Benjamin Sachs is the Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at Harvard Law School and a leading expert in the field of labor law and labor relations. He is also faculty director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy. Professor Sachs teaches courses in labor law, employment law, and law and social change, and his writing focuses on union organizing and unions in American politics. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in 2008, Professor Sachs was the Joseph Goldstein Fellow at Yale Law School. From 2002-2006, he served as Assistant General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Washington, D.C. Professor Sachs graduated from Yale Law School in 1998, and served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. His writing has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Columbia Law Review, the New York Times and elsewhere. Professor Sachs received the Yale Law School teaching award in 2007 and in 2013 received the Sacks-Freund Award for Teaching Excellence at Harvard Law School. He can be reached at [email protected].
With the Court and Congress back in session for the first time since Justice Scalia’s death, attention has turned to President Obama’s choice of a nominee to replace the Justice. The President’s decision will have obvious implications for all of American politics and society – and it will have profound implications for workers and unions. In the days ahead, OnLabor will run a series of posts covering the labor decisions and positions of some of the likely potential picks.
Our goal is to highlight pieces of the labor records of those on the most prominent “short lists” of nominees. But the series will, of necessity, be limited in two important ways. First, the group of nominees we’ll cover comes from cobbling together a number of published lists, and our (unscientific) process for choosing among these lists – and among candidates on the lists – means that we’ve likely included some candidates who aren’t actually under consideration and that we’ve excluded some who are. Second, given the time frame and space constraints, we won’t be able to analyze everything – or close to everything – that’s potentially relevant to workers, unions, and labor more broadly. Our aim is to discuss things that seem important to us; we can’t (and don’t pretend to) cover everything that’s actually important.
The first post, coming soon, will discuss Judge Merrick Garland.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
May 24
A majority of House Representatives sign a discharge petition for the Faster Labor Contracts Act, and the House Transportation Committee adopts a railroad safety amendment in the Build America 250 Act.
May 22
U.S. employers spend $1.7B on union avoidance each year and the ICJ declares the right to strike a protected activity.
May 21
UAW backs legal challenge to Trump “gold card” visa; DOL requests unemployment fraud technology funding; Samsung reaches eleventh-hour union agreement.
May 20
LIRR strike ends after three-day shutdown; key senators reject Trump's proposed 26% cut to Labor Department budget; EEOC moves to eliminate employer demographic reporting requirement.
May 19
Amazon urges 11th Circuit to overturn captive-audience meeting ban; DOL scraps Biden overtime rule; SCOTUS to decide on Title IX private right of action for school employees
May 18
California Department of Justice finds conditions at ICE facilities inhumane; Second Circuit rejects race bias claim from Black and Hispanic social workers; FAA cuts air traffic controller staffing target.