Episode 61: Labor and Employment Law in an Era of Federal Rollback
The scaling back of federal administrative agencies by the Trump administration carries broad implications for the practice, administration, and enforcement of labor and employment law.
At the most fundamental level, the reality of 200,000 fewer federal employees creates a strong likelihood of much less frequent enforcement of federal labor and employment laws. And this drop-off in federal personnel comes amid judicial reconsideration of the constitutionality of the federal statutes and administrative agencies that animate the federal structure.
It is hard not to imagine that all of this rollback will produce federal vacuums. And because nature abhors vacuums, these spaces are likely to be filled. Perhaps with state law. Perhaps with new amalgams of federal and state law that will replace the surprising and often underappreciated amalgams that have existed up to now. In this episode, we are joined by Professor Michael Duff. Professor Duff is the director of the William C. Wefel Center for Employment Law and the organizer of this year's Saint Louis University Law Journal symposium cohosted by the center.