Supreme Court Watch: Social Policy Issues Overshadow the Court's Increasing Impact on Civil Law and Claims


Claims Management · February 2013 ·by Karen Kalzer

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2012 term provided significant drama with a number of social policy issues in its hands, including immigration law, the Affordable Care Act, voting rights, and campaign financing.  At first glance, the term appeared so full of high-level policy decisions that the impact on substantive claims evaluation seemed meager by comparison.

Yet such an impression would be mistaken.  In 2012, the court continued to emphasize and consolidate its authority to impact and define civil law in ways both small and large. On a large scale, the court issued a series of decisions reiterating the mandatory enforcement of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), despite lower court resistance and hostility to relinquishing judicial authority.

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About the Author


Karen Kalzer
(206) 689-2125
[email protected]

Karen Kazler practices employment and education law with an emphasis on defending complex litigation for communities of faith, non-profits, schools and private employers. She holds the CLMP designation and has been a member of CLM since 2010.