Law Commons^™

Are Employee Noncompete Agreements Coercive? Why The Ftc's Wrong Answer Disqualifies It From Rulemaking (For Now), Alan J. Meese

Faculty Publications

The Federal Trade Commission recently proposed a rule banning nearly all employee noncompete agreements (“NCAs”) as unfair methods of competition under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. The proposed rule reflects two complementary pillars of an aggressive new enforcement agenda championed by Commission Chair Lina Khan, a leading voice in the Neo-Brandeisian antitrust movement. First, such a rule depends on the assumption, rejected by most prior Commissions, that the Act empowers the Commission to issue legislative rules. Proceeding by rulemaking is essential, the Commission has said, to fight a “hyperconcentrated economy” that injures employees and consumers alike. Second, …

Don't Abolish Employee Noncompete Agreements, Alan J. Meese

Faculty Publications

For over three centuries, Anglo-American courts have assessed employee noncompete agreements under a Rule of Reason. Despite long-standing precedent, some now advocate banning all such agreements. These advocates contend that employers use superior bargaining power to impose such "contracts of adhesion," preventing employees from selling their labor to the highest bidder and reducing wages. Abolitionists also contend that such agreements cannot produce cognizable benefits and that employers could achieve any benefits via less restrictive alternatives without limiting employee autonomy.

This Article critiques the Abolitionist position. Arguments for banning noncompete agreements echo hostile critiques of other nonstandard contracts during antitrust law's …

Ptsd, Tbi, And Oth Discharges: A Case Study Of A Young Service Member, Patricia E. Roberts

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Self-Perception Of Disability And Prospects For Employment Among U.S. Veterans, Christopher L. Griffin Jr., Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Competition Policy And The Great Depression: Lessons Learned And A New Way Forward, Alan J. Meese

Faculty Publications

The recent Great Recession has shaken the nation’s faith in free markets and inspired various forms of actual or proposed regulatory intervention displacing free competition. Proponents of such intervention often claim that such interference with free-market outcomes will help foster economic recovery and thus macroeconomic stability by, for instance, enhancing the “purchasing power” of workers or reducing consumer prices. Such arguments for increased economic centralization echo those made during the Great Depression, when proponents of regulatory intervention claimed that such interference with economic liberty and free competition, including suspension of the antitrust laws, was necessary to foster economic recovery. Indeed, …

Assessing Post-Ada Employment: Some Econometric Evidence And Policy Considerations, John J. Donohue Iii, Michael Ashley Stein, Christopher L. Griffin Jr., Sascha Becker

Faculty Publications

This article explores the relationship between the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the relative labor market outcomes for people with disabilities. Using individual-level longitudinal data from 1981 to 1996 derived from the previously unexploited Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we examine the possible effect of the ADA on (1) annual weeks worked; (2) annual earnings; and (3) hourly wages for a sample of 7,120 unique male household heads between the ages of 21 and 65, as well as for a subset of 1,437 individuals appearing every year from 1981 to 1996. Our analysis of the larger sample suggests …

Consider The Source: When The Harasser Is The Boss, Susan Grover, Kimberly Piro

Faculty Publications

In Consider the Source, Susan Grover and Kim Piro argue for a change in the analysis that courts apply to determine whether actionable workplace harassment has occurred. They identify a gap in current doctrine, which allows courts to ignore the status of the harasser as co-worker or supervisor. The authors argue that harassment at the hands of a supervisor is necessarily more severe and pervasive than the same harassment by a coworker. As a result, they recommend that the harasser's identity as a supervisor or co-worker be treated as a necessary consideration when courts assess whether actionable harassment has occurred.

Erisa Preemption Doctrine As Health Policy, Joshua P. Booth, Larry I. Palmer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Redressing All Erisa Fiduciary Breaches Under Section 409 (A), Eric D. Chason

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Executive Compensation And Tax Neutrality: Taxing The Investment Component Of Deferred Compensation, Eric D. Chason

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Religion In The Workplace: A Report On The Layers Of Relevant Law In The United States, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Victorian Tort Liability For Workplace Injuries, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

The first decision of an injured worker suing his master for a workplace accident was reported in 1837, the year of Queen Victoria's ascension. The second Workman's Compensation Act, a comprehensive social insurance scheme, was passed in 1900, a few months before her death. The Article provides an initial account of the development of employers' liability to their servants for work-related injuries during the Victorian era. It demonstrates that English judges, and especially the Barons of the Exchequer, interpreted the law to resist employers' liability. The means these judges used included creating the defence of common employment, widely applying the …

