Supreme Court Notebook

Court says complaints don't have to be written WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court says employees don't have to write down complaints about illegal workplace conditions to receive retaliation protection from their employers. The high court made the ruling Tuesday. Kevin Kasten had complained to Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics that time clocks were in the wrong place. The company fired him and moved the clocks. Kasten sued and claimed retaliation protection under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The company, and the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said to get protection workers who have "filed any complaint" about workplace conditions must have written it down. The Supreme Court on a 6-2 vote overturned that decision. The case is Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, 09-834. Court says lawsuit over Zicam can continue The Supreme Court has agreed to let a group of investors sue the makers of the now-discontinued Zicam nasal cold remedies. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had overturned a lower court's decision to throw out investors' lawsuits against Matrixx Initiatives Inc. Investors had complained that they should have been told that Zicam might cause users to lose their sense of smell, even though there were no studies that conclusively proved that allegation. A federal judge threw out the lawsuit because there was no statistical proof at that time that the loss of smell was directly linked to Zicam. But the appeals court said the lawsuit should have been allowed to move forward and the high court agreed in a unanimous decision. Published: Wed, Mar 23, 2011