federal courts vacated only 4.3 percent of 162 disputed awards. Nearly the same result was observed for a sub-sample of 44 employment discrimination awards under Title VII. By comparison, federal appeals courts in 2006 reversed 12.9 percent of 5,917 rulings made by civil court judges on the merits of legal claims.

Why are the rulings of Article III judges scrutinized more than the awards of citizen-arbitrators? What does this mean when companies can avoid Article III court rulings by …

Happily Never After: When Final And Binding Arbitration Has No Fairy Tale Ending, Michael H. Leroy

Michael H LeRoy

We launched this empirical study 15 years after the Supreme Court decided Gilmer v. Interstate Johnson/Lane Corp., a key decision that enforced a mandatory arbitration agreement. Gilmer led to the widespread adoption of individual employment arbitration but provided courts no standards for reviewing these arbitration awards.

Until now, researchers have examined the fairness and legality of Gilmer agreements and other aspects of employment arbitration. Our timing is significant because employment arbitration has matured beyond the initial phase of pre-arbitration challenges to this forum. By now, a critical mass of individuals and their employers have been to arbitrations and appealed arbitrator …