This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 30, 2009 - Speculation is rife over which U.S. Supreme Court justice might give President Obama his first appointment. Some of the speculation hasn't been very been nice, with much discussion about whether Justice John Paul Stevens, the oldest justice on the court, is the "FedEx" justice because he mails in his work from his Florida home. A former clerk, Edward Lazarus, wrote a book some time ago, breaking his vow of confidentiality. Lazarus, who clerked for Stevens between 1988-89 wrote in "Closed Chambers":
"As the weather grew colder, moreover, Stevens became increasingly an absentee — piloting himself and his wife to a condo in Florida for weeks at a time. For most of the winter, Stevens became the FedEx Justice, sometimes even telephoning his votes in to the Justices' weekly conference. That arrangement annoyed several Justices and, more important, deprived the Court of the liberal whose overtures the other side might have respected."
Other clerks have come to Stevens' defense in recent days, saying he did not "phone it in" when they clerked in the 1990s.
Lilly Ledbetter Law
The first law that President Obama signed was the so-called Lilly Ledbetter law making it possible for women and other victims of discrimination to sue even if they don't learn they were discriminated against until many years after the discrimination occurred. Ledbetter didn't learn until she was retiring that for many years she had been paid less than males in the same job at a Goodyear plant in Alabama. She found out when she received an anonymous note containing the information.
The Supreme Court ruled that Ledbetter's suit was too late because it was after the 6-month statute of limitations had a expired. The court said that the clock starting running on the statute when the first act of discrimination occurred.
The widely criticized ruling became a presidential campaign issue with Ledbetter cutting an effective Obama ad after John McCain said he would not support a law overturning the decision.
The new law makes each new paycheck a new act of discrimination. That has the effect of extending the statute of limitations in cases like hers. Nina Totemberg did a wonderful piece on the case this week and Michelle Obama hosted an interesting signing ceremony.
Rush Limbaugh blasted the law as trial lawyer's dream, the same tack as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. One business lawyer, Lawrence Z. Lorber, said that retired workers could complain that their pensions were too low because they were based on discriminatory pay.
Marcia Greenberger of the National Women's Law Center has said that the Supreme Court's reasoning in the Ledbetter case had been cited in about 300 lower court cases involving a variety of issues facing women, including the rights of women wrestlers at California colleges.
ProPublica, the new online investigative site, dinged Obama for signing the Ledbetter law too soon and, in the process, violating a pledge of transparency. Obama has said he would not sign laws before they had been posted on the Web for five days. He signed the Ledbetter law after just two days.
Lawyers Losing Jobs, Too
The ABA Journal reports that lawyers are losing jobs, too. It estimates that just under 1,500 employees of law firms have lost their jobs this month.
