"This precedent-setting ruling does not turn 'Eema and Mommy' into a married couple," she wrote.

Shaw then made a historic statement, replete with bias against the defendant, in which he made a precedent-setting ruling.

In legal circles these precedent-setting rulings are known as CalTrout I and CalTrout II, requiring adequate water for fish below dams.

The precedent-setting ruling is a boon to the former employees and executives, some of whom face potentially ruinous legal bills.

But Mr. Ruggiero's view is more typical of the old school of trade politics, under which a pragmatic settlement is far more satisfactory that a precedent-setting ruling.

In a precedent-setting ruling in June 1995, the United States Supreme Court invalidated Ms. McKinney's 11th District as an unconstitutional race-based gerrymander.

Mr. Osgood said that the court, over 300 years old, is conscious of its history, which is full of precedent-setting rulings.

"It's a precedent-setting ruling because the court recognized that people working at the pinnacle of television journalism are professionals," said Susan E. Weiner, an NBC lawyer who worked on the appeal.

A settlement before Wednesday would be likely to include G.M.'s withdrawal of the grievance in arbitration, which would forestall a precedent-setting ruling on the strikes' legality.

In 2009, Beinisch issued a precedent-setting ruling on the unconstitutional nature of the privatization of prisons.