UST profs are friends of the court

Professors at the University of St. Thomas School of Law are making themselves heard at the U.S. Supreme Court this term.

Last week, the court heard argument in Young v. UPS, a pregnancy discrimination case. UST Professors Elizabeth Schiltz, Teresa Collett and Thomas Berg filed an amicus brief on behalf of 23 anti-abortion organizations and the Judicial Education Project, arguing that the Pregnancy Discrimination Act should be construed to give meaningful protection to working pregnant women from having to choose between their job and their unborn child. “The PDA also states that employers must provide pregnant women with the same accommodations that they provide to other employees who have the similar ability or inability to work,” they wrote.

This week, the court will hear arguments in United States v. Wong and United States v. June. Professor Gregory Sisk filed an amicus brief on his own behalf saying that statutes allowing suits against the federal government should be interpreted in ordinary terms and not read strictly in favor of the government, so that statutes of limitations in government cases are subject to equitable tolling.

“Remembering that the [Federal Tort Claims Act] is a waiver of sovereign immunity to permit tort suits against the United States, actions alleging tortious harm by federal actors ordinarily should proceed in a manner consistent with private party litigation, see 28 U.S.C. § 2674, and against “‘the backdrop of common law rules of tort law,’” Sisk wrote.

Photos courtesy University of St. Thomas

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