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The United States Supreme Court ruled on Monday employers could block employees from joining together as a class to fight legal disputes in employment arbitration agreements in a win for employers and the Trump administration, according to CNN.
Justice Neil Gorsuch delivered his first major opinion since being named to the court last Spring for the 5-4 majority.
Analysts noted that this Gorsuch was the personality many Republicans and Democrats expected from his appointment.
"Not only is he endorsing the conservative justices' controversial approach to arbitration clauses, but he's taking it an important step further by extending that reasoning to employment agreements, as well," said Steve Vladeck, CNN contributor, and professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered a scathing dissent from the bench, citing the majority opinion in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis as "egregiously wrong."
"Congress has instructed that arbitration agreements like those before us must be enforced as written," he said.
"As the dissent recognizes, the legislative policy embodied in the (National Labor Relations Act) is aimed at 'safeguard[ing], first and foremost, workers' rights to join unions and to engage in collective bargaining," he wrote. "Those rights stand every bit as strong today as they did yesterday."
Gorsuch dismissed Ginsburg's claim that the court would bring back "yellow dog" contracts which prohibited employees from joining a union as a "false alarm."
This was one of the largest business cases of the current Supreme Court term and highlighted the ongoing dispute between employers who prefer to handle employee disputes through arbitration versus the employees who want to band together to bring their challenges and not face requirements to sign class action bans.
The case also put two federal laws against each other.
The first was the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) which gives employees the right to self-organization and "engage in concerted activities for the purpose of mutual aid or protection."
The second is the 1925 Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) Which allows employers to "settle by arbitration."
Lawyers for employers have long argued class actions waivers were permissible under the 1925 law and that the NLRA does not contain a congressional command which precludes enforcing the waivers.
The Trump administration reversed the position held by the Obama administration by supporting the employers in the case.
"Today's ruling is a major blow for the rights of employees, who almost never have enough of an interest, by themselves, to take the time and resources to litigate claims against their employers -- especially claims concerning underpayment of wages," Vladeck said.
-WN.com, Maureen Foody
"The court today holds enforceable these arm-twisted, take-it-or-leave-it contracts -- including the provisions requiring employees to litigate wage and hours claims only one-by-one. Federal labor law does not countenance such isolation of employees," she warned.