FAMILY MAN BRETT KAVANAUGH THINKS BUSINESSES SHOULDN’T BE LIABLE IF EMPLOYEES ARE EATEN ON THE JOB
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Supreme Court nominee has also overruled federal regulators 75 times, to the business community’s delight.
Since Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court, many have feared what a successful confirmation could mean for a host of issues, including abortion , guns , same-sex marriage , and health care . Equally worrisome, if one habitually loses sleep over the possibility of being scalped and dismembered by an orca? His exceedingly business-friendly views.
One fun example of the conservative judge’s take on workers’ rights is his dissent—the only one—in a case involving the SeaWorld trainer who was eaten by a killer whale during a performance in 2010 , the third time the whale had been “involved in a human death.” While his colleagues upheld a prior ruling that the theme park had violated safety standards by “exposing . . . trainers to recognized hazards when working in close contact with killer whales during performances,” Kavanaugh thought that was bullshit , writing that lots of sports are dangerous, but that doesn’t mean the Labor Department should use its authority to implement regulations aimed at minimizing the chances that trainers will be eaten in full view of paying customers. “When should we as a society paternalistically decide,” Kavanaugh asked , “that the risk of significant physical injury is simply too great even for eager and willing participants? And most importantly for this case, who decides that the risk to participants is too high?” Presumably B-Kavs, as we imagine his fellow Yalies called him, also believes that coal-mining companies shouldn’t have to comply with onerous rules intended to prevent mine collapses—because those miners know what they’re signing up for, dammit.
Unsurprisingly, Kavanaugh’s take on the SeaWorld incident didn’t go over well with labor unions and workers’-rights groups, many of which have opposed his nomination. (“Judge Kavanaugh routinely rules against working families, regularly rejects the employees’ right[s] to receive employer-provided health care, too often sides with employers in denying employees relief from discrimination in the workplace, and promotes overturning well-established U.S. Supreme Court precedent,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement.) But his opinion that trainer Dawn Brancheau basically had it coming is just one of many that scare people who value things like workers’ rights, clean air, and consumer protection.
It’s also one of many items on Kavanaugh’s résumé that the administration is touting to the business community, in the hopes that it will help push his nomination through, per Politico :
The White House on Monday immediately played up Brett Kavanaugh’s pro-business, anti-regulation record and is asking industry trade groups for help pushing his confirmation through the Senate . . . With Republicans holding only a sliver of a majority in the Senate, deep-pocketed business groups could have enough influence, especially in an election year, to help swing votes in Kavanaugh’s favor.
In a one-page document, which was obtained by Politico, the White House wrote that Kavanaugh has overruled federal regulators 75 times on cases involving clean air, consumer protections, net neutrality, and other issues. Most recently, in PHH Corp. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he favored curtailing the power of independent federal regulators.
“Judge Kavanaugh protects American businesses from illegal job-killing regulation,” the White House bragged in its e-mail, adding that “Kavanaugh helped kill President Obama’s most destructive new environmental rules,” and has “led the effort to rein in unaccountable independent agencies.” Indeed, the nominee has in fact written that “independent agencies pose a significant threat to individual liberty and to the constitutional system of separation of powers and checks and balances.” In a 2016 appellate-court case, he said that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was “unconstitutionally structured,” because its director cannot be fired by the president without cause, suggesting that, should it come to it, he’ll grant Acting Director Mick Mulvaney’s lifelong dream of seeing the agency burned to the ground .
Elsewhere, critics say that Kavanaugh’s time on the bench has been marked by “hostility to federal regulatory agencies trying to protect the environment.” According to Bill Snape, a senior counsel with the Center for Biological Diversity, Kavanaugh “sides with industry, he sides with deregulation, he sides with those who would have science be in retreat. He has been a dark force on the D.C. Circuit and now seems to have the opportunity to bring his bag of tricks to the Supreme Court.”
All of which, obviously, makes him the perfect candidate for Trump. Just something to remember should you work in an environment where you could be construed by colleagues as a tasty snack.
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Perfect pick for trump. Business friendly, worker hostile judge.
I don't understand the agitation over Kavanaugh.
He is exactly what we all expected. He is exactly what American voters knew would happen if Trump won in 2016. Those voters chose Trump (yeah, OK, a popular minority, but Trump isn't the first), so we have... exactly what we knew we would get.
It's kinda late to start worrying now...
We're fucked. Democracy in America is a zombie, still shuffling along, but already dead. Died in 2016.
Yep. And that's all on the silly Democrats and their foolish priorities and nominating an old and sickly walking disaster. There are rumors about that she might be considering a third go at the brass ring. Most likely more conservative Justices to come.
No. It's mainly on the people who are actively working to destroy democracy in favor of a plutocratic oligarchy.
The Dems' guilt is in not being sufficiently motivated to prevent the destruction. Their passive sins are far less grave than the proto-fascists' active sins.
Agreed Bob. That's why I've been focusing on who is really at fault in all of this. It's the Trump followers not Mr. Trump. What child doesn't see how far they are permitted to go? The Trump follower's refuse to hold him accountable so therefore everything that happens is completely their fault.
Yup!
