Use this button to switch between dark and light mode.

Expert: SpaceX, Walmart Wins Against DOJ Create "Brave New World"

April 05, 2024 (1 min read)

Ben Penn, Bloomberg Law, Apr. 5, 2024

"Justice Department efforts to prevent businesses from discriminating against work-authorized immigrants are in jeopardy after two courts sided with Walmart Inc. and SpaceX in declaring a little-known adjudication process unconstitutional. By halting DOJ’s internal judicial panel from considering the government’s immigration cases against the retail giant and Elon Musk’s spacecraft manufacturer, federal judges in Georgia and Texas have handed other employers new leverage to push back on investigations from a civil rights unit that’s been on an enforcement streak. That includes penalizing Apple Inc. a record-high $25 million in November. “We’re in a brave new world when it comes to anti-discrimination cases because of the Walmart and SpaceX decisions, and it’s going to take a while for this issue to get sorted out,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law professor at Cornell Law School. The court decisions are likely to serve as blueprints for additional companies to litigate rather than feel pressured to pay settlements when civil rights enforcers accuse them of denying jobs to refugees or Homeland Security agents allege they’ve committed employment verification errors, multiple immigration attorneys said."