Tag Archives: Supreme Court of the United States

Join National Women’s Law Center for an Online Event with a Very Special Guest


Forty years ago and for the first time in the Fourteenth Amendment’s 103-year history, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that its Equal Protection Clause protected women’s rights.

To honor this landmark decision in Reed v. Reed and take stock of where constitutional protections for women stand today, the National Women’s Law Center will co-host a panel featuring special guest speaker Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Thursday, November 17, 2011 from 1:00 p.m. Eastern to 2:30 p.m. Eastern, entitled “Reed v. Reed at 40: Equal Protection and Women’s Rights.”

Register for the webcast and watch the panel live.   WWW.NWLC.ORG

The esteemed panel will be moderated by NPR’s legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg and will include:Jacqueline Berrien, Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission:
— Marcia Greenberger, Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center
— Earl Maltz, Professor at Rutgers University Law School, Camden
— Nina Pillard, Professor at Georgetown Law University
— Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was the principal author of the brief on behalf of the plaintiff in Reed v. Reed, will give concluding remarks.

Join the National Women’s Law Center and our co-sponsors — American University Washington College of Law, George Washington University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, Howard University School of Law, the University of the District of Columbia’s David A. Clarke School of Law, and the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia — for this special event.

Register to watch the live webcast of our panel “Reed v. Reed at 40: Equal Protection and Women’s Rights” on Thursday, November 17, 2011 from 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Eastern.   WWW.NWLC.ORG

We hope you’ll join us for this exciting event.

Sincerely,

Emily J. Martin
Vice President and General Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

P.S. Want to participate in the event on social media? Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook and watch live updates. You can also follow the conversation at #reedvreed.

Investigat​e Clarence Thomas & Restore Ethics on the Supreme Court


Nearly 45,000 activists have already signed our petition urging a DOJ investigation into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas‘ ethics violations. Please add your name now and help us get to 60,000 signers by the end of this week!    WWW.PFAW.ORG

New research by our allies has shed more light on the controversy over Justice Thomas’ failure to disclose his wife Virginia’s income on important judicial disclosure forms. The research shows that Justice Thomas knew enough about how to fill out the forms that he generally recorded his wife’s employment and earnings until 1997, when for some reason he just stopped. Since then, until recently correcting the forms, Thomas failed to disclose more than $1.6 million of his wife’s earnings, primarily from the ultraconservative think tank the Heritage Foundation.

This is just the latest revelation into why an ethics investigation of Justice Thomas is so needed, and why I am asking that you sign our petition to support calls by Rep. Louise Slaughter and her colleagues for the U.S. Judicial Conference to recommend the Justice Department launch an investigation now.

WWW.PFAW.ORG

Thanks! And after you sign, please help spread the word.

— Michael

Original Message:

Join the call for a Justice Department investigation into Clarence Thomas’ ethics violations.

Efforts to hold Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accountable for ethics violations just jumped to the next level.

A group of 20 House Democrats led by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) are now pushing for a Justice Department investigation into Justice Thomas’ possible serious violations.

Please sign our petition supporting the call for an investigation now.

The letter Rep. Slaughter and 19 of her colleagues sent was to the Judicial Conference of the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts. It urges the Judicial Conference follow the law and refer the matter of Justice Thomas’ non-compliance with the Ethics in Government Act to the Department of Justice.

Various reports have raised concerns about Justice Clarence Thomas’ seemingly flagrant disregard for important disclosure requirements under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978. Justice Thomas failed to disclose his wife’s earnings on judicial financial disclosure forms on which he was required to do so. And there are questions about his acceptance of gifts from interests with significant stake in several Supreme Court cases.

The Supreme Court’s very legitimacy and the public’s trust in the institution are under threat if Justices do not strictly adhere to ethical standards. It’s incredibly important that Justice Thomas’ violations are not ignored and that he be held accountable.

Hold Justice Clarence Thomas accountable — take action to support a DOJ investigation now!

Many of you have stood with our previous work to call out Justice Thomas for his conflicts of interest and the appearance of impropriety his actions have created. This is a significant escalation in those ongoing efforts, and it’s very important that you continue to stand with us.