Gee, Greg, that's an interesting ploy. Does that mean you didn't vote for the Mar-a-Lago Scumbag and don't support him because, if so, you sure do a great imitation of someone who's all in for it/him. And you're blaming Dems for the existence of the electoral college which has an unblemished record of putting total disasters into office every time it's been used? Please do elaborate on that. The American people chose someone other that President*Scumbag by a nearly 11 million votes and he's as unpopular now as he was before the 2016 election but it's the Dems fault he's in office. Once again, we learn how rightwingers simply do not have the responsibility gene.
And you're blaming Dems for the existence of the electoral college which has an unblemished record of putting total disasters into office every time it's been used? Please do elaborate on that.
Are you saying every president has been a total disaster? And what's this rubbish about 11 million people?
Sorry dude but I'm not Atheist, I'm Agnostic.
You're responding to the wrong person.
I am sorry, that is the best you can come up with is him his decision on Sea World?
1) The handlers were fully aware of the dangers of the particular whale involved.
2) It is a killer whale. If the name doesn't inspire those that work closely to them to take proper precautions; then they get to move to the front of the Darwin Award line. Sad thing is it happened three times.
Since when is it any judges job to make labor unions, or any organized group happy? Just look at him as an offset to Kagan and Sotomayor.
Why aren't the Democrats blasting their own party in the Senate for enabling the nuclear option on judicial nominees; which effectively renders them useless in getting the confirmation stopped?
Huge shock the left doesn't support the nomination. They wouldn't support it no matter who Trump named. They had repeated it every day since Kennedy announced his retirement.
So long as Kavanaugh doesn't legislate from the bench I will be happy. We already have 3 left justices that believe the laws should be warped to achieve their desired political leanings.
Yea. This is a bad example. There are inherent risks when working with animals that are accepted by the trainers. This isn't someone who didn't have safety gear.
Id like to see businesses not financially liable when an employee does something stupid like spit in someone's food etc ... the person should be held liable
Tired of that line. No matter how anyone cuts it, they decide law. So yes, they all legislate from the bench.
He's written the decision on 300 cases plus hundreds of other legal documents and articles. On top of that he's been deep in rightwing politics in the 2000 election fiasco, the Clinton impeachment (when curiously he had no hesitation to go after a sitting president but miraculously has had a change or heart, a big mover in W's administration and we know what a success that was). Fasten that seat belt. The roller coaster ride has not really started yet.
There has to be exceptions to standard workplace safety rules and employee liability for certain jobs that have a daredevil aspect to them. Getting in a pool with any Whale is risky (you could be crushed against the side by mistake) and if it's a Killer Whale that has already killed two people then as long as the employer informs the employee exactly what those risks are and the animals history then the employee is obviously agreeing to take the extraordinary risk. Many jobs like Race Car Driver. Stunt Man/Woman, Whitewater Rafting Guide, Skydiving Instructor could not exist if their employers had to shoulder full liability, these industries aren't profitable enough to pay the claims, the employees do these jobs for the love of the work with full knowledge and acceptance of the risks.
I’ll bet very few of his rulings were overturned on appeal.
It's obvious why Kavanaugh was nominated by this President*. There is only one issue that steered Trump his way, and that is his previous comments about litigating a sitting POTUS. Trump's endgame is as obvious as his hair is ridiculous.
Kavanaugh doesn't say, in the dissent, that Sea World is not liable.
His issue appears to stem from the department's disclaimer of any authority to regulate sports and entertainment, and the disparate treatment of this case and other similar situations. He also notes that this isn't on the same page as coal mining, logging, etc., where the Dept. certainly has authority.
Not buying it. The job with killer whales is not a sport so the analogy fails and if a state fails in it's duty then who is left to protect people?
Saying that there is no other option but state and local law is bullshit. Why have any federal over site at all was his point.
Oversight over orca's??
I copied and pasted his words. And, in the paragraph I pasted, he clearly and unambiguously says that congress could pass laws. Clearly, his position was not that this is a state or local matter.
Is it entertainment?
There is government regulations in place for marine life. From capture to handling and transportation, to socialization and even pool size and veterinary care. There is a lot more to it than so called entertainment.
They are unpredictable wild animals. It is no where near the same as a person jumping into their own car and driving around a track.
If you are talking about some idiot that jumped into the open ocean in the middle of a pod, I would agree with you. It is not.
It is a regulated industry where people kept being killed. There is a reason that there are zero public swimming with the orca pools.
BBL...
Are those OSHA regs that cover care, treatment, transportation, capture, etc. of the animal? No, because OSHA concerns employee safety. I'd agree that the trainer is an employee, but OSHA had disclaimed authority in similar areas. My beef with the seed is that it claims Kavanaugh ruled that employers should not be liable. That's not what he said. Nor did he say there was not room or authority for federal regulation.
FAMILY MAN BRETT KAVANAUGH THINKS BUSINESSES SHOULDN’T BE LIABLE IF EMPLOYEES ARE EATEN ON THE JOB
Well after all Soylent Green is considered take out food I believe.
I had to re-read that headline at least 4 times and still thought it was a miss print.
As they say, you just cannot make this stuff up:)
I wonder if he means this literally or.... Many years ago, before I married Mrs. Frost, I went down on a gal I worked with... Just sayin...
TMI!!!!!!!!!!!!!