A Surprise Ruling from the Supreme Court
Posted by MEC on February 21, 2008
A unanimous Supreme Court ruling supported workers’ rights.
The unanimous holding reverses a lower court decision that had barred individuals from suing over losses related to mistakes and misconduct, and thus had insulated employers from lawsuits even as more U.S. workers came to rely on the savings accounts to help fund their retirements.
Even more surprising, Bush’s Labor Department was arguing the employees’ case:
The Labor Department and the solicitor general, who argues the Bush administration’s position before the Supreme Court, threw their weight behind LaRue. Assistant Solicitor General Matthew D. Roberts argued in November that any recovery by the plaintiff would benefit the company’s retirement plan as a whole in keeping with the law, known as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
I’m such a cynic. I can’t help but think this ruling has more to do with the You’re On Your Own-ership Society than — specifically, with shifting retirement from employer-provided pensions and Social Security to individual investments — than with the rights of workers.
