Law Commons^™

Pragmatism Over Politics: Recent Trends In Lower Court Employment Discrimination Jurisprudence, Lee Reeves

Lee Reeves

Many scholars have argued that the judiciary’s decreasing receptivity to employment discrimination claims is attributable either entirely or predominantly to the fact that the federal bench has become more ideologically conservative in recent years. This Article seeks to dispute that hypothesis as incomplete at best, and to offer a competing theory. Specifically, I argue (i) that employment discrimination jurisprudence is properly viewed not as a holistic entity, but rather as a series of circuit-specific creations; and (ii) that each circuit’s employment discrimination jurisprudence is correlated with two factors, total workload per capita judge and employment discrimination filings per capita judge. …

Getting Under Your Skin--Literally: Rfid In The Employment Context, Marisa Anne Pagnattaro

marisa pagnattaro

This article explores the legal ramifications of the use of radio frequency identification chips (“RFID”) by employers. RFID is an automated data-capture technology that can be used to identify, track and store information contained on a tiny computer chip, which uses electromagnetic energy in the form of radio waves to communicate information. These chips can be implanted under an employee’s skin, worn in an employee’s clothing or in an identification badge. Part I presents a brief history of RFID, as well as novel and interesting uses in the workplace. This section also discusses security and safety concerns regarding the use …

Toward Real Workplace Equality: Nonsubordination And Title Vii Sex-Stereotyping Jurisprudence , Erin E. Goodsell

Erin E. Goodsell

This paper seeks to resolve a problem in federal anti-discrimination jurisprudence. The Supreme Court has held that plaintiffs may have a Title VII employment discrimination claim where they have been discriminated against based on an “impermissible sex stereotype,” but the lower federal courts, lacking a clear definition of what an “impermissible sex stereotype” may be, are inconsistent in their application of the sex-stereotyping doctrine. I argue that applying the feminist principle of nonsubordination, which examines whether legal rules or cultural practices serve to subordinate women to men and seeks to change those rules or practices that do, could help to …

The Inevitable Demise Of The Implied Employment Contract, Jonathan W. Fineman

Jonathan W. Fineman

The Inevitable Demise of the Implied Employment Contract By Jonathan Fineman Abstract This article examines the consequences of the courts’ decision in the early 1980s to apply implied contract doctrine to employment relationships. Although courts did not use the rhetoric of “norms” popular in academic discourse today, their actions were in fact an attempt to enforce workplace norms, specifically the voluntary system of job protection policies employers devised in order to increase worker loyalty and productivity. I explore a question not previously addressed in-depth in the literature: what happened when courts began giving job security practices the force of law? …

Some Reflections On Labor And Employment Ramifications Of Diocesan Bankruptcy Filings, David L. Gregory

David L. Gregory

Sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic clergy is perhaps the greatest scandal in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States. On September 7, 2007, the San Diego, California diocese settled with 144 claimants for $198 million. In mid-July, the Los Angeles Archdiocese settled with 508 claimants for $660 million. No article in the burgeoning law review literature on the scandal and its aftermath has focused on the labor and employment ramifications of diocesan bankruptcy filings. After first presenting the situations in the five dioceses that have filed for bankruptcy, I discuss the case and canon law …

Misguided Fairness? Regulating Arbitration By Statute: Empirical Evidence Of Declining Award Finality, Michael H. Leroy

Michael H LeRoy

The Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) created a national policy that promotes arbitration. Congress passed this law to end judicial hostility to arbitration. So far, no one has questioned this premise. My Article shows, however, that nineteenth century courts enforced arbitrator awards, even those that failed to conform to “technicalities and niceties.” Acting on the mistaken advice that judges excessively interfere with arbitration, Congress enacted a law that transfers oversight of arbitration from the judiciary to legislatures.

This change is affecting how court reviews arbitrator awards. I collected data in 426 federal and state court rulings in employment disputes from June …

Unintended Consequences: How Antidiscrimination Litigation Increases Group Bias In Employer-Defendants, Jessica Fink

Jessica Fink

In recent years, employees have turned with increasing frequency to the courts to redress alleged violations of their civil rights in the workplace, often bringing suits under laws such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Indeed, employment discrimination claims consistently consume a substantial (and rising) portion of the federal court docket. In the four-plus decades since the passage of Title VII, however, the nature of workplace bias itself has changed, becoming more difficult to detect in many cases. Some employers, often with the help of counsel, have learned to finesse their workplace actions to avoid the …

Explaining The Spread Of At-Will Employment As An Inter-Jurisdictional Race-To-The-Bottom In Employment Standards, Richard A. Bales

Richard A. Bales

The at-will employment rule often is attributed to Horace Gay Wood, who described the rule in an 1877 treatise. Over the next forty years, the rule was judicially adopted in most American states. How and why the rule spread, however, has been the subject of considerable academic debate.

This essay argues that the underindustrialized states first adopting the at-will rule likely did so as a means of attracting capital. In any event, and more importantly, this essay argues that once the first underindustrialized states adopted the rule, other underindustrialized states would have been compelled to adopt the rule to remain …

Fitting The Pension Protection Act Of 2006 Into The Defined Contribution Paradigm, Crystal L. Lyons

Crystal L. Lyons

No abstract provided.

