(52 percent), the success of the big business agenda remained a consistent theme of the term’s most significant cases.
As this new term begins, there are already many cases on the docket that present an opportunity for that trend to continue, leading CAC Deputy Chief Counsel Brian Frazelle to explain, “The question is not whether the Justices are likely to give corporate America another winning term—instead, the question is simply how far they will go.” The stakes are high for the environment, workers, and civil rights.
In Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, the Supreme Court is considering whether oil and gas companies can be held accountable under Colorado law for the significant economic harm they’ve caused by exacerbating climate change. For example, record high temperatures stoked enormous wildfires in Colorado, uprooting people’s lives and causing millions of dollars in damage. As we explain in our brief, states have long had the authority to remedy harms their residents experienced from out-of-state bad actors, like polluters. The Court just heard oral argument last week, and while it is difficult to predict what the Court will do, Brian Frazelle noted after oral argument that “[e]ven some conservative Justices—whose rulings have overwhelmingly favored corporate interests and curtailed the ability of injured people to seek redress in court—questioned the counsel for the oil and gas companies about the vague boundaries of their position and its lack of clear grounding in precedent.”
In November, the Court will hear Department of Labor v. Sun Valley Orchards, an important case about legal protections for the farmworkers who put food on our plates every day. For generations, the United States has permitted farmworkers from other countries to work on American farms, often in dangerous conditions. In 1985, Congress created the H-2A farmworker visa, which is meant to ensure that visa recipients receive basic human rights. But Sun Valley Orchards, an asparagus farm in New Jersey, pressured H-2A workers to waive their rights, paid them less than promised, and provided only unsafe housing and unsafe transportation. When the Department of Labor (DOL) used administrative proceedings to impose penalties on Sun Valley, Sun Valley argued that the DOL had adjudicated its rights without a jury in violation of the Constitution. CAC filed an amicus brief explaining why Sun Valley is wrong.
Also in November, the Court will be hearing argument in Crowther v. Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. In that case, the state-run University System of Georgia is arguing that Title IX only provides students—and not employees—a private right to sue for sex discrimination, and the Chamber of Commerce is backing that claim. Our brief urges the Court to reject this argument. As our amicus brief explains, no reasonable person—let alone sophisticated repeat-players like the federally funded universities in this case—could lack clear notice that accepting federal funds creates the possibility of liability in Title IX suits for sex discrimination against employees.
Ultimately, in all these cases, big business interests are seeking to avoid accountability. And in all these cases, CAC is pushing back.