After you sign, please help spread the word and recruit more Americans to this cause.

Thank you for your activism and your unyielding commitment to fair and just courts — the American Way.

Sincerely,

Michael Keegan, President

Up Close and Personal at the Supreme Court …a message from Fatima Goss Graves


As I sat in the Great Hall of the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday and watched the lead attorney for Betty Dukes, the former Wal-Mart greeter, argue on behalf of her and the other women of Wal-Mart, I was more certain than ever that their cause is just and must prevail. Wal-Mart v. Dukes illuminates the fact that equal pay and a fair shot at promotion are still a dream for many working women across the country.

Please help support the Center’s efforts on behalf of the women at Wal-Mart and all women and girls nationwide.

As you may know, the National Women’s Law Center co-authored an amicus brief in Wal-Mart v. Dukes on behalf of 32 other organizations, setting out why the sexist treatment of Wal-Mart’s female employees was clearly discriminatory and why the case is so important to working women everywhere.

If the Supreme Court gives the green light to the women of Wal-Mart to proceed as a class, as it should, it will mean that these women, who first filed their lawsuit 10 years ago, will have their day in court at last. They will finally have the chance to equalize pay and promotions at the country’s largest employer. And the Supreme Court will send an important message that no company is too big or too powerful to be held accountable.

Several years ago, the Center led a coalition pressing Congress to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and today that legislation is the law of the land. Now the Center is continuing the fight for fair pay. Through our work on the Wal-Mart case, advocacy, public education and much more, the Center will not rest until the job is done.

Please help support the Center’s efforts on behalf of fair pay for women and all the other issues on which we work.

On behalf of women and families everywhere, thank you for your generous help.

Sincerely,

Fatima Goss Graves

Vice President for Education and Employment

National Women’s Law Center

P.S. Please donate today. And you can also watch Center Co-President Marcia Greenberger discussing the case on ABC Weekend News, NBC Nightly News, and PBS NewsHour.

Supreme Court: The Chamber’s Genie


Ever since Chief Justice Roberts joined the Supreme Court, corporate America has treated his Court as its personal genie, and Roberts has been eager to grant even many of their most outlandish wishes. As soon as Roberts and his fellow conservative Justice Alito joined the high Court, the Chamber of Commerce’s win rate before the justices spiked eight percentage points above its already very high levels under his conservative predecessor William Rehnquist. Nor is Roberts alone in his willingness to go the extra mile for wealthy corporations. A recent study found that every single justice is more likely to side with the Chamber than the just ice who held the seat 25 years ago. As one of the Chamber’s top Supreme Court litigators bragged, “except for the solicitor general representing the United States, no single entity has more influence on what cases the Supreme Court decides and how it decides them than the National Chamber Litigation Center.” This week, corporate America made three especially large wishes to the justices, and the Court’s conservatives once again appear eager to grant them.

ELECTIONS FOR SALE: The best way for big business to push its agenda is to ensure that elected officials throughout the country owe wealthy corporations their jobs — and the Supreme Court took a big step towards making this vision a reality with its infamous Citizens United decision. In the wake of Citizens United, the Chamber pledged to spend a massive $75 million to elect corporate-aligned conservatives, and the Chamber’s right-wing allies kicked in hundreds of millions of dollars more. Yet Citizens United is merely one part of a much larger campaign to cement big money’s control over American elections. On Monday, the justices moved on to the next stage of this effort. Public financing laws provide one of the strongest defenses against the corrupting influence of big money in politics, but public financing schemes only work if they allow candidates who opt into them to remain competitive. To defend against this problem, Arizona developed a two-tiered public financing system. Candidates receive additional funds if their opponent or corporate interest groups overwhelm them with attack ads, and thus candidates who are determined not to be tainted by the corrupting influence of major donors are n ot left defenseless . Yet, in a case called McComish v. Bennett, the Court’s five conservatives appear poised to strike this two-tiered system down. If they do so, it could be the death knell for public financing, since no candidate is safe from massive infusions of corporate money after Citizens United.

