Discrimination

  • November 06, 2025

    Real Estate Companies Escape Ex-Worker's Bias Claims

    Compass Inc. and a real estate advisory firm don't have to face an agent's lawsuit claiming she was fired for complaining about supervisors' allegedly misogynistic, derogatory and sexually explicit comments, as a New York federal judge ruled Thursday she'd failed to claim her employers knew about her complaints.

  • November 06, 2025

    AI Health Tech Co. Settles Fired Worker's Sex Bias Suit

    A company that provides artificial intelligence technology to healthcare companies has agreed to settle a former employee's lawsuit alleging she was fired after speaking up about pay disparities and advocating for women to receive the same recognition as their male counterparts.

  • November 06, 2025

    Ex-Deputy Sheriff Fights To Keep Political Firing Suit Alive

    A former Metro Atlanta deputy sheriff alleging he was forced to resign due to his age and support for the sheriff's 2024 election opponent pushed back Wednesday against a bid to dismiss his lawsuit, arguing his claims against the sheriff as an individual are not barred by qualified immunity.

  • November 06, 2025

    Atty Errors Shouldn't Doom Vax Bias Suit, 5th Circ. Says

    The Fifth Circuit revived a worker's religious-bias suit claiming she was illegally fired for opposing a medical tech company's COVID-19 vaccine mandate, ruling the lower court acted too harshly when it handed a win to her former employer after her attorney made formatting errors.

  • November 06, 2025

    Black Exec Who Confronted McDonald's CEO Loses Bias Suit

    McDonald's defeated a Black former security executive's suit alleging he was fired for confronting the company's CEO about racial disparities, with an Illinois federal judge ruling his remarks about social inequities weren't protected by federal law.

  • November 06, 2025

    Mass. Pay Transparency Law May Boost Other Worker Claims

    Massachusetts' newly implemented pay transparency law seems primed to be used as a tool to bolster laws already in place — including in discrimination and equal pay cases — even if the new statute itself is unlikely to spawn significant legal action, experts told Law360.

  • November 06, 2025

    8th Circ. Won't Rehear EEOC Harassment Case Against BNSF

    The Eighth Circuit said it won't rethink its decision to restore classwide claims in a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit claiming BNSF Railway Co. failed to protect female workers from verbal abuse and unwanted sexual advances.

  • November 06, 2025

    8th Circ. OKs Home Depot Barring Worker's Display Of 'BLM'

    An Eighth Circuit panel vacated a National Labor Relations Board ruling that Home Depot illegally forced out a worker who insisted on showing Black Lives Matter support at work, holding Thursday that social unrest at the time of their February 2021 display justified the company's caution.

  • November 06, 2025

    Trump Elevates EEOC Chair Lucas From Acting Status

    President Donald Trump has named Andrea Lucas the chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after she served for nine months in an acting capacity, the agency announced Thursday, further solidifying Republican leadership at the workplace bias watchdog. 

  • November 05, 2025

    Ex-Bassist Makes Key Changes In Suit Against Metal Band

    The founding bassist of the Grammy-nominated metal band Hatebreed has asked a Connecticut judge not to trim claims from a lawsuit over his sudden termination, saying a new version of the complaint will cure any legal defects identified by the group's vocalist and its business arm.

  • November 05, 2025

    T-Mobile Must Face Gay Ex-Manager's Harassment Claims

    A California federal judge ruled Wednesday that T-Mobile can't fully escape a gay ex-manager's suit claiming he was harassed by a co-worker who mocked his voice and was eventually fired after complaining about the mistreatment, saying a jury needs to review whether his termination was illegal.

  • November 05, 2025

    10th Circ. Says Muldrow Can't Save Army Gender Bias Suit

    The Tenth Circuit tossed a civilian U.S. Army employee's lawsuit claiming a female supervisor subjected him to a hostile work environment by favoring women and sidelining him because he's a man, ruling on Wednesday that the U.S. Supreme Court's Mulrow decision didn't lower the bar for hostile workplace claims.

  • November 05, 2025

    Appeals Court Won't Kick SpaceX Sex Bias Suit To Arbitration

    A California appeals court backed a trial court's refusal to force arbitration of a former SpaceX employee's suit claiming her boss forced her into a sexual relationship in exchange for career advancement, finding her claims were protected by a law barring mandatory out-of-court resolution for sex misconduct cases.

  • November 05, 2025

    Philip Morris Damages Guardrail Bid Meets Skeptical Justices

    Massachusetts' top court appeared unreceptive Wednesday to arguments made by Philip Morris USA Inc. that a since-reduced $1 billion verdict issued by a state court jury means more guidelines are needed to curtail massive awards.

  • November 05, 2025

    Texas Tech Prof Seeks High Court Review Of Free Speech Suit

    A Texas Tech University professor urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Fifth Circuit's ruling that a former business school dean didn't have to face his retaliation lawsuit over the professor's anti-tenure views, arguing the appeals court applied the wrong qualified immunity standard.

