News & Commentary

December 6, 2017

Melissa Greenberg

Melissa Greenberg is a student at Harvard Law School.

This week the Supreme Court announced that it will allow the Trump Administration to implement the third version of its travel ban while suits challenging the order are litigated in the lower courts.  The two orders lifting the injunction represent a victory for the Department of Justice.  Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor indicated that they would have stayed the travel ban while it was litigated.

The New York Times reports that the Broadway League, a trade association representing a group of producers and theater owners, have filed an antitrust suit in federal court against a group of casting directors in New York City.  The casting directors have been organizing with the help of Teamsters Local 817 to gain access to health care and pension benefits.  The Broadway League alleges that the casting directors are not employees and therefore do not have the right to form a union for the purpose of collective bargaining.  As a result, the Broadway League is alleging that the casting directors have formed an illegal cartel.

As the flood of sexual harassment allegations continue and powerful men face the consequences of these accusations, the New York Times examines the diverging views of women regarding what the consequences should be for men accused of sexual harassment, the need to differentiate between different behaviors, and the role of men in this moment of calling out sexual harassment in the workplace.  The article also notes the differing views among younger and older women on the topic.  Slate covered a report by Fairygodboss, a website which provides women-focused reviews of employers.  Fairygodboss surveyed over 500 women and found that 43 percent of respondents had experienced sexual harassment at work.  Perhaps more surprisingly, the respondents reported that men ranging from 30 to 40 years old perpetrated most of the sexual harassment they had experienced, and most alleged perpetrators were colleagues rather than supervisors.  This finding challenged the notion of the sexual harasser as an older and more powerful colleague in the office hierarchy.

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