Sonia Sotomayor’s Labor and Employment Record on Second Circuit Court of Appeals

We’ve looked at Sonia Sotomayor’s personal background. We’ve looked at her labor and employment law record as a federal district court judge. Now we look at her labor and employment law record in her current position, a judge on the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. My thanks to Laura Moore, one of our summer clerks here at Miller and Martin and a law student at Mississippi College, for her help with this post and several subsequent posts.

There are at least 15 officially reported or published cases for which Sotomayor has authored an opinion dealing with labor and employment law issues. This doesn’t include what may be the most controversial decision in which she was involved, Ricci v. DeStefano, 530 F.3d 87 (2d Cir. 2008).

Sotomayor didn’t author the opinion in that case (the so-called New Haven firefighters case), but she was one of the three judges who decided this case, without any judge actually being the author of the opinion. Because of the attention it has received and because the U.S. Supreme Court will decide this case, perhaps during Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, it will be covered in this series.

As mentioned above, the only cases surveyed on this blog will be those cases for which she authored the opinion, with the exception of the Ricci case. However, it should be noted that while on the Second Circuit, Sotomayor has participated in 156 labor and employment cases. Approximately 75 of these cases were decided in favor of the employer, and approximately 36 were decided in favor of the employee. The remaining 45 cases were decided on a purely procedural basis.

As was the case with the summary of Sotomayor’s district court cases, this summary isn’t intended to be comprehensive as much as it is intended to give you an idea of her approach to labor and employment law issues. As an appellate judge, she has dealt with cases in a way similar to the way she would deal with cases as a member of the Supreme Court.

Feel free to dig deeper on any of these cases, and please let me know if you think I’ve misinterpreted any of them in the posts to follow.

Ricci v. DeStefano, 530 F.3d 87 (2d Cir. 2008)

Norville v. Staten Island University Hospital, 196 F.3d 89 (2d Cir. 1999)

Cruz v. Coach Stores, Inc., 202 F.3d 560 (2d Cir. 2000)

Parker v. Columbia Pictures Industries, 204 F.3d 326 (2d Cir. 2000)

White v. White Rose Food, 237 F.3d 174 (2d Cir. 2001)

Layaou v. Xerox Corporation, 238 F.3d 205 (2d Cir. 2001)

Leventhal v. Knapek, 266 F.3d 64 (2d Cir. 2001)

Todd v. Exxon Corporation, 275 F.3d 191 (2d Cir. 2001)

Marcella v. Capital District Physicians’ Health Plan, Inc., 293 F.3d 42 (2d Cir. 2002)

Williams v. R.H. Donnelley Corp., 368 F.3d 123 (2d Cir. 2004)

Clarett v. National Football League, 369 F.3d 124 (2d Cir. 2004)

Henry v. Champlain Enterprises, Inc., 445 F.3d 610 (2d Cir. 2006)

In re Bethlehem Steel Corporation, 479 F.3d 167 (2d Cir. 2007)

Strom v. Siegel Fenchel & Peddy P.C. Profit Sharing Plan, 497 F.3d 234 (2d Cir. 2007)

Singh v. City of New York, 524 F.3d 361 (2d Cir. 2008)

Raniola v. Bratton, 243 F.3d 610 (2d Cir. 2001)

Stay tuned.

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To learn more about changes in the U.S. Supreme Court, changes in employment law in 2009 and what’s on the horizon in employment law for 2010, check out the Advanced Employment Issues Symposium being held in Nashville Sept. 17-18, 2009, and in Las Vegas on Oct. 29-30, 2009.