[Source: CalChamber] California voters passed Proposition 22 in November by a 59% majority. The ballot measure classified app-based drivers for companies such as Uber, Lyft, Postmates, and DoorDash as independent contractors and mandated that those companies provide certain benefits including guaranteeing at least 120% minimum wage during engaged time, payment per mile, health care coverage Read More…
Tag: supreme court
San Francisco trial court ruling a temporary setback for Prop. 13
[Source: Los Angeles Daily News] Recently, a San Francisco judge upheld the validity of a local special tax that failed to secure a two-thirds vote of the city electorate as required both by Proposition 13 (1978) and Proposition 218 (1996), also known as the Right to Vote on Taxes Act. Both initiatives were sponsored by Read More…
Supreme Court moves to limit state and local governments’ power to impose fines and seize property
[Source: The Washington Post] The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that the Constitution’s prohibition on excessive fines applies to state and local governments, limiting their abilities to impose fines and seize property. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, on just her second day back on the bench after undergoing cancer surgery in December, announced the decision for Read More…
State Supreme Court ruling protects employers, preserves workers’ comp exclusivity
[Source: CalChamber] The California State Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of employers finding that an employee’s tort claims against a doctor who reviewed workers’ compensation cases is preempted by the workers’ compensation law. In December 2016, the California Chamber of Commerce filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case of King v. CompPartners, Inc. (S232197), arguing Read More…
California vs. Trump ‘will be a giant case’ over air rules, could end up in Supreme Court
[Source: The Sacramento Bee] California and like-minded states are girding for a legal battle with the Trump administration on whether those states have gone too far in controlling greenhouse gases from automobiles, a prospective case that legal scholars say — barring a last-minute settlement — is sure to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. The Environmental Read More…
Brett Kavanaugh will mean challenging times for environmental laws
[Source: BuzzFeed News] In naming Brett Kavanaugh as his pick for the Supreme Court’s open seat, President Donald Trump is advancing a judge widely seen as unfriendly to environmental regulation. The seat opened in June with the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, providing an opportunity for Trump to tilt the court rightward for years to come. Kavanaugh, Read More…
The Energy 202: Kennedy’s retirement could bring a seismic shift to environmental law
[Source: The WashingtonPost/PowerPost] Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s announcement that he will soon step down from the Supreme Court sent shock waves through Washington on Wednesday. Should President Trump and Senate Republicans succeed in replacing the swing-vote jurist with a stalwart conservative, the ideological shift could bring seismic changes to federal environmental policy. As with so many other issues, Kennedy served as Read More…
Supreme Court rules employers can ban class action lawsuits in arbitration
[Source: POLITICO] The Supreme Court, dealing a potential blow to the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, ruled that employers can require as a condition of employment that workers waive their rights to participate in class action lawsuits. In a 5-4 ruling on a trio of cases penned by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the court’s Republican majority Read More…
California Supreme Court: OT rate for flat bonus must be based on nonovertime hours worked
[Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune] Except for executives, professionals, and others exempt from overtime rules, California employees are legally entitled to one-and-half times their “regular” hourly rate of pay for hours over eight in a day, over 40 in a week, and for all hours worked on the seventh day in a workweek. Non-exempt employees Read More…