Employment Law Commentary Flash Update, October 15th 2007

In last week’s Employment Law Commentary Update on the Department of Homeland Security’s new regulation regarding Social Security No-Match letters (see ELC Update, October 2007; Social Security No-Match Letters: Mass Firings or No Big Deal? (Homeland Security’s New Regulation Enjoined for Now, September 2007), we indicated that a hearing on whether to continue the temporary injunction of the regulation took place on Monday, October 1, 2007 in San Francisco federal court. Yesterday, Judge Charles R. Breyer made his final ruling and issued a preliminary injunction preventing the government from enforcing the No-Match regulation.

In granting the motion filed by a consortium of labor unions and business groups, Judge Breyer found that the balance of harms tips sharply in their favor as there is "no doubt that the effects of the rule’s implementation will be severe." Judge Breyer recognized that the regulation would not only have "massive ramifications" on how employers treat No-Match