Explaining The Spread Of At-Will Employment As An Inter-Jurisdictional Race-To-The-Bottom Of Employment Standards, Richard A. Bales

Richard A. Bales

The at-will employment rule is often attributed to Horace Gay Wood, who described the rule in an 1877 treatise. Over the next forty years, the rule was judicially adopted in most American states. How and why the rule spread, however, has been the subject of considerable academic debate.

This essay argues that the underindustrialized states first adopting the at-will rule likely did so as a means of attracting capital. In any event, and more importantly, this essay argues that once the first underindustrialized states adopted the rule, other underindustrialized states would have been compelled to adopt the rule to remain …

The Perils Of Marriage As Transcendent Ontology: National Pride At Work V. Governor Of Michigan, William B. Turner

William B Turner

National Pride at Work v. Governor of Michigan provides a unique opportunity to watch as courts struggle to define “marriage.” This is not a suit seeking recognition of same-sex marriages. It presents the question of whether an amendment to the Michigan state constitution prohibiting recognition of same-sex marriages or any “union” that is “similar” to marriage also prohibits public employers in the state from conferring benefits on the same-sex partners of their employees. The trial and appeals courts came to exactly opposite conclusions, and their respective positions nicely demarcate the options in what promises to be an ongoing debate in …

Reasonably Accommodating The Able Employee Who Is Disabled By Misperception: The Ada’S “Regarded As” Prong Gone Awry?, Selma Shelton

Selma Shelton

Even though the evil of race-based slavery was remedied, this did not mark the death of shame in America because subjugation of another minority persisted as individuals with disabilities remained without legal recourse. Congress recognized “discrimination against individuals with disabilities persists in such critical areas as employment, housing, public accommodations, education, transportation, communication, recreation, institutionalization, health services, voting, and access to public services” and it enacted the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). This paper discusses a problem that continues to persist despite the enacting of the ADA - that is, victimization of individuals with disabilities because of strongly ingrained attitudes, …

Search And Seizure On Steroids: United States V. Comprehensive Drug Testing And Its Consequences For Private Information Stored On Commercial Electronic Databases, Aaron S. Lowenstein

Aaron S Lowenstein

This article critiques the Ninth Circuit’s recent decision in United States v. Comprehensive Drug Testing. This case received some attention because it stems from the investigation into the use of steroids in Major League Baseball. It should have received much more attention, however, because of its troubling expansion of the government’s authority to access our private digital information without a warrant.

Executing a search warrant for information stored on a computer database poses special problems. Because targets of government investigations can easily conceal incriminating digital evidence, investigators often must search an entire computer hard drive in order to effectively execute …

Interpreting The Americans With Disabilities Act: A Case Study In Pragmatic Judicial Reconstruction, Michael L. Selmi

Michael L Selmi

This article challenges the prevailing academic consensus regarding the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Americans With Disabilities Act (“ADA”), and does so in the context of theories of statutory interpretation. Virtually all academic commentary has condemned the Court’s interpretations as constituting a “judicial backlash” against the disabled, given that the Court’s interpretations have significantly narrowed the scope of the statute. My analysis offers a counter narrative. I contend that although the Supreme Court’s interpretations have narrowed the statute’s scope, and have done so without regard to congressional intent, their decisions are largely consistent with congressional expectations and reigning social norms …

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 …

Fuck, Christopher M. Fairman

Christopher M Fairman

No abstract provided.

Common Sense About Common Claims, David G. Karro

David G. Karro

In Dukes v. Wal-Mart, Inc., 506 F.3d 1168 (9th Cir. 2007), the 9th Circuit affirmed an order certifying a nationwide class of 1.5 million women claiming sex discrimination by a single employer. The court held that class members are not entitled to notice that they are in the class until after the merits are decided, and that none has the right to refuse membership. It seemed to accept the idea that it could only certify the class if it “contemplated that all members of the class will be bound by the ultimate ruling on the merits,” Sosna v. Iowa, 419 …

Curbing Day Laborers: Anti-Solicitation Ordinances, Commercial Speech, And Hiring Centers. A User's Guide To Protecting Municipalities From Day Labor-Related Lawlessness And Litigation, Jon D. Feere

Jon D Feere

As Americans across the country become increasingly frustrated by continuous violations of immigration laws, many legal groups aimed at suing city, state, and federal governments have been created with the hope that increased pressure will result in increased enforcement. Laws not originally designed to specifically address immigration issues, such as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), and basic laws of trespass are being used by the public to creatively fight immigration violations. At the same time, state and local governments are also discovering a need to act creatively in managing the massive increase of illegal immigrants moving into …

Retaliation After Burlington, David G. Karro

David G. Karro

This paper was written for a talk given to the District of Columbia bar on Title VII retaliation, generally, and on the Supreme Court's decision in Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. Petitioner v. White, 548 U.S. 53 (2006). I took the position that the decision promised much more for plaintiffs than it was likely to deliver.