Discrimination

  • April 23, 2025

    EEOC's Lucas Brings On Former Christian Biz Group Leader

    Acting U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Andrea Lucas has selected the former leader of a Christian employers group that has clashed with the agency in court to serve as her chief of staff.

  • April 23, 2025

    FordHarrison Adds Fla. Employment Pro From Bush Graziano

    Management-side labor and employment firm FordHarrison LLP announced this week that it bolstered its Tampa ranks with a new partner from Bush Graziano Rice & Hearing PA.

  • April 22, 2025

    Trump Appointees Raise Eyebrows At Trans Troop Ban

    Despite a panel made mostly of Trump appointees, the D.C. Circuit seemed skeptical Tuesday morning as it heard out the government's argument for why it should be allowed to implement its ban on transgender troops in the military while litigation challenging that policy plays out.

  • April 22, 2025

    Justices Urged To Deny Jan. 6 Cops' Bid To Shield Identities

    The U.S. Supreme Court should reject an appeal from Seattle cops who joined the Jan. 6 "Stop the Steal" demonstration in D.C. and now want to stay incognito, according to a former law school student on Tuesday who sought police records identifying the officers and who said U.S. Supreme Court rules require the officers to seek relief in Washington state court. 

  • April 22, 2025

    Ga. County Freed From Court Worker's Age, ADA Bias Claims

    A Georgia federal judge ended a lawsuit against Fulton County, Georgia, brought by a former juvenile court employee who said her firing constituted age and disability discrimination, ruling Tuesday that there was no dispute it was the court — not the county — that she should have sued.

  • April 22, 2025

    6th Circ. Rift Highlights Split On Law Limiting Arbitration

    A Sixth Circuit panel's recent disagreement on the breadth of a federal law curbing employers' use of mandatory arbitration provisions for workers' sexual harassment and assault claims stems from unusual language in the statute that has and will continue to spawn confusion, experts said.

  • April 22, 2025

    Ex-Prof Cuts $1.6M Deal In Childhood Gender Dysphoria Row

    Six University of Louisville academic officials have agreed to pay about $1.6 million to end a former psychiatry professor's suit alleging he was unconstitutionally pushed out as punishment for his views on treating childhood gender dysphoria, according to court filings and the professor's counsel.

  • April 22, 2025

    'Bizarre' Emails Sink Ex-Prof's ADA Suit, 2nd Circ. Affirms

    The Second Circuit refused Tuesday to revive a disability bias suit from an English professor who said a community college failed to renew her contract because of her heart ailments, crediting the school's argument that "bizarre" emails from the teacher prompted its decision.

  • April 22, 2025

    Wells Fargo Worker Wants Disability Bias Suit Kept In Play

    Wells Fargo cannot shut down a senior finance manager's lawsuit alleging she faced backlash after she sought to work remotely because of health issues, the employee told a North Carolina federal court, saying she put forward enough detail to show she suffered discriminatory actions.

  • April 22, 2025

    ​​​​​​​Litigation Firm Says Ex-Client's Subpoena Warrants Sanction

    The New York-based employment litigation boutique that represented a former Kirkland & Ellis LLP attorney in her now-settled sex discrimination suit against the BigLaw firm has asked a California federal court to quash a subpoena she filed seeking confidential firm information and sanction her.

  • April 22, 2025

    Minn. YMCA Inks $140K Deal To End EEOC Harassment Suit

    A Minnesota YMCA said in a court filing Tuesday that it has agreed to pay $140,000 to resolve a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit claiming it failed to take action when a male manager sexually harassed female employees, some of whom were teenagers.

  • April 22, 2025

    In Trump Standoff, Harvard Has Law And Money On Its Side

    With strong free-speech arguments and plenty of cash at its disposal, Harvard University appears better positioned than most Trump administration foes to win a high-stakes and closely watched showdown over threats to cut off funding, experts told Law360.

