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The vast majority of companies will now do this. Employees are doing the same thing, a few months ago it was surprisingly common for employees to accept but then decide not to join because they got a better offer.

In a way, this is what we want, at will employment and a highly liquid labor market leads to more fairness.

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The risk for rescinding offers is drastically larger for the employee than the employer. An employee most likely would of left previous employer, which means they currently do not have health insurance in United States, could of sold a house / terminated lease, canceled daycare or after school program, transferred kids school. Many of these things you cannot undo once done, and put you back to the back of the line. I sure hope companies that do this can never hire another person again.

For people who are on a visa, it's even more problematic as they may have to leave the country on short notice until they get another job.

Someone who has had their job offer rescinded has legal recourse. I would suggest anyone in this position contact an employment lawyer.

Given that is at-will employment in much the US I don't know how much recourse you can get, or how you would even calculate damages.

There is already well established precedent so you don't have to know, the judge will figure it out for you.

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