Workers’ Complaints Need Not Be Written to Earn Protection, Supreme Court Says

[upstatecajun]

Source: The New York Times


WASHINGTON — Workers who complain to their employers about wage violations are protected from retaliation whether the complaints are oral or written, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday in a 6-to-2 decision.

The question in the case, Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote for the majority, was whether the phrase “filed any complaint” in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 applied only to written complaints.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/us/23scotus.html?_r=1&smid=tw-nytimespolitics&seid=auto

[happyslug]

1. Here is the Opinion, Thomas and Scalia dissented, Kagan abstained

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-834.pdf

Surprisingly Scalia's and Thomas's dissent, seems to accept the idea that a complaint may be done orally, but then Scalia and Thomas rejects the idea that a complaint to the Employer form an Employee is covered by the act. Scalia and Thomas wants to restrict such protection when a complaint is filed to complaint filed with an Agency or the Courts NOT with the employer. The Majority includes oral complaints to the Employer when it comes to the protection against retaliation by the employer for employees.

[QED]

2. Why did Kagan abstain?

[happyslug]

3. I suspect she was Solicitor General when this case was Argued.

Or she was involved in the litigation before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Either way, since she had represented a party in the litigation she did want is proper, abstain from ruling on the case.

As time goes on she will abstain less and less and the cases she worked on as Solicitor General works through the system.

Lets remember the Solicitor General of the United States is often called the "Tenth Justice of the US Supreme Court", the reason for this is if the Solicitor General asks the Supreme Court to review a case, most times the Supreme Court will review the case. No one else comes close to the rate of the Solicitor General when it comes to getting cases in front of the US Supreme Court. Thus a lot of the cases the US Supreme Court is hearing are cases Kagan as Solicitor General asked the US Supreme Court to take on.

More on the Solicitor General of the United States:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solicitor_General_of_the_United_States

[No Elephants]

6. You're guessing why she abstained.

[Citizen Worker]

4. My, my what a surprise. The serial lawbreaker and The Don voted against workers.

[Omaha Steve]

5. This is a win

Only as long as there are teeth in the enforcement!

K&R!

[RedCloud]

7. SC down to just two permanent dick heads?