  • April 22, 2025

    Wells Fargo 'Sham' Hiring Suit Delayed For Mediation

    A California federal judge agreed to move deadlines in a proposed investor class action accusing Wells Fargo of conducting "sham" job interviews to meet diversity targets that later triggered a stock drop when the practice was revealed, citing plans to attempt mediation in May.

  • April 22, 2025

    Religious Carveout Can't Shield Aid Group From Gay Bias Suit

    A religious humanitarian nonprofit violated Maryland law by terminating health insurance for a gay ex-worker's husband, a federal judge ruled, saying a statutory exemption for religious organizations didn't apply because the former employee's data analyst job didn't support the group's core mission.

  • April 22, 2025

    Dunkin' Manager Says He Was Asked His Age, Then Fired

    A former district manager for the nation's largest Dunkin' independent franchise operator said he was fired two weeks after getting out of the hospital for a chronic medical condition, and just hours after his supervisor asked him his age.

  • April 21, 2025

    BofA And Merrill Lynch Strike Deal In Gender, Race Bias Suit

    Bank of America and subsidiary Merrill Lynch have settled a gender and race bias suit from two Black financial advisers who claimed the companies supported policies that handed more opportunities to white, male workers, according to a New York federal court filing.

  • April 21, 2025

    Pay Transparency 'Growing Pains' Offer Lessons

    Pay transparency litigation in Washington state highlights the enforcement challenges associated with defining who is a job applicant and offers lessons to other jurisdictions on how to balance these laws' goals with facilitating compliance, attorneys say.

  • April 21, 2025

    EEOC Advances Suit Over Deaf Nurse's Rescinded Job Offer

    A Maryland federal judge refused to toss the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's disability bias suit claiming a Baltimore-area hospital rescinded a job offer it had made to a deaf nurse only after she requested accommodations, saying key facts of the case are still in dispute.

  • April 21, 2025

    Harvard Sues Trump Admin Over $2B Funding Freeze

    Harvard University on Monday hit the Trump administration with a suit in Massachusetts federal court, escalating a high-profile battle after the government slashed more than $2 billion in funding amid allegations the elite school has failed to properly address antisemitism on its campus.

  • April 21, 2025

    NJ Panel Revives Ex-Group Home Worker's Whistleblower Suit

    A New Jersey appeals court reinstated a group home worker's lawsuit alleging she was fired for raising concerns about staffing levels and training, reasoning Monday that she met the pleading standards for the state's whistleblower law.

  • April 21, 2025

    NBA Wants Some Details Sealed In Fired Refs' COVID Suit

    The NBA has urged a New York federal court to issue a ruling protecting private medical records and other information about employees not in involved a lawsuit brought by former referees, who alleged they were terminated after refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine even though they requested religious exemption.

  • April 21, 2025

    CBS, Male Writer End Bias Suit Over Diversity Quotas

    CBS Studios Inc. and its parent have agreed to end a lawsuit brought by a straight white male freelance writer who accused CBS of discriminating against him by repeatedly choosing to hire more diverse candidates for writer roles, according to a stipulation filed in California federal court Friday.

  • April 21, 2025

    Fired Claims Co. Exec Says Pay Bias Led To Her Ouster

    A claims management company paid a former executive less than three of her male colleagues with the same work duties, then fired her after she filed a charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, she told a Georgia federal court.

  • April 21, 2025

    Sacramento State Prof Can Take Race Bias Claims To Trial

    A California federal judge is sending race bias claims by a Black lecturer at Sacramento State University to trial, finding a jury needs to parse through his allegations that a colleague may have attempted to sabotage his application to a tenure-track role on the basis of discrimination. 

  • April 21, 2025

    Va. City Says It Wasn't Employer Of Atty Bringing FMLA Suit

    An attorney cannot sustain his lawsuit accusing the city of Martinsville, Virginia, of unlawfully firing him after he requested leave to care for his mother, the city told a federal court, saying it had no power to terminate him because it was not his employer.

