Opinion recap: A “pick off” strategy works (SCOTUSblog)

[hue]

http://www.scotusblog.com/?p=162448

Analysis

Four dissenting Justices sarcastically suggested Tuesday that the Supreme Court had issued a decision that “aids no one, now or ever” and should simply be forgotten, but the majority did give employers a plan that worked this time to “pick off” the lead worker among a group whose pay has been docked in a way that may be illegal. And that plan might work again.

The Court reached that result in Genesis HealthCare Corp. v. Symczyk (11-1059) by declining to decide the issue that had been granted review, and moving on to wipe out any remaining claim that the first worker had for herself and for her co-workers in what is called a “collective action” under federal wage-and-hour law. The decision, with the majority opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas, split the Court five to four.

The Thomas opinion, although quite complex in its reasoning, in general showed again the impatience of the current Court majority with lawsuits based upon common claims of a group. The Court has issued a string of decisions narrowing the option of bringing “class action” lawsuits — including one recently that also involved reaching out to decide an issue that had not been put in issue. The Genesis HealthCare ruling extended the string to include employee group claims for pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The tartly worded dissent written by Justice Elena Kagan went to unusual lengths to dismiss the decision as meaningless, suggesting that readers should “feel free to relegate the majority’s decision to the furthest reaches of your mind: The situation it addresses should never again arise.”