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Wednesday, May 2, 2012

A Look Ahead: The Last Decisions of the Supreme Court's Term

Last week the Supreme Court heard the final oral argument of the term in Arizona v. United States. With little more than two months left until the term officially ends, let’s take a brief look at the cases on the Corporate Court docket in which decisions remain outstanding.

In Christopher v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., the Court will decide whether courts should defer to the Secretary of Labor’s interpretation of “outside salesman” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), and whether the FLSA’s “outside sales” exemption applies to pharmaceutical sales representatives. During the oral argument on April 16, the justices seemed somewhat more inclined to side with the drug companies by holding that the sales reps fall within the “outside sales” exemption, which would mean they are not entitled to overtime pay. If the Supreme Court ultimately decides in the companies’ favor, it will not only constitute an earthquake in administrative law, it will also deny overtime to roughly 90,000 drug company employees.

In Knox v. SEIU, which was argued on January 10, the Court is considering whether unions must send a notice to workers every time they impose temporary fee increases to cover the costs of additional advocacy activities, rather than report those increases in annual notices as they already do. The Court could decide that the case is moot, as several months ago the SEIU sent all members of the class a $1 bill and a promise to pay one hundred percent of the charged fee increase. If the Court decides the case on the merits, however, and rules against the SEIU, it will erode the power of unions to fight back against new political attacks by making it harder to raise additional funds to respond.

The Court has not yet released its opinions in either of this term’s two cases arising under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 (“RESPA”). Enacted to protect consumers from overpriced insurance due to abusive practices like kickbacks, RESPA outlaws payment for business referrals.

In First American Financial Corp. v. Edwards, which was argued on November 28,  the Court is considering whether RESPA allows individual plaintiffs to recover charges for title insurance when the selling corporation has violated a provision of the Act, regardless of whether the plaintiff was overcharged. If the Court sides with First American Financial, it will weaken RESPA regulations and put consumers seeking title insurance at an economic and informational disadvantage.

In Freeman v. Quicken Loans, which was argued on February 21, the Court is considering whether RESPA prohibits unearned fees, regardless of whether a third party was involved in the improper fee arrangement. In this case, petitioners were charged loan-discount fees on their mortgages but did not receive the corresponding reduced interest rates. If the Court sides with Quicken, it will allow mortgage lenders to take hundreds or thousands of dollars from homebuyers without giving them anything in return.

And last, but certainly not least, the Court is likely to release its decisions in the remaining blockbuster cases of the term – the healthcare cases, argued on March 26-28, and Arizona v. United States, argued on April 25 -- around the end of June. More details on what is at stake in these two cases can be found at earlier guest blog posts by Professor Tim Jost (on healthcare) and Professor Angela Banks (on Arizona v. United States).

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