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Essay

Ambiguous Statutes

Saul Levmore
William B. Graham Distinguished Service Professor of Law, The University of Chicago Law School

I benefited greatly from conversations with Zak Rosenfield, Rosalind Dixon, and Julie Roin.

Imagine that a law school hired four new assistant professors, two from private practice and two from public interest positions. All four had numerous, remunerative, private sector offers of employment. The dean was eager to secure the services of all four, but the recruitment process was conducted with some budget constraints. The dean offered each a position with compensation equal to 10 percent more than earned in the candidate’s previous job, and all accepted. The two who arrive from private practice are men, and the others are women. The men are paid twice as much as the women. Do the women have a winning lawsuit?

TABLE OF CONTENTS
    Statutory Interpretation