Constant Readers,
First, let me thank all of y'all who sent me the 9th Circuit's recent ruling. I got about 10 of them in the span of four minutes after the ruling was posted - and I am very happy knowing so many of you are looking out! (Muah!)
Here's what happened: After the District Court Judge ruled against the City and struck down the employer contribution provisions of the HCSO, the City did two things: (1) it filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit (this is a one-page document telling the appeals court and the opposing party that it wants to appeal the lower court's judgment); and (2) it filed an Emergency Motion for Stay Pending Appeal. In the Motion for a Stay, what the City Attorney asked for was an order by the Circuit Court that would "stay" (i.e. prevent) the District Court ruling from taking effect until the appeal in the Ninth Circuit can be ruled upon. The parties have already agreed to an expedited appeal process, so the estimated time the appeal process will consume is 6-8 months. (Trust me, y'all, that is A LOT faster than usual!)
What happened today is that the Motion for a Stay was granted, so the HCSO gets implemented as if the District Court decision had never happened. Read: employers have to pony up. (Note that there has not been a decision on the underlying appeal of the District Court's ruling - though there really can't be much doubt about how that will go in light of today's ruling.)
The GGRA could appeal the decision and that would likely stop the contribution requirement for a bit while the appeal is ruled upon. Such a decision is being mulled as I type this. On the one hand, I want the GGRA to appeal the decision because we are rolling out a huge mess that may not be possible to roll back later. On the other hand, I am eager to see how this sucker works. And I don't have any employees, so, whatev.
Personally, I am a bit surprised by the ruling. (Of course, like I wrote before, no one can predict the Ninth Circuit.) Given the douchy behavior of at least one of the judges during the hearing, we could see that the court was prolly going to rule against the GGRA on the merits of the appeal, but granting a stay is a pretty extreme measure. Ah well. So now we know that the Ninth Circuit will grant the City's Appeal. Then there will be a "split" in the circuits (the Fourth Circuit already struck down a law that looks a whole lot like this) and one of the ways to get before the Supreme Court is to have such a split. Since businesses all over the nation are having a collective heart attack right now at the prospect of this happening in their city, and employees-rights groups will rush to copy our system, there will be a lot of pressure for the Supreme Court to take this up. And the Supreme Court ain't no Ninth Circuit.
And yes, my next post will be about something else. For now.
--Melissa
Our Melissa takes on the 9th..nothing sweeter in the world--considering pompous a****** who make up the court
Posted by: :Sting: | January 10, 2008 at 00:31