David W. Garland, Member of the Firm and Chair of the firm’s National Employment, Labor & Workforce Management Steering Committee, was quoted in the Bloomberg BNA Daily Labor Report, in “Ford Turned to Trump Labor Pick Scalia to Fight Harassment Suits,” by Hassan A. Kanu. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
Republicans and many management-side lawyers have praised the Trump administration’s pick.
“No one, in my view, can fairly challenge his fitness for the role,” said David Garland, lawyer and chair of Epstein Becker Green’s national employment, labor & workforce management steering committee. “You might disagree with the positions he’s taken, but I have no doubt they’re always well grounded in his understanding of the statutes—and remember that he’s doing something in his role as an advocate for a client.” …
One ongoing class action … alleges that Ford’s hiring practices systemically discriminated against Latino and Hispanic job applicants.
Scalia argued that the suit should be dismissed on technical grounds. That pitted the nominee against the Trump administration’s EEOC, the federal agency that combats workplace discrimination. …
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that limits employers’ ability to rely on the technical defense Scalia is using, unless they raise it in the earliest stages of a lawsuit.
According to Garland, the defense strategy and arguments Scalia made aren’t particularly unusual.
“I see nothing troubling at all by the argument. Management attorneys are adverse to the EEOC on a daily basis. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that we don’t always agree with the EEOC’s position on matters,” he said. “Sometimes a court will say it’s right, sometimes they’ll say it’s not, and that’s why we have judges to decide.”
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