Camille Olson Quoted in Presstime Magazine

Camille Olson was quoted in the March 2006 issue of Presstime, the magazine of the Newspaper Association of America (“NAA”), in an article (“Alito Appointment Viewed as Good News for Media Companies”) which reviews the judicial decisions involving media issued by recently installed Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr.  Alito, the article states, is generally supportive of established media rights and is a defender of business interests; he has ruled favorably toward the media in First Amendment cases, but less so in cases involving the Freedom of Information Act. 

On labor issues, including those involving discrimination, minimum wage, and the Family Medical Leave Act, “the result ends up favoring the company,” states Camille, who is a member of the NAA’s Employee Relations Committee.

An example of Alito’s favorable rulings toward media companies details a case from 1994, when Alito was a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.  The issue involved overtime pay for reporters and editors who worked for a newspaper which, while part of a larger company, had a circulation of less than 4,000.  Alito dissented from the 2-1 majority that ruled that reporters and editors were not professionals under the Fair Labor Standards Act and therefore were entitled to overtime pay.  Alito’s dissenting opinion stated that the paper’s small size and separateness from the company’s other operations meant that the paper was not subject to any of the act’s requirements, including overtime pay for nonprofessionals.