While I Was Vacationing, the Supremes Were Whistling At Work

It would have been kind of the Supreme Court to have waited to hand down their first employment law decision of the term until I returned from the beauty of the wine country. Fortunately, my colleagues at Ogletree, Deakins were hard at work and you can check out their analysis here, When Walking and Wages Collide.

One thing the case may tell us is that life under the Roberts court will be at a faster pace. Yesterday's decision in IBP v. Alvarez comes merely one month after the case was argued. And for those looking for any insight into how Chief Justice Roberts would either differ from or influence the court on employment law matters, hard to read much from this case since it was a unanimous opinion. Interestingly, the opinion, which would have been assigned by Chief Justice Roberts, was written by Justice Stevens, the senior member of the Court and a solid member of the "liberal" wing. For those who try to figure out what such minutiae mean, it could be the sign of a true consensus builder at work, or it could just be happenstance.