Is the Roberts Court Still "Pro-Business"?

Today's Washington Post notes that the Supreme Court does not appear to be as "pro-business" as it had a year or two ago. After the Court rejected Lily Ledbetter's pay discrimination claim and slashed the punitive damage award against Exxon for the Valdez oil spill, many commentators claimed the Court was "pro-business." Since then, however, the Court has often gone the other way, rejecting corporate claims that federal regulations preempt state tort suits in Altria v. Good and Wyeth v. Levine and siding with employees in several discrimination suits. I don't think this means the Court has shifted all that much. Rather, as I told the Post, it illustrates that much of the talk that the Roberts Court is a "pro-business" court was premature. And while the Roberts Court is still a work in progress, the pattern of decisions to date defies such simplistic labels.