Diana Uhimov, July 16, 2014. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously invalidated three of President Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) as unconstitutional in its June 26, 2014 decision in National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning. Despite the fact that these Board members’ positions were filled by valid Senate-confirmed members in August 2013, this decision voids hundreds of NLRB decisions issued between January 2012 and August 2013, because the Board did not have a quorum.  The current Board is now obligated to revisit those decisions and either…

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Megan J. Muoio, July 10, 2014 The Supreme Court has already begun to line up cases for its term that will begin in October 2014. One of the petitions for certiorari (the formal request for Supreme Court appellate review) that the Court has approved recently is Mach Mining, LLC v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Court’s review will focus on the law regarding the steps the EEOC must take before filing a lawsuit in federal court against an employer. The case, which comes to the Supreme Court on…

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Nicholas Fortuna, June 4, 2014. The federal courts are struggling with what type of claims may be brought as a class action after the Supreme Court decisions in Comcast v. Behrand, (2013) and Wal-Mart v. Dukes, (2011). The latest battle is in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the matter of Jacob v. Duane Reade, Inc. regarding class certification of a wage and hour case. Wal-Mart established a stricter standard for what constitutes the required common claims within a class by mandating that the acts and/or decisions…

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Nicholas Fortuna, April 29, 2014. On April 22, 2014, in the case Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-2 to uphold a voter referendum outlawing affirmative action at Michigan’s public universities. In five separate opinions, the justices set out starkly conflicting views. The majority more or less said that policies affecting minorities that do not involve intentional discrimination should be decided by the voters not judges. Seven other states, including California, Arizona, and Florida have already stopped using preferences for racial minorities…

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Megan J. Muoio, March 26, 2014 On Tuesday, March 25, 2014, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in one of the most anticipated cases of the 2013-2014 Term – Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius, which were consolidated for argument. Both cases concern a challenge by a private, for-profit corporation to the ACA’s mandate that all covered employee health plans provide no-cost pregnancy-related services for women, which includes prescription contraceptives. Hobby Lobby is a national chain of craft stores with…

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Megan J. Muoio, January 29, 2014. On January 21, 2014, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Harris v. Quinn, a case that could have an impact on the future of public employee unions.  The case involves home-care workers in Illinois who, ten years ago, were permitted to unionize and were classified by the Governor of Illinois as state employees for the purpose of representation by the union.  According to the Attorney General of Illinois, the goal of unionization of the home-care workers was to create a professional…

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Nicholas Fortuna, January 22, 2014. Arbitration Favored Over Class/Collective Action Mandatory arbitration agreements in the employment setting gathered steam this year. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant held that mandatory arbitration agreements with explicit waivers of the right to bring a class or collective action are enforceable notwithstanding federal common law and federal statutes to the contrary (i.e. National Labor Relations Act). The Courts of Appeals have universally upheld the waivers and enforced employment arbitration agreements. This is true even when…

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Paula Lopez, January 2, 2014. After cautiously avoiding a ruling on the issue of the legality of state bans on same-sex marriage it is increasingly likely that the U.S. Supreme Court will be forced to decide this issue.  In Windsor v. United States, decided in June 2013, the Supreme Court struck down a provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) barring federal marital benefits to same-sex couples who had been married in states where same-sex marriages are legal. In its ruling, the Court expressly limited its holding…

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Nicholas Fortuna, January 2, 2014. In the last three weeks, two federal judges differed widely on the constitutionality and effectiveness of the National Security Agency program that collects data on virtually every call made to, from or within the United States. The N.S.A.’s bulk telephony metadata collection program was found to be constitutional in the Case ACLU v. Clapper, decided by federal Judge William H. Pauly III in New York. This decision comes a mere 11 days after federal Judge Richard J. Leon in Washington decided Klayman v….

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Nicholas Fortuna, November 12, 2013. Last week the Supreme Court curiously took oral argument on the meaning of clothes. Under a provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) the time spent “changing clothes” does not count towards the statute’s overtime provisions. The case brought by employees against United States Steel Corporation claimed that the time to put on overalls should count under the FLSA. The employees’ lawyer began his argument by listing items that would not be considered clothes: glasses, earrings, necklaces, wristwatches and toupees. He also included…

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