Neil Gorsuch’s first major opinion is a decision allowing bosses to steal wages from their workers

The following article by Ian Millhiser was posted on the ThinkProgress website May 21, 2018:

Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee is exactly who you think he is.

Credit: Eric Thayer/Getty Images

The Supreme Court held on Monday that employers can force their employees to sign away many of their rights to sue their employers. As a practical matter, Monday’s decision in Epic Systems v. Lewis will enable employers to engage in small-scale wage theft with impunity, so long as they spread the impact of this theft among many employees.

Neil Gorsuch, who occupies the seat that Senate Republicans held open for a year until Donald Trump could fill it, wrote the Court’s 5-4 decision. The Court split along party lines.

Epic Systems involves three consolidated cases, each involving employment contracts cutting off employees’ rights to sue their employer in a court of law. In at least one of these cases, the employees were required to sign away these rights as a condition of starting their job. In another, existing workers were told to sign away their rights if they wanted to keep working. Continue reading “Neil Gorsuch’s first major opinion is a decision allowing bosses to steal wages from their workers”