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     Saturday, July 04, 2009 - Updated 09:53pm CST    
 The Word     Employment Law Post    

Independence Day

July 3, 2009 at 8:29 am by: John Phillips

Last year on Independence Day, I posted the Declaration of Independence. I think it’s appropriate to review once a year one of the most important documents produced by our forbears or by any group of people in history. Since Independence Day, 2009, falls on a Saturday, I’m doing my Independence Day post a day early.

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Sotomayor’s Second Circuit ERISA Cases

July 2, 2009 at 12:28 pm by: John Phillips

Five of the Second Circuit opinions authored by Judge Sonia Sotomayor deal with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). ERISA cases aren’t considered as sexy as a lot of employment law cases, but the number of such cases is growing. The U.S. Supreme Court is occasionally asked to consider a case filed under this complicated statute. Getting a sense for how Sotomayor approaches ERISA is, therefore, useful.

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Time to End Discrimination Assumptions?

July 2, 2009 at 11:03 am by: John Phillips

This post could be a follow-up to my analysis of the Supreme Court’s decision in Ricci v. DeStefano. Its genesis is, rather, a recent article in the New York Times about a meeting attended primarily by female playwrights to hear the results of a year-long research project on gender bias in the playwriting business. Female authors have long had a tough time getting their work staged and were sure their predicament was caused by gender discrimination.

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While On Hold

July 2, 2009 at 7:20 am by: John Phillips

What do employees at all levels do when they’re on the phone and are put on hold? A variety of things, no doubt. As this video clip demonstrates, sometimes you need to close the door to your office, and sometimes you need to lock it.

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Sotomayor’s Second Circuit Decisions on Privacy and Workplace Searches

July 1, 2009 at 11:03 am by: John Phillips

Employee privacy is a hot button issue generally. Privacy in the workplace is also growing in importance: monitoring email, searching employee property, taping conversations, videotaping certain locations of the workplace, and surveilling employees during work hours and while off duty. (See post on recent Supreme Court decision.) Judge Sonia Sotomayor authored one opinion in this area. It, of course, doesn’t deal with all the sub-privacy topics, but it deals with a couple of them. More important, it provides insight to her thinking on this increasingly explosive issue.

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Implications of Supreme Court’s Strip Search Case for Employers

July 1, 2009 at 9:32 am by: John Phillips

In a previous post, I called attention to a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court about the legality of a strip search of a student at school. What the Court decides in such a case can always have implications for workplace privacy issues and employer search policies. The Court has now decided Safford Unified School District #1 v. Redding.

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Truman on Statesman vs. Politician

July 1, 2009 at 6:56 am by: John Phillips

There will be some who say that the day of the statesman has long past. I don’t know if I’m that pessimistic about it, but something Harry Truman said provides some humor for the subject and may actually solve the debate about statesmen vs. politicians.

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Impact of Supreme Court’s Ricci Decision on Sotomayor’s Possible Confirmation

June 30, 2009 at 1:49 pm by: John Phillips

In Ricci v. DeStefano. in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has said Judge Sotomayor was wrong to conclude that white firefighters hadn’t been discriminated against because of their race when the City of New Haven denied them promotions. What timing!

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Supreme Court Rules for White Firefighters in Discrimination Case

June 30, 2009 at 11:40 am by: John Phillips

As noted in two previous posts, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Ricci v. DeStefano would be important because of its potential to change the way discrimination cases are evaluated under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and because Judge Sonia Sotomayor was one of three judges who issued the decision being reviewed by the Supreme Court. (Click here and here.) The Court’s decision is now in. The majority of the Court disagreed with Sotomayor, issuing one of the most significant opinions ever under Title VII.

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Meetings = Big Drunk

June 30, 2009 at 7:56 am by: John Phillips

The above title may be a bit of an overstatement, but Cultural Offering provides us a cartoon that’s right on target.