Dec

24

Before the Sports Broadcasting Act: Professional Football Fifty Years Ago

Posted by: | December 24, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Warning:  This essay contains pure, unadulterated nostalgia for the professional sports regime of the middle third of 20th century America. I remember watching the 1960 World Series on television, but the first year that I really followed major league baseball was 1961, the year of Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle’s historic assault on Babe Ruth’s [...]

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Nov

29

How the NBA Should Have Handled the Recent Labor Dispute

Posted by: | November 29, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Most fans of professional basketball were probably delighted to learn of the recent agreement between the NBA owners and their players which will make possible a 66-game regular season beginning on Christmas Day. However, for fans of sports law (like myself), the resolution was disappointing.  Had the players’ antitrust suit gone to trial, followed by [...]

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Oct

20

Ombuds Perspective on Whistleblowing Laws

Posted by: | October 20, 2011 | 2 Comments

Last week, we had wonderful talk entitled Blowing the Whistle on Whistleblowing Laws.  Attorney Charles L. (Chuck) Howard is one of the few attorneys in the U.S. with extensive expertise in the legal issues of ombudsmen. Howard has a national practice in representing organizational ombudsmen at universities, multinational corporations, and research institutions.  His new book, entitled The Organizational Ombudsman: Origins, Roles [...]

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Aug

31

Notice to Employees of Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act

Posted by: | August 31, 2011 | 1 Comment

On August 30, 2011 the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) published a final rule in the Federal Register entitled “Notification of Employee Rights under the National Labor Relations Act” (“Act”).” See 75 Fed. Reg. 80411 (Aug. 30, 2011). Effective November 14, 2011 private sector employers subject to the jurisdiction of the Act are required [...]

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Jul

24

The Uncertain Future of Multiemployer Benefit Plans

Posted by: | July 24, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Multiemployer benefit plans, writes Paul Secunda, “once represented one of the greatest triumphs in American labor relations in providing employee benefits to workers of small employers in itinerant industries (such as in building and construction, trucking, retail, and the entertainment industry).” In a new paper on SSRN, Paul explores three major challenges facing multiemployer plans. [...]

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Jul

2

Diminishing the Harmful Effects of “Cultural Cognition” in Labor and Employment Litigation

Posted by: | July 2, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Our recent past Boden Lecturer Dan Kahan and his colleagues have developed a provocative body of empirical and theoretical scholarship on “cultural cognition” (see, e.g., his article here in the Marquette Law Review). Kahan’s basic thesis is that judges and other legal decisionmakers tend to perceive facts in ways that are congenial to their social [...]

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Jun

25

Ozanne v. Fitzgerald: Haste Makes Waste

Posted by: | June 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment

On June 23, I participated in a discussion concerning the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision in Ozanne v. Fitzgerald, 2011 WI 43, on the Wisconsin Eye public affairs show “Legally Speaking.”  Rick Esenberg and I continued our ongoing difference of opinion regarding this litigation, which seems to generate an endless supply of novel and contentious legal [...]

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Jun

19

Do Changes in Benefits for Public Employees Violate the Contracts Clause?

Posted by: | June 19, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Paul Secunda has a new paper on SSRN that considers under what circumstances statutory changes affecting public-employee benefits might violate constitutional restrictions on the impairment of contracts.  Paul particularly focuses on a very timely case study: Wisconsin’s recent budget-repair bill and its impact on city employees in Milwaukee.  Here is the abstract: The recent spate [...]

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Mar

22

Scattered Thoughts

Posted by: | March 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment

As we are all aware, these past couple of weeks have been a time of historic change for the state of Wisconsin.  The debate surrounding the changes proposed by Governor Walker in the Budget Repair Bill has been amazing for me to witness.  Rather than give my personal opinions regarding the content of the bill, [...]

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Mar

11

The Morning After: Lessons From the Wisconsin Budget Battle

Posted by: | March 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment

At last the end game has arrived for the budget bill, after more than three weeks of deadlock in Madison.  Indeed, it was obvious to everyone that the impasse could not persist, and that the only two options available were either a compromise (unlikely) or the eventual adoption of Governor Walker’s bill intact. Wisconsin’s largest newspaper, [...]

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Mar

4

Best of the Blogs: The Mess in Madison

Posted by: | March 4, 2011 | 4 Comments

This month’s Best of the Blogs feature takes a look at the budget debate in Madison.  In my opinion, it is myopic to focus solely on the budgetary aspects of the ongoing debate.  This is a raw political struggle, in which Governor Walker has attacked the primary source of campaign funding for Democrats.  The debate [...]

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Feb

14

Will MPS Get Squeezed Extra Hard?

Posted by: | February 14, 2011 | 1 Comment

We’re entering uncharted territory when it comes to school issues statewide. I think it was clear from pretty far back that Gov. Scott Walker and Republican leaders in the Legislature were going to push for state employees and for teachers across the state (who are not state employees, but the state can influence their job [...]

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