This is Big

I had dinner this week with one of my cousins, Angela Sierra, Deputy Attorney General for the State of California. She updated me on a case she has been supervising for quite a while now, Chamber of Commerce of the US v. Brown. Turns out that since we last spoke, she has argued and won in front of the Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc (that's 15 judges!). The United States Supreme Court has now granted certiorari. So, she will argue the case in front of the US Supreme Court in 2008. Way to go, Angela.

The case is about federal preemption and First Amendment doctrine. About as far away from software law as you can get.

The question in the case is whether a California law controlling the use of state funds conflicts with national labor policy as expressed in the National Labor Relations Act. Specifically, two provisions in a California statute forbid employers who receive state grant or program funds in excess of $10,000 from using those funds to assist, promote or deter union organizing. The Ninth Circuit held that California’s grant and program fund restrictions do not undermine federal labor policy, are not preempted by the NLRA and do not violate the First Amendment.

This is one of those state's rights cases that put conservative Supreme Court justices between a rock and a hard place. If a justice affirms the power of California to make the law, he or she is voting in favor of a pro-labor statute. On the other hand, to strike down the statute would be a vote against state's rights.

Maybe I can to get some tickets to watch in Washington, or maybe I'll just show up on the courthouse steps and rush the door!

Here's a page with some more information, including some papers.

http://www.lawmemo.com/supreme/case/Chamber/