Expert Analysis

  • Title VII Compliance Lessons From Raytheon Age Bias Suit

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    A Texas federal court’s recent refusal to dismiss age discrimination claims from a former Raytheon employee, terminated after he admitted to acts that Raytheon says violated its harassment policy, nonetheless illustrates strategies employers can use to protect themselves when facing competing Title VII workplace obligations, say attorneys at Segal McCambridge.

  • How The Presidential Election Will Affect Workplace AI Regs

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    The U.S. has so far adopted a light-handed approach to regulating artificial intelligence in the labor and employment area, but the presidential election is unlikely to have as dramatic of an effect on AI regulations as it may on other labor and employment matters, say attorneys at Littler.

  • Eye On Compliance: ADA Accommodations For Obesity

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    As the classification of "obesity" as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act continues to evolve, employers should note federal district and state court deviations from U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidelines, which have deemed obesity to be a qualifying impairment, no matter the cause, says Lauren Stadler at Wilson Elser.

  • 3rd. Circ. Ruling Shows Employers Where To Put ADA Focus

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    A recent Third Circuit decision in Morgan v. Allison Crane & Rigging, confirming that the Americans with Disabilities Act protects some temporarily impaired employees, reminds employers to pursue compliance through uniform policies that head off discriminatory decisions, not after-the-fact debates over an individual's disability status, says Joseph McGuire at Freeman Mathis.

  • 11th Circ. Ruling Offers Refresher On 'Sex-Plus' Bias Claims

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    While the Eleventh Circuit’s recent ruling in McCreight v. AuburnBank dismissed former employees’ sex-plus-age discrimination claims, the opinion reminds employers to ensure that workplace policies and practices do not treat a subgroup of employees of one sex differently than the same subgroup of another sex, say attorneys at Bradley Arant.

  • Employment Verification Poses Unique Risks For Staffing Cos.

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    All employers face employee verification issues, but a survey of recent settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice's Immigrant and Employee Rights Section suggests that staffing companies' unique circumstances raise the chances they will be investigated and face substantial fines, says Eileen Scofield at Alston & Bird.

  • What To Expect As Worker Bias Suit Heads To High Court

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    The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, which concerns how courts treat discrimination claims brought by majority group plaintiffs, and its decision could eliminate the background circumstances test, but is unlikely to significantly affect employers' diversity programs, say Victoria Slade and Alysa Mo at Davis Wright.

  • Mitigating Construction Employers' Risks Of Discrimination

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    Recent heightened government scrutiny of construction industry employment practices illustrates the need for nondiscriminatory recruitment and proactive assessment of workforces and worksites, including auditing for demographic disparities and taking documented steps to address such issues, say attorneys at Seyfarth.

  • Cos. Should Focus On State AI Laws Despite New DOL Site

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    Because a new U.S. Department of Labor-sponsored website about the disability discrimination risks of AI hiring tools mostly echoes old guidance, employers should focus on complying with the state and local AI workplace laws springing up where Congress and federal regulators have yet to act, say attorneys at Littler.

  • How The Tide Of EEOC Litigation Rolled Back In FY 2024

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    An analysis of the location, timing and underlying claims asserted in U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission-initiated cases during fiscal year 2024 shows that the commission saw a substantial decrease in litigation activity after a surge last year, but employers should not drop their guard, say Christopher DeGroff and Andrew Scroggins at Seyfarth.

  • The Key Changes In Revised FDIC Hiring Regulations

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    Attorneys at Ogletree break down the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s new rule, effective Oct. 1, that will ease restrictions on financial institutions hiring employees with criminal histories, amend the FDIC's treatment of minor offenses and clarify its stance on expunged or dismissed criminal records.

  • Employer Tips For PUMP Act Compliance As Law Turns 2

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    Enacted in December 2022, the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act requires employers to provide reasonable break time and a private space for employees to express breast milk, but some companies may still be struggling with how to comply, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • What To Know About Ill. Employment Law Changes

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    Illinois employers should review their policies in light of a number of recent changes to state employment law, including amendments to the state’s Human Rights Act and modifications to the Day and Temporary Labor Services Act, say attorneys at Kilpatrick.