Bonnette v. California Health and Welfare Agency
Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.
Status
More on how this was screened
Most later opinions used Bonnette's four factors or its broader economic realities approach. Many citations also note that the Supreme Court later overruled the governmental immunity test Bonnette discussed, which does not undo Bonnette's employer holding. Villarreal v. Woodham appears in two opinion records for the same Eleventh Circuit decision and is listed once. The full Guifu Li v. A Perfect Day Franchise opinion was retrieved on a second attempt and read. Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority was read directly: it cites Bonnette as an example of a case denying state immunity while overruling National League of Cities, but does not expressly overrule Bonnette.
54 later cases cite Bonnette v. California Health and Welfare Agency; 54 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.
Relying on Bonnette v. California Health and Welfare Agency?
This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.
Treatments
Declined to follow
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The Eleventh Circuit rejected use of Bonnette's four employer factors to decide whether a pretrial detainee working for a correctional facility was covered by the FLSA.
Villarreal v. Woodham · Eleventh Circuit · filed
We agree with this approach and adopt the reasoning articulated by the Seventh Circuit in Vanskike, 974 F.2d at 809-12, in rejecting the Bonnette four factor standard in the prison context.
Read the full opinion on CourtListener →
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