Category: Supreme Court

Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects President’s Recess Appointments in National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning

Today, in NLRB v. Noel Canning, a labor law case with much broader implications, the U.S. Supreme Court reached the same result as the D.C. Circuit – that the recess appointments at issue were invalid – but based its conclusion on different reasoning. This case arose when a 3-member National Labor Relations Board panel held that Noel […]

The Effect of DOMA’s Fall on Employment Law

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Defense Against Marriage Act is unconstitutional. This has some employment law implications. In states which recognize marriage equality, same sex spouses will have more rights. Let’s look at the FMLA first. The Family Medical Leave Act provides medical leave to employees to care for themselves or a […]

U.S. Supreme Court Limits Employee Rights Under Title VII.

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two opinons limiting an employee’s rights under Title VII. Title VII retaliation claims must be proved according to traditional principles of but-for causation, not the lessened causation test stated in §2000e–2(m). In University Of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar, the Court held that in retaliation cases – as […]

Want to go after the state under FLSA? You can’t do it, but Feds can.

A story in today’s St. Petersburg Times about a Department of Labor investigating the failure of a state agency to pay proper overtime, mentions lawsuits against the Department of Children and Families under the Fair Labor Standards Act. While the federal government can sue states for violation of the FLSA, the Supreme Court has held […]

Two Supreme Court Labor and Employment Law Decisions

– City of Ontario, California v. Quon. This case involved  a police officer’s text messages being reviewed by the City.  The  Court sidestepped the question whether public employees have an expectation of privacy, but in any event unanimously found that the city’s search of a worker’s text messages at issue in the case was reasonable […]