FedSoc Forums

July has been a busy month for the Department of Labor (DOL). On July 6th, DOL published proposed revisions to the “white collar” overtime regulations which would more than double the minimum salary level required for exemption. On July 10th, DOL defended its 2011 tip credit regulations before the Ninth Circuit in Oregon Restaurant & Lodging v. Perez. Last week, on July 15th, DOL issued new guidance – an “Administrator’s Interpretation” – concluding that “most” workers are employees, not independent contractors. A decision on the validity of DOL’s home care worker regulations is expected any day from the D.C. Circuit in Home Care Association v. Weil, and in August, DOL is expected to issue a request for information on the use of electronic devices by overtime-protected employees outside of scheduled work hours. In this teleforum, the Bush Administration’s wage-hour team at DOL provided a briefing on these developments and discussed what else we can expect from DOL over the next 18 months. -- Featuring: Paul DeCamp, Jackson Lewis P.C. and Alexander J. Passantino, Seyfarth & Shaw.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 instructs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to study “the use of agreements providing for arbitration of any future dispute . . . in connection with the offering or providing of consumer financial products or services,” and to provide a report to Congress on the same topic. This past March, the CFPB issued its study, pursuant to the statutory requirement. Is the “arbitration study” an anti-arbitration study? Our experts discussed the report and its implications. -- Featuring: Mr. Deepak Gupta, Founding Principal, Gupta Wessler PLLC and Mr. Andrew J. Pincus, Partner, Mayer Brown LLP.

In her book, The Story: A Reporter's Journey, former New York Times reporter Judith Miller describes going to jail to protect her sources in the investigation of the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame over a decade ago. Her book catalogs new information that raises questions about the investigation. Bestselling author Arthur Herman led our discussion with the author. -- Featuring: Judith Miller, Author, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute and Dr. Arthur L. Herman, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute.

Tens of millions of Americans are between the ages of 18 and 30. These Americans, known as millennials, are, or soon will be, entering the workforce. According to Diana Furchtgott-Roth’s new book, Disinherited: How Washington Is Betraying America's Young, it will be more difficult for this millennial generation to achieve success than it was for young people in the past. Ms. Furchtgott-Roth presents the personal stories of several members of what she terms a “disinherited generation,” each story an indictment of America’s treatment of its young. The book declares that the birthright of America’s young must be restored, and endeavors to explain how. -- Featuring: Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and Hon. Eileen O'Connor, Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.

In his new book, By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission, acclaimed social scientist and bestselling author Charles Murray argues that the balance of power between government and the people has become too one-sided, in favor of the government. He argues that citizens across the political spectrum are suffering under the imbalance, and willing and able to act. The question, though, is what is to be done? His answer might surprise you. -- Featuring: Dr. Charles Murray, W.H. Brady Scholar, American Enterprise Institute and Adam J. White, Counsel, Boyden Gray & Associates.

During oral argument in Glossip v. Gross, Justice Samuel Alito pointed to what he called "a guerrilla war against the death penalty, which consists of efforts to make it impossible for the states to obtain drugs that could be used to carry out capital punishment with little, if any, pain[.]" The goal of these efforts, apparently, is to facilitate constitutional challenges to the death penalty by making its implementation more painful. -- This teleforum analyzed whether the efforts by death penalty opponents to pressure drug manufacturers to stop supplying drugs for use in execution--resulting in states resorting to execution methods that are more painful--are circumventing the democratic process in debating the death penalty. Specifically, our experts debated the methods used by those in opposition to the death penalty to shut down access to less painful execution methods, the propriety of complicating the death penalty's implementation, the relationship between that complication and constitutional challenges to the death penalty, and whether this amounts to treating the democratic process like a one-way ratchet: only permitting the people to choose more painful means of implementing executions so as to facilitate legal challenges to the death penalty. -- Featuring: Mr. Kent Scheidegger, Legal Director & General Counsel, Criminal Justice Legal Foundation and Prof. John Bessler, Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law

The Supreme Court issued a number of notable opinions in the area of criminal law during the recently concluded term. Members of the Federalist Society’s Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group Executive Committee offered their analysis on recent developments in the Supreme Court’s criminal law jurisprudence and fielded questions from a call-in audience. -- Featuring: John G. Malcolm, Director and Ed Gilbertson and Sherry Lindberg Gilbertson Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, The Heritage Foundation and Dean Mazzone, Senior Trial Counsel, Criminal Bureau, Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.

During the month of July, the Federalist Society will be celebrating Liberty Month. Our campaign is dedicated to public education and media awareness of the many pressing legal issues that affect the freedom of Americans. The Liberty Month program will include a daily spadea (half-page) insert in the Washington Times. Each insert will feature articles that discuss a specific court case or legal principle. To help kick-off liberty month, we welcomed Senator Mike Lee, who spoke about American Exceptionalism.

On June 25, the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision that the Wall Street Journal has characterized as a "Disastrous Misreading of the Fair Housing Act," ruling that disparate-impact claims are cognizable under the Fair Housing Act. The consensus of court-watchers predicted an opposite holding. Is the Court’s decision a broad endorsement of the government’s use of disparate impact theory? Our experts discussed the implications of the decision. -- Featuring: William Consovoy, Partner, Consovoy McCarthy PLLC and alph W. Kasarda, Staff Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation.

On June 29, with a contentious 5-4 decision in which numerous dissents and concurrences were read from the bench, the Supreme Court upheld the state of Oklahoma’s lethal injection procedure. Our expert discussed the opinion and its impact going forward. -- Featuring: Kent S. Scheidegger, Legal Director & General Counsel, Criminal Justice Legal Foundation