Program Information

Supreme Court Rules on Workers' Rights; Hobby Lobby and Harris v. Quinn

Series:

Subtitle:

Program Type:

Unspecified

Featured Speakers/Commentators:

Nicole Berner, SEIU Associate General Counsel; Richard Blum, Employment Law Project The Legal Aid Society

Contributor:

Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg Contact Contributor

Date Published:

July 5, 2014, 5:47 p.m.

Summary: Join us and our experts to analyze two of the most significant decisions by the Supreme Court ever regarding workers rights. The U.S. Supreme Court decided Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, that
employers can impose their religious beliefs on their workers through their business policies. Hobby Lobby, a for-profit, private, nationwide chain of arts-and-crafts stores, objects to providing contraception to its employees as mandated by the Affordable Care Act.
The implications of this case for women s reproductive rights and its potential for licensing discrimination in the workplace masquerading as freedom of religion are frightening. And then there s Harris v. Quinn, a First Amendment case involving home-care workers in which the Supreme Court decided that they do not have to pay fair share fees to the union who represents them. This case pitted public employee unions against labor's longstanding foe, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which helped bring the case. This case has been characterized as an attempted kill shot aimed at public-sector unions with serious spill over implications for private sector workers as well.

Credits: produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg

Notes: please email us if you plan to broadcast this program - knash@igc.org

Version 1: