In his latest column for Bloomberg View, Ramesh Ponnuru takes on the argument that the Roberts Court has been excessively deferential to the interests of big business. I found this passage, on the recent Wal-Mart case, particularly interesting:
The Wal-Mart lawsuit would have classed roughly 1.5 million female employees as plaintiffs on the theory that by giving its store managers discretion over personnel, the company had exposed all of them to potential discrimination. Letting the case go forward — and thus letting similar cases begin — would have created a powerful incentive for firms to centralize their decisions even at the cost of efficiency. In contrast, none of the pro-business decisions have shut down established lines of litigation.
Corporate America could win 60 percent of the cases testing new theories for suing them and still steadily lose ground. [Emphasis added]
I never cease to be amazed by the extent to which people downplay or even ignore knock-on effects of this kind.