News & Commentary

August 18, 2017

Maddy Joseph

Maddy Joseph is a student at Harvard Law School.

In the week after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, news outlets explored federal and state laws governing job termination for political views.  Although some state or local laws go further, “federal law doesn’t offer any protection for expressing political views or participating in political activities for those who work in the private sector and don’t have a contract stating otherwise,” as The Atlantic summarizes.

Yesterday, the Second Circuit held that a customer’s price-fixing claims against Uber might be able to go to arbitration.  The court determined that Uber’s online user agreement provided “reasonably conspicuous notice” that disputes would be arbitrated.  As Bloomberg reports, this antitrust case is one of several that Uber has sought to keep out of court an in arbitration.  As we covered, the Ninth Circuit held in September that most of Uber’s driver arbitration agreements are enforceable.

A new report by Brookings’ Hamilton Project gives a “detailed snapshot” of the 24 million people of “prime working age” out of the labor force.  The study was motivated by the nation’s falling labor participation rate and concludes:

“The large number of adults who are not in the labor force is a puzzle that cannot be fully accounted for by factors like baby boomers aging out of the workforce, women engaged in caregiving, or recent college graduates delaying the responsibilities of adulthood.”

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