Disability And Employment Discrimination At The Rehnquist Court, Anita Silvers, Michael E. Waterstone, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Disability, Disparate Impact, And Class Actions, Michael Ashley Stein, Michael E. Waterstone

Faculty Publications

Following Title VII's enactment, group-based employment discrimination actions flourished due to disparate impact theory and the class action device. Courts recognized that subordination that defined a group's social identity was also sufficient legally to bind members together, even when relief had to be issued individually. Woven through these cases was a notion of panethnicity that united inherently unrelated groups into a common identity, for example, Asian Americans. Stringent judicial interpretation subsequently eroded both legal frameworks and it has become increasingly difficult to assert collective employment actions, even against discriminatory practices affecting an entire group. This deconstruction has immensely disadvantaged persons …

Deferred Compensation Reform: Taxing The Fruit Of The Tree In Its Proper Season, Eric D. Chason

Faculty Publications

Executive pensions (or deferred compensation) grabbed headlines after Enron's collapse and fresh concerns over ever-increasing executive pay. They also grabbed the attention of Congress, which reformed executive pensions legislatively in 2004 with § 409A of the Internal Revenue Code. Section 409A merely tightens and clarifies the doctrines that had already governed executive pensions, leaving the basic economics of executive pensions unchanged. Executives can still defer taxation on current compensation until actual payment is made in the future. Deferral still comes at the same price to the employer, namely the deferral of its deduction for the compensation expense. Thus, the timing …

Emergency Preparedness And Disability, Michael E. Waterstone, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of The Home Office And The Dangerous Trades: Regulating Occupational Disease In Victorian And Edwardian Britain, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Same Struggle, Different Difference: Ada Accommodations As Antidiscrimination, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was heralded as an "emancipation proclamation" for people with disabilities, one that would achieve their equality primarily through its reasonable accommodation requirements. Nevertheless, both legal commentators and Supreme Court Justices assert that the ADA's employment mandates distinguish the ADA from earlier antidiscrimination measures, most notably Title VII, because providing accommodations results in something more than equality for the disabled. The Article challenges this prevalent belief by arguing that ADA-mandated accommodations are consistent with other antidiscrimination measures in that each remedies exclusion from employment opportunity by questioning the inherency of established workplace norms, and by …

Book Review Of Against Equality Of Opportunity, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Priestley V. Fowler (1837) And The Emerging Tort Of Negligence, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

Priestly v. Fowler has long been noted as the source of the doctrine of common employment. This Article, however, argues that the case is better understood in the context of the then-emerging independent tort of negligence-specifically, as an unsuccessful attempt to require of masters a duty of care towards their servants. The Article re-examines the facts, arguments, personalities, and various reported versions of the case in tracing the effort to establish a new duty of care. The Article traces, as well, to another case, Hutchinson v. York, the true origins of the common employment doctrine. Finally, the Article compares the …

After Ellerth: The Tangible Employment Action In Sexual Harassment Analysis, Susan Grover

Faculty Publications

In this Article, Professor Grover argues that courts too readily allow employers to avoid vicarious liability far supervisors' unlawful sexual harassment of subordinates. The Article explores the breadth of the affirmative defense first introduced in the Supreme Court's 1998 cases of Faragher v. Boca Raton and Burlington Indus., Inc. v. Ellerth. That defense clears an employer of liability for a supervisor's unlawful sexual harassment if (a) the employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any sexually harassing behavior, and (b) the plaintiff employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer …

Contract Rights And Civil Rights, Davison M. Douglas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Disability, Employment Policy, And The Supreme Court, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

War, Society, And Disability: Some Thoughts On Applying Under-Utilized Methodologies, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fulfilling The Bargain: How The Science Of Ergonomics Can Inform The Laws Of Workers’ Compensation, Jason M. Solomon

Faculty Publications

In the last decade, cumulative trauma disorders have become a significant percentage of reported workplace injuries and litigated workers'compensation claims. Arising from the accumulated impact of daily work activities on the body, these injuries do not fall neatly within "disease" categories which comprise workers' compensation laws. As a result, courts and legislatures have struggled to properly evaluate workers' compensation claims for these injuries. This Note looks at the legal treatment of cumulative trauma injuries in light of the "original bargain" of workers' compensation, where workers give up a tort remedy against their employers in exchange for guaranteed, but limited, compensation …

Hardball, Politics, And The Nlrb, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Labor Markets, Rationality, And Workers With Disabilities, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Empirical Implications Of Title I, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Civil Rights Act Of 1991 -- Employer Liability For Punitive Damages In Title Vii Claims, Angela M. Banks

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Business Necessity Defense In Disparate Impact Discrimination Cases, Susan Grover

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.