SCOTUS COMING FOR UNIONS | Whistle-blowers Dealt A Blow
February 21, 2018
TIME GOES BY SO SLOWLY FOR THOSE WHO WAIT
|“Public-sector unions got a reprieve at the U.S. Supreme Court two years ago. Their time may be running out.” That’s Greg Stohr with Bloomberg previewing Monday’s oral arguments in the case of Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Emloyees. “The clash is as much about the value of unions as it is about constitutional rights. Union leaders say the ultimate goal of those pressing the case is to undermine the clout of the labor movement.”
BLOW THE WHISTLE
|Wall Street whistle-blowers were dealt something of a blow today when justices ruled unanimously that employees are not protected from retaliation if they blow the whistle on alleged corporate misdeeds without going to the SEC. This comes as a major victory for conservatives who argue that judges should interpret laws literally, and agencies should not be granted discretion to implement them differently.
MAKING A MURDERER
|The subject of Netflix’s “Making a Murderer” documentary, BRENDAN DASSEY, has asked the Supreme Court to throw out his confession he made more than a decade ago. His confession has been both affirmed and thrown out by lower courts and his lawyers are not arguing that the Supreme Court should weigh in.
OTHER NEWS
The Courts Are Unlikely To Have The Last Word On Gerrymandering
The Wall Street Journal“Should the court rule on partisan gerrymandering, the decision could remake U.S. politics. But the court may not have the last say, as the fate of a famous Supreme Court decision on congressional maps handed down more than 50 years ago reveals. Even after that substantial court ruling, partisanship defeated legal efforts to ensure equal representation, with unforeseen consequences that still shape our politics today.”
This Supreme Court Case Is The Biggest Threat To Organized Labor In Years
New York Magazine“Thomas is especially angry because the Second Amendment involves rights enumerated in the Constitution, as opposed to what he considers contrived pseudo-rights like the right to an abortion and the right of same-sex marriage, both of which he mocked the Court for caring about more than guns in his dissent. In a way, Thomas has a point: This relatively conservative Court has been far behind the rest of the right in exalting the Second Amendment as establishing a fundamental liberty interest in unregulated ownership of weapons.”