  • November 05, 2025

    Mamdani's Win May Energize Sluggish NYC Anti-Bias Agency

    New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani made a campaign promise to significantly boost funding for the city agency tasked with combating workplace discrimination, a move experts said could revitalize a watchdog plagued by backlogs and staffing shortages.

  • November 05, 2025

    X Ends Sex Bias Suit Over Twitter Acquisition Layoffs

    X Corp. has ended a sex bias suit from a former employee who accused the company of enacting harsh working conditions after Elon Musk's takeover of social media company Twitter in order to strategically push out women workers.

  • November 04, 2025

    Calif. Justices Doubt 'Illegible' Arb. Pact Is Enforceable

    California Supreme Court justices Tuesday doubted that an employer's "illegible" arbitration agreement is enforceable, with multiple justices observing that it's impossible to read terms of the contract at issue, which had been photocopied so many times the words are blurry.

  • November 04, 2025

    Worker Fired After Bug Bite Incident Can't Revive ADA Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit declined Tuesday to revive a disability bias suit claiming a steel company unfairly fired a worker for failing to alert safety personnel when a co-worker complained about a potential bug bite on her neck, ruling his case lacked evidence that discrimination drove his termination.

  • November 04, 2025

    Hustler Casino HR Manager Fired For Speaking Up, Suit Says

    Flynt Management Group's former human resources manager alleges he was terminated after speaking up about the company's "entrenched culture of non-compliance" that spilled out onto its Hustler Casino, saying the company fired employees who blew the whistle over gaming regulations and those whose documented medical absences kept them off work, according to a complaint filed Monday in California state court.

  • November 04, 2025

    4th Circ. Urged To Revive Bias Suit Over COVID Vaccine Firing

    A Black former sales administrator asked the Fourth Circuit on Monday to revive her religious and race bias lawsuit, arguing that her employer knew she was deeply religious and she proved a "sincerely-held belief" against receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

  • November 04, 2025

    Mass. Attys Split As Punitive Damages Rules Go To Top Court

    A case before Massachusetts' top appellate court over whether more safeguards are needed to cap runaway punitive damage awards has divided attorneys, with some saying the big-dollar verdicts can be skewed by improper evidence and others calling the matter a solution in search of a problem.

  • November 04, 2025

    10th Circ. Revives Atty's Free Speech Retaliation Case

    A Colorado water attorney's First Amendment case against her former employer was revived by the Tenth Circuit after a three-judge panel found the attorney's comments were not made as an ordinary part of her duties.

  • November 04, 2025

    Prof Whose Paper Linked Race To IQ Falls Short At 6th Circ.

    The Sixth Circuit refused Tuesday to revive a former Cleveland State University professor's suit claiming he was fired in violation of his constitutional rights for authoring a paper connecting race to intelligence, saying he couldn't overcome the school's argument that misusing government data was what cost him his job.

  • November 04, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Denies VA Surgeon's Wrongful Termination Appeal

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday affirmed the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board's decision to uphold the firing of a general surgeon by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs after he raised concerns about compromised patient care.

Expert Analysis

  • What Employers Should Consider When Drafting AI Policies

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    As generative artificial intelligence continues to evolve and transform the workplace, employers should examine six issues when creating their corporate AI policies in order to balance AI's efficiencies with the oversight needed to prevent potential biases and legal pitfalls, say attorneys at Jackson Lewis.

  • Eye On Compliance: When Calif. Jobs Require Driver Licenses

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    With a California law banning unnecessarily requiring job applicants to have driver's licenses rolling out Jan. 1, employers should take to heart the law's goal of preventing discriminatory barriers while they assess and revise their employment materials for compliance, says Ani Khachatryan at Wilson Elser.

  • Ring In The New Year With An Updated Employee Handbook

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    One of the best New Year's resolutions employers can make is to update their employee handbooks, given that a handbook can mitigate, or even prevent, costly litigation as long as it accounts for recent changes in laws, court rulings and agency decisions, say attorneys at Kutak Rock.

  • 5 Employer Defenses To Military Status Discrimination Claims

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    A Colorado federal court's recent ruling, finding a Navy reservist wasn't denied promotion at his civilian job due to antimilitary bias, highlights several defenses employers can use to counter claims of violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, say attorneys at Littler Mendelson.

  • Justices Mull Sex-Based Classification In Trans Law Case

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in U.S. v. Skrmetti this week, it appears that the fate of the Tennessee law at the center of the case — a law banning gender-affirming healthcare for transgender adolescents — will hinge on whether the majority read the statute as imposing a sex-based classification, says Alexandra Crandall at Dickinson Wright.

  • Pa. Ruling Highlights Challenