Discrimination

  • February 28, 2025

    CVS, Catholic Nurse Settle Bias Suit Over Contraceptive Care

    CVS Health Corp. agreed to settle a former nurse's lawsuit alleging the company unlawfully tried to force her to provide contraceptive care to patients in violation of her Catholic beliefs, according to filings in Florida federal court.

  • February 28, 2025

    9th Circ. Says Risk Justified Firing Vax-Refusing Actor

    A split Ninth Circuit panel declined Friday to revive an actor's suit claiming she was illegally removed from a Starz Network show because she rejected its COVID-19 vaccine mandate on religious grounds, ruling her immunization status posed too much of a risk to the production.

  • February 28, 2025

    Advocates Step Up After EEOC About-Face On Gender Identity

    Two nonprofits taking up gender identity discrimination cases that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is abandoning offers a preview of the role that advocacy organizations will play defending transgender workers as the Trump administration attacks their rights, experts said.

  • February 28, 2025

    Calif. Restaurant Faces $1.1M In Penalties Over Unpaid Wages

    The California Labor Commissioner's Office hit a restaurant with more than $1.1 million in penalties over unpaid wages and violations of paid sick leave, including supplemental leave during the coronavirus pandemic, the office said.

  • February 28, 2025

    8th Circ. Won't Reopen Ex-USDA Worker's Race Bias Suit

    The Eighth Circuit on Friday upheld the U.S. Department of Agriculture's defeat of a Black former employee's lawsuit claiming she was denied work assignments and promotions because of her race, finding the worker hadn't shown that her race motivated the federal government's actions.

  • February 28, 2025

    7th Circ. Says It's Too Early To Mull Fired ISU Coach's Suit

    A Seventh Circuit panel says it lacks the jurisdiction to consider if a lower court rightly denied dismissal of a lawsuit brought by an ex-Illinois State University football coach who claims he was unlawfully fired for posting an "All Lives Matter" sign on his office door, because the district judge postponed a decision on the school officials' qualified immunity argument.

  • February 28, 2025

    Mich. Atty Says Ex-Firm Foiling Cases Over Retaliation Suit

    A lawyer urged a Michigan federal judge to pause matters in several state court cases as she alleged her former law firm, Olsman MacKenzie Peacock PC, is using the proceedings to retaliate against her for filing a sexual harassment and hostile workplace suit against it and another firm run by a well-known mediator.

  • February 28, 2025

    DA Eyes Type Of Weinstein Evidence That Sank 1st Verdict

    Manhattan prosecutors preparing to retry Harvey Weinstein want a jury to hear about alleged sexual assaults by the jailed Hollywood mogul that are not part of his indictment — the same kind of testimony that doomed his original conviction on appeal.

  • February 28, 2025

    Calif. Forecast: 9th Circ. Hears NLRB, UPS, Teamsters Dispute

    In the coming week, attorneys should watch for Ninth Circuit oral arguments in a labor dispute involving the National Labor Relations Board, a UPS subsidiary and an International Brotherhood of Teamsters local. Here's a look at that case and other labor and employment matters on deck in California.

  • February 28, 2025

    Morgan & Morgan Fired Worker For Vax Refusal, Suit Says

    Morgan & Morgan PA illegally fired a case manager who asked to be excused from the firm's COVID-19 vaccination mandate because of his Christian beliefs and autoimmune disorder, the former employee said in a suit filed in Florida federal court.

  • February 28, 2025

    Adobe Hit With Age Bias Claim By Former Sales Manager

    A former Adobe sales manager was sidelined and then fired after reporting a supervisor's comments on his age to human resources, according to a lawsuit filed in Massachusetts state court.

  • February 28, 2025

    Fired Welder Drops Sex Bias Suit Against Bezos' Blue Origin

    A former welder for Jeff Bezos' aerospace company, Blue Origin, dropped her sex bias suit claiming that she was paid less by the company because she's a woman and that a supervisor told her she was a "welder in a man's world."

  • February 27, 2025

    States Say DOD Transgender Ban Puts Public Safety At Risk

    Twenty-one states on Wednesday threw their support behind transgender service members and human rights organizations challenging the Trump administration's executive order banning transgender people from serving in the military, arguing that it will harm their efforts to protect their communities.

  • February 27, 2025

    Unions Can Depose DOGE In Agency Access Suit, Judge Says

    The Department of Government Efficiency must tell a group of unions whom it's sent into the Department of Labor, the Department of Health & Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and what computer systems they've accessed, a D.C. federal judge ruled Thursday.

  • February 27, 2025

    Advance Auto Can't Nix EEOC Race Harassment Claims

    A Florida federal judge said Thursday that Advance Auto Parts can't toss race harassment claims from a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit claiming LGBTQ and Black workers faced mistreatment at one of its stores, ruling the agency didn't need to limit the suit to an initial charge's allegations.

  • February 27, 2025

    6th Circ. Upholds Tenn. Utility Co.'s Disability Bias Suit Win

    The Sixth Circuit backed a Tennessee utility company's win over a former power-line repairman's lawsuit claiming he was unlawfully forced to retire because he experienced occasional seizures, finding Thursday that his health condition posed a serious safety issue and couldn't be accommodated.

  • February 27, 2025

    2nd Circ. Won't Revive School Psychologist's Vax Bias Suit

    The Second Circuit backed the dismissal of a school psychologist's suit claiming her school district illegally placed her on leave when she objected to its COVID-19 vaccination and testing policies on religious grounds, ruling her request to work remotely to get around the policy would have been too burdensome.

  • February 27, 2025

    Paralegal Accuses Morris Manning Of Race, Disability Bias

    A former paralegal in the Atlanta office of Morris Manning & Martin LLP hit her old firm with a lawsuit this week alleging that the firm fired her last year to avoid having to pay her while she was out on extended medical leave.

  • February 27, 2025

    Ga. Plant Denies Alleged Atty Bribe, Claims Letter Was Fake

    The finance director of a now-shuttered Georgia manufacturing plant did not pen a letter offering to bribe counsel representing a brother and sister in a federal discrimination lawsuit, according to a Thursday response to a sanctions bid that points the finger for the allegedly fraudulent missive at unidentified disgruntled former employees.

  • February 27, 2025

    DOL Pick Faces Scrutiny About DOGE From Senate Dems

    President Donald Trump's nominee for deputy labor secretary faced intense questioning about "the sheer incompetence" of the administration's actions in what otherwise might have been expected to be a less controversial U.S. Senate confirmation hearing Thursday.

  • February 27, 2025

    ACLU Swoops Into Trans Bias Suit After EEOC Backtracks

    The American Civil Liberties Union asked a Michigan federal court Thursday for permission to intervene in one of the transgender discrimination suits that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is abandoning due to Trump administration orders.

  • February 27, 2025

    5th Circ. Backs Texas Medical Center's Race Bias Suit Win

    The Fifth Circuit refused to revive a Black researcher's suit claiming a University of Texas medical center fired him because he complained that a supervisor made offensive comments and impeded his work, finding he'd failed to identify a non-Black employee who was treated better.

  • February 27, 2025

    Former Seyfarth Partner To Chair DOL's Review Board

    The U.S. Department of Labor tapped a former Seyfarth Shaw LLP partner with more than 25 years of experience on employment and immigration law to be chair of the Administrative Review Board.

  • February 27, 2025

    Judge Gives CIA Green Light To Fire Intelligence Officers

    A Virginia federal judge knocked down a request Thursday from a group of CIA officers for a temporary restraining order that would have blocked their firings, following President Donald Trump's executive order directing federal agencies to terminate diversity, equity and inclusion officers.

  • February 26, 2025

    DOJ Drops Suits Over Police, Firefighter Discriminatory Hiring

    The U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday it was dropping lawsuits across the country over allegedly discriminatory practices for hiring police officers and firefighters, saying the litigation "unjustly targeted fire and police departments for using standard aptitude tests."

Expert Analysis

  • Regulating AI: Litigation Questions And State Efforts To Watch

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    In view of the developing legal and regulatory framework for artificial intelligence systems in the U.S., including state legislation and early federal litigation, there are practical takeaways as we look toward the future, says Jennifer Maisel at Rothwell Figg.

  • Regulating AI: An Overview Of Federal Efforts

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    The U.S. has been carefully managing a national policy and regulatory ecosystem toward artificial intelligence, but as AI technology continues to expand into our everyday lives, so too has its risks and the need for regulation, says Jennifer Maisel at Rothwell Figg.

  • Justices' Job Transfer Review Should Hold To Title VII Text

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's upcoming decision in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis should hold that a job transfer can be an adverse employment action, and the analysis should be based on the straightforward language of Title VII rather than judicial activism, say Lynne Bernabei and Alan Kabat at Bernabei & Kabat.

  • Employer Tips For Fighting Back Against Explosive Verdicts

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    Massive jury verdicts are a product of our time, driven in part by reptile tactics, but employers can build a strategic defense to mitigate the risk of a runaway jury, and develop tools to seek judicial relief in the event of an adverse outcome, say Dawn Solowey and Lynn Kappelman at Seyfarth.

  • Handbook Hot Topics: Changing Status Quo In A Union Shop

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    A recent administrative law decision concerning a dispute between Fortune Media and the NewsGuild of New York is an important reminder to employers with unionized workforces to refrain from making unilateral updates to employee handbooks that will change the terms and conditions of employment, says Jennifer Hataway at Butler Snow.

  • What EEOC's 2023 Stats Mean For Future Enforcement

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    The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s unusual burst of spring lawsuits and its new Democratic majority should cue employers and HR personnel to expect EEOC enforcement activity to ramp up to pre-pandemic rates, especially in regions where filings are on the rise and in those areas the agency appears to be targeting, such as workplace discrimination, say Andrew Scroggins and James Nasiri at Seyfarth Shaw.

  • Eye On Compliance: A Shift In Religious Accommodation Law

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    The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Groff v. DeJoy is making it more difficult for employers to deny religious accommodations, and there are three takeaways employers should keep in mind, say William Cook and Matthew High at Wilson Elser.

  • Tick Tock: When Punctuality Raises Employee ADA Questions

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    A recent viral TikTok video — where a user claims they were disrespected by a potential employer when inquiring about accommodations for difficulty with being on time — shows that even in the most seemingly questionable situations, there may be legitimate issues that require Americans with Disabilities Act considerations, says Daniel Pasternak at Squire Patton.

  • Tips For Making And Maintaining Employee Resource Groups

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    Employers should consider creating employee resource groups to create a workplace that can flourish in the new remote work reality, and keep in mind three best practices to avoid potential legal pitfalls and challenges that come with them, say Tyler Paetkau and Catarina Colón at Husch Blackwell.

  • Employer Pointers From Tiger Woods' Legal Dispute With Ex

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    Ex-girlfriend Erica Herman's sexual harassment suit against Tiger Woods, which was recently sent to arbitration, highlights the need for employers to understand their rights and responsibilities around workplace relationships, nondisclosure agreements and arbitration provisions, say Stephanie Reynolds and Sean McKaveney at Fisher Phillips.

  • Equinox Bias Verdict Shows Swift Employer Response Is Key

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    A nearly $11.3 million jury verdict against Equinox in New York federal court shows just how high the stakes are for employers dealing with harassment and discrimination in the workplace, and how important consistent investigation and discipline are when responding to individual internal complaints, says Jennifer Huelskamp at Porter Wright.

  • A Midyear Review Of EEOC's Gender-Related Priorities

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    The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s 2023-2027 strategic enforcement plan focuses on various gender-related issues such as the enactment of pregnancy discrimination and pay transparency laws, and now, more than halfway through the fiscal year, the EEOC's enforcement of such laws is set to surpass previous years, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Employer Drug-Testing Policies Must Evolve With State Law

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    As multistate employers face ongoing challenges in drafting consistent marijuana testing policies due to the evolving patchwork of state laws, they should note some emerging patterns among local and state statutes to ensure compliance in different jurisdictions, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.