Last time, we kicked off our review of the Court’s recent history with employment law cases.  Today and tomorrow, we’re reviewing the data for the years 2000 to 2018.

Between 2000 and 2009, the Court decided 21 employment law cases won by plaintiffs below and 29 cases won by defendants.

Next, we review the Supreme Court won-loss record of employment law defendants who prevailed at the Court of Appeal.  Between 2000 and 2009, winning defendants won fourteen cases at the Supreme Court but lost fifteen.

Employment law plaintiffs who had won at the Court of Appeal fared even worse, winning eight cases while losing thirteen.

Overall – meaning without accounting for the result at the Court of Appeal – employment law defendants won twenty-seven cases between 2000 and 2009 while losing twenty-three.

Next, we look at the data for the types of employment law issues the Court considered.  Between 2000 and 2009, the Court decided thirty-two cases primarily involving tort and contract liability, eight cases involving discrimination issues, only eight cases involving wage/hour and collective bargaining issues and four in our catchall category.

From 2000 to 2009, the Justices who most often supported the defendant’s position in employment law cases were Justices Baxter and Chin at 28 votes apiece.  Chief Justice George cast twenty-five votes for defendants and Justices Kennard and Werdegar each cast twenty-one votes for defendants.

The Justices who cast the most votes against employment law defendants’ positions were Justices Kennard and Werdegar at twenty-nine votes apiece, followed by Chief Justice George at twenty-six votes, Justice Moreno at twenty-five votes and Justices Chin (23) and Baxter (22 votes).

Finally, we reach the end of our period.  From 2010 to 2018, the Court decided thirty-five employment law cases – nine in 2010, four in 2011, three in 2012, three more in 2013, four in 2014, two in 2015, three each in 2016 and 2017 and four in 2018.  From 1990 to 2018, the Court has decided 109 employment law cases.

In recent years, the Court’s employment law docket has consisted overwhelmingly of cases won by defendants below – twenty defendants’ wins since 2010 to only ten cases won by plaintiffs below.  Since 1990, the Court has decided forty-six employment law cases won by the plaintiffs below to fifty-six defendants’ wins.

Join us back here tomorrow as we review the rest of the data for 2010-2018 as well as giving an overview of which Justices were more (and less) likely to side with defendants in employment law cases than the Court as a whole.

Image courtesy of Flickr by TDLucas5000 (no changes).