While the currently depleted Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4 in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, the latest challenge to public unions, activist anti-union litigants have had some success in recent years in restricting the efforts of organized labor to fight for living wages, gender and wage equality, and safe and stable workplace environments. With the Fight for $15 gaining steam, will unions grow in workplaces that are not traditionally organized? What role will unions play in the emerging “gig economy?” And how can organized labor prepare for coming challenges to union cornerstones such as exclusive bargaining agreements and renewed challenges to public sector unions? This panel will focus on what organized labor can do to continue fighting for workers’ rights.
Speakers -
Dorian Warren, Fellow, Roosevelt Institute; Board Chair, Center for Community Change; Host and Executive Producer of MSNBC’s Nerding Out (moderator)
Daniel DiSalvo, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute; Associate Professor of Political Science, Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, City College of New York –CUNY
Ruben Garcia, Professor of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas William S. Boyd School of Law
Richard Griffin, Jr., General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board
Judith Scott, General Counsel, Service Employees International Union; Partner, James & Homan PC
More than any other time in recent memory, access to justice may be at a tipping point. Until recently, with the help of courts and legislatures, proponents of class action bans and forced arbitration had a string of victories in their efforts to restrict the ability of consumers, employees, investors and others to seek redress for their injuries. In the past year, however, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a scathing report on the effect of forced arbitration clauses and a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking limiting their use. The change in the Supreme Court’s composition is leading corporate defendants to reassess class action appeals to what may now be a less business-friendly Court. How will this potential tipping point affect the ability of individuals and classes to assert their rights under consumer, anti-trust, securities, employment discrimination and wage-and-hours laws?
Speakers -
Lauren Guth Barnes, Partner, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP (moderator)
F. Paul Bland, Jr., Executive Director, Public Justice
Kalpana Kotagal, Partner, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
Eric Mogilnicki, Partner, Covington & Burling LLP
Suja Thomas, Professor of Law, University of Illinois College of Law
President Obama’s recent focus on American gun violence reflects—and is accelerating—the most significant change in gun politics in a generation. Since Sandy Hook, guns have gone from an untouchable “third rail” of politics to a central focus of the Democratic presidential primary. New frontiers in Second Amendment law have emerged after 'District of Columbia v. Heller,' and judicial decisions are imminent on key constitutional questions—like whether there is an unfettered right to carry guns in public, whether “assault weapon” bans and high-capacity magazine restrictions must be evaluated under strict scrutiny, and whether doctors can be prohibited from discussing guns with patients. What do lower court decisions since Heller tell us about the limits the Second Amendment may allow the government to place on gun ownership and use, and how has the recent shift in the gun debate affected both policymaking and judicial decisions?
Speakers -
Adam Skaggs, Senior Counsel, Everytown for Gun Safety (moderator)
Deepak Gupta, Founding Principal, Gupta Wessler PLLC
Alan Gura, Founding Principal, Gura & Possessky PLLC
Christine Van Aken, Chief of Appellate Litigation and Deputy City Attorney, San Francisco City Attorney’s Office
Adam Winkler, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Panlists -
J. Gerald Hebert, Executive Director and Director of Litigation, Campaign Legal Center (moderator)
Deborah Archer, Professor of Law; Co-Director, Impact Center for Public Interest Law; Dean of Diversity and Inclusion; Director, Racial Justice Project, New York Law School
Pamela Karlan, Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law; and Co-Director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, Stanford Law School
Justin Levitt, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Justice
Paul M. Smith, Partner, Jenner & Block
Vice President Joe Biden at the 2016 ACS National Convention denounced judicial obstruction and called on senators to do fulfill their constitutional duties.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) delivers a powerful speech at the 2016 ACS National Convention.
