As long-time baseball fans know, stadium groundskeepers have been using increasingly intricate mowing patterns to create fancy visual effects in the outfield grass. What they may not know is that the trend began here in Milwaukee at the old County Stadium in 1993. The whole story is detailed in this New York Times article. I wonder if the landscaping of new Marquette Law School building will prove similarly trend-setting?
As the calendar switches to October, readers will note two new features of this Blog. First, Judi McMullen takes over from Keith Sharfman as the Featured Blogger of the Month. Judi teaches and writes in the areas of family law, trusts and estates, juvenile law, alternative dispute resolution, and social science and the law. Second, we will have a featured question of the month for faculty contributors: “What should be the highest priorities of the next President in the areas of law that you teach?” Look for a series of responses from several different bloggers to this timely question over the course of the month.
In a first in the health care reform context, and in opposition to the Fourth Circuit’s holding in the Wal-Mart Bill case of RILA v. Felder, the Ninth Circuit has ruled in Golden Gate Rest. Ass’n v. San Francisco, No. 07-17372 (9th Cir. 9/30/08), that the San Francisco health care law is not preempted by ERISA.
From the BNA Daily Labor Report this morning:
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act does not preempt a San Francisco ordinance that requires medium and large employers in the city to make minimum health care expenditures on behalf of covered employees, either by paying into their own employee benefits plans or into a fund maintained and administered by the city, the Ninth Circuit holds . . . .
Writing for the court, Judge Fletcher says ERISA preemption is limited in areas that historically are matters of local concern, that employers subject to the city ordinance law lacked the sort of discretion that would render the program an ERISA plan, and that the ordinance does not “relate to” a benefit plan covered by ERISA.
The case has been watched closely by employer representatives and employee groups, which predicted the decision could have wide-ranging implications for the future of health care funding. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in a statement calls the ruling ”a huge victory for this city and the 46 million Americans who don’t have health insurance.” Business groups, however, call the decision “devastating” for small business owners.