SLAMMING COURTHOUSE DOORS: Many of the Court’s most corporate-friendly decisions create complicated and arcane procedural barriers to Americans seeking justice. The Court’s discredited Ledbetter decision didn’t literally take away women’s right to equal work for equal pay. It just created a procedural rule that made it impossible for women to vindicate their rights if they didn’t learn that they were paid less than their male colleagues until a short time after the discrimination began. In Wal-Mart v. Dukes, the Supreme Court will decide whether to shut off another opportunity f or women in the workplace to seek relief — class actions. Class action lawsuits are brought by groups of plaintiffs who share a common injury with each other. These suits are essential to allow ordinary Americans, who often lack the resources to hire lawyers capable of taking on a major corporation on their own, to pool their resources in order to hire counsel that are capable of facing off against someone like Wal-Mart. There is substantial evidence that women who work for Wal-Mart stores shared the same experience of systematic pay and promotion discrimination and thus should be able to bring a class action. If the Supreme Court denies them this right — which it seems likely to do — many of them will be left powerless before Wal-Mart’s legal team.

IMMUNITY TO THE LAW: Procedural victories are all well and good, but there’s nothing corporate America loves more than actual immunity from the law. Past Supreme Court decisions gave sweeping legal immunity to medical device manufacturers and health insurers, and even gave the thumbs up to a biased system of corporate-owned courts that overwhelmingly rule against consumers and employees. In a case called PLIVA, Inc. v. Mensing, the justices will now decide whether to give sweeping im munity to the makers of generic prescription drugs. If the Court sides with the drug makers in this case, two women could be left with no recourse after a prescription drug caused them to develop a horrific neurological disorder resulting in “grotesque involuntary movements of the mouth, tongue, lips, and extremities, involuntary chewing movements, and a general sense of agitation.” And thousands of other Americans could be left similarly defenseless against the powerful pharmaceutical industry.

Wal-Mart Manager Madness – Vote Now on the Sexist 16 Statements


Sex discrimination. In the workplace. It’s madness — right? Imagine hearing things like this at work:

If you would wear lower-cut shirts, you would probably get more pay. http://action.nwlc.org/site/R?i=HvaOesls0-FHTQ3cfXQKxA..   

The way I see it, a whore for a quarter is a whore for a quarter. http://action.nwlc.org/site/R?i=01ZMZ7SCfGr09L3YK77-jg..

Men are here to make a career and women aren’t. Retail is for housewives who just need to earn extra money. http://action.nwlc.org/site/R?i=ArxJU8ZkMvfNjVt3bse_ZQ..

Women working at Wal-Mart report that these were just a few of the absurd statements made by Wal-Mart managers. They are part of the record in the largest class-action fair pay case in history: Wal-Mart v. Dukes, which is being heard today in the U.S. Supreme Court. Reports like these from more than 100 women employees at Wal-Mart describe egregious stereotyping that may have resulted in lower pay and fewer promotions. It IS madness — in fact, it’s Manager Madness. http://action.nwlc.org/site/R?i=Kmy1ba182tFpC33GZDh_AQ..

Which sexist statement will reign supreme? We’ve seeded our own special March Madness bracket, and you get to determine the results. It’s up to you to decide — we’re pitting “Low Cut Shirts” manager against “Whore for a Quarter” manager — and more. Wal-Mart Manager Madness: The Sexist 16 is now open for voting! http://action.nwlc.org/site/R?i=vYGICmWgSg2Fp81UNOFQJg..

Voting opens today for the first round! Round 1 will have 16 of the “best” — er, “worst,” sexist statements available for your outraged perusal. Vote today — and every day, until we vote for our Sexist Slam-Dunk Final on Equal Pay Day (April 12th)!

It’s not every day that a case of such importance to working women goes before the Supreme Court! Today happens to be that day — oral arguments are happening right now in front of the country’s highest court, and we need to make sure these outrageous statements get the attention they deserve. Vote today! http://action.nwlc.org/site/R?i=bCiJsgUtkMRj1f-t0Srs2g..

Sincerely,

Fatima Goss Graves

Vice President for Education and Employment

National Women’s Law Center

P.S. As you’re voting, honor the brave women of Wal-Mart today by taking action to ask your Member of Congress to co-sponsor the Paycheck Fairness Act.