Jon Harkavy Presents Annual Paper on SCOTUS Employment Law Decisions

On October 21st, at the 27th Annual North Carolina/South Carolina Labor and Employment Law CLE held in Charleston, South Carolina, Jonathan Harkavy presented his 2010-11 annual review of the Supreme Court’s employment law cases. His paper is entitled “Supreme Court of the United States Employment Law Commentary, 2010 Term.” (Please download his article from here.)

Introduction: The 2010 Term of the Supreme Court of the United States put a spotlight on the significant - though oddly unheralded - role that employment law plays in our country's economy and in our citizens' daily lives. One of the nation's keenest (and self-described "obsessive") Court observers recently characterized this term as "straight-up dull." Emily Bazelon, "Chamber of Pain," The New York Times Magazine, p. 9 (August 7, 2011.) My own judgment, however, is that what the Justices did in the employment area was consequential, if not downright exciting. Through a number of employment-related cases, a cohesive and assertive majority of the Court fashioned the law to fit its socio-economic (if not overtly political) view that the employment relationship ought to be deregulated. In doing so, the Court continued to pursue what the Reagan revolution began and the Tea Party followers hope to complete. But more about that later. For Court observers of all political stripes, the 2010 Term's smorgasbord of decisions provides a feast to be savored and debated for months to come.