Justives Back Paying Workers as They Suit Up

Justices Back Paying Workers as They Suit Up

The Associated Press writes about two issues that were brought to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. These two issues resulted in a Supreme Court ruling that companies must pay plant workers for the time it takes to change into protective clothing and safety gear and walk to their work stations. On of the issues was that some workers had to put on so much gear and that they spent an extreme amount of time getting changed, waiting in lines, and eventually walking to their stations. These workers felt that they should receive compensation for all the time spent doing this. The other issue is whether federal officials could be sued for negligence in an accident that happened in a copper mine. This article is important in light of course materials because it the shows an example of how law is changing and how it is effects everyone. It also shows a jurisprudence approach to law, and the rule of law.

Law is a social reality in the sense that it is real and all around us, it effects everyone in some way. Law is a power of its own once it is constructed and its effects are real; this is because law is made by people. Law in modern societies is seen as a body of norms that regulate the actions of institutions and individuals though specialized legal institutions. Because law affects identities and conditions of life, it allows for change within law. As discussed in class law can be changed due to technical causality. It looks at the relationship between organizations and other kinds of social variables. It is capable of being changed as it is made under certain circumstances. Once law is established it tends to support and reflect the conditions that gave rise to it. In regards to the article, it is visible of much law does change. This article is about the Supreme Court ruling that companies have to pay plant workers for the time it takes to put on their protective clothing and safety gear and walk to their work stations. But in regards to my statement about law changing, here is an example. In the article it states that 50 years ago the Supreme Court rules that workers in a battery plant had to be compensated for the time spent putting on their special protective gear. But, now its not about the time that the workers spend putting on the gear, but instead it’s the time spent walking from place to place, the justices had been told that workers would sometimes have long waits after already putting on the gear. So 50 years ago the Supreme Court thought that it was enough to compensate for the time it took to put on the gear. And now it’s been changed that they need to be compensated for time spend to actually put on the gear and then walk to their work station. Law often changes because a situation that occurred and gave rise to it. For instance the second ruling of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was questioning whether federal officials should be sued because of negligence. This came about because of an accident that had taken place in an Arizona copper mine.

The Jurisprudence approach to law is internally consistent and logical. Law is judicial decision making and reasoning based on legal principals and applied to particular cases. The reason I see this article as expressing the jurisprudence approach is in the way that it involves legal procedures and trial. In the article it explains how 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a ruling favored the workers of a meat processing plant. Then there was a second ruling by the court