The first Monday of October marks the start of the Supreme Court’s 2014 term. This year’s term promises to be an exciting one for NFIB, with the Court set to hear nearly a dozen cases in which the NFIB Small Business Legal Center will be participating. Here are highlights from the Legal Center’s docket:
In Yates vs. US, the Supreme Court will have to decide whether or not John Yates, a fisherman who threw back three undersized fish, should be criminally prosecuted and imprisoned under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a law intended to stop corporate fraud. In its brief, the NFIB Small Business Legal Center argued that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was never intended to attack Americans for crimes unrelated to the destruction of records or documents. This case is an opportunity for the Supreme Court to rein in government overreach and halt over-criminalization.
The Court will first hear challenges to two states unconstitutional tax schemes: In Maryland v. Wynne, the Court will decide whether states must provide a credit against its own taxes for taxes a resident pays to another state. Maryland allows such a credit against its state income tax but not against its local county and city income taxes. In DMA v. Brohl, the Court will consider a challenge to a Colorado law that requires out-of-state retailers to provide confidential data on sales they make to customers in the state.
In an important employment case, Mach Mining v. EEOC, the Court will decide whether the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is required to engage in good faith settlement discussions prior to suing a business for discrimination. In its brief, the Small Business Legal Center told the Court that the agency’s aggressive ‘sue first and settle later’ strategy is bad policy and directly contravenes Congress’ intent to keep employment disputes out of court.
In addition to these pending cases, the Legal Center has filed briefs in several other cases and anticipates other opportunities to file briefs before the Supreme Court in the upcoming term. For the latest information on our Supreme Court involvement, go to www.nfib.com/legal.
