Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal

Supreme Court Employment Law Cases 2001-02 Term
By
Rafael Gely

Abstract

The 2001-02 Supreme Court term was a busy one for those of us interested in the development of employment law. Eighteen of the 75 cases decided by the Court (24%), directly involved employment law issues. These eighteen cases almost double the number of employment law cases decided during the prior two terms. The decisions involved a variety of complex statutes and raised a wide variety of interesting issues. The objective of this article is twofold. First, the article summarizes each of the cases. The intent here is to provide those unfamiliar with the cases a brief review of the dispute leading to the Supreme Court intervention and a summary of the Supreme Court treatment of the dispute. Second, the article provides a "big picture" analysis of the various cases, by identifying trends, issues, interesting aspects and features of the Court's term. This analysis attempts to aid in our understanding of the patterns that might affect the Court's treatment of future employment law cases.