Is Retribution Worth the Cost?

SHERRY F. COLB

Cornell law professor Sherry F. Colb discusses the four purported goals of the criminal justice system—deterrence, incapacitation, retribution, and rehabilitation—and argues that retribution may preclude rehabilitation. Colb considers whether restorative justice—wherein a victim has a conversation with the offender and talks about what he did to her and why it was wrong—might better serve the rehabilitative purpose than long prison sentences do.

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The Other Epidemic

KATHRYN ROBB

Kathryn Robb, executive director of CHILD USAdvocacy, comments on a public-health crisis that is getting relatively less attention right now: the scourge of child sex abuse. To address this crisis, Robb calls for greater public awareness, stronger laws protecting children, and legislative action

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Harris v. Union Pacific Railroad Co.

Docket: 19-1514

Opinion Date: March 24, 2020

Judge: Raymond W. Gruender

Areas of Law: Class Action

The Eighth Circuit reversed the district court's order certifying a class under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 23(b)(2) and (b)(3), holding that the district court abused is discretion in finding that plaintiffs met the cohesiveness, and predominance and superiority requirements. In this case, plaintiff and other current and former employees of Union Pacific moved to certify a class action for a claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The district court granted a hybrid class defined to include all employees who have been or will be subject to a fitness-for-duty evaluation because of a reportable health event from September 18, 2014 until the end of the case. The court held that the individualized inquiries in this case cannot be addressed in a manner consistent with Rule 23; determining whether the policy is job related and consistent with business necessity requires answering many individual questions; both the text of the ADA and the record evidence demonstrate that the district court would be required to consider the unique circumstances of each position in question to determine whether the policy is unlawfully discriminatory; and thus these individualized questions defeated both predominance and cohesiveness.

Vigeant v. Meek

Docket: 18-3616

Opinion Date: March 24, 2020

Judge: James B. Loken

Areas of Law: ERISA

Plaintiffs filed a putative class action against former trustees of the Lifetouch Plan, the Board, and Lifetouch, alleging claims under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of the amended complaint for failure to state a claim. The court held that, because plaintiffs failed to plead a plausible breach of the duty of prudence by the trustee defendants, the district court properly dismissed their duty to monitor claims against the Board and Lifetouch because those claims cannot survive without a sufficiently pled theory of an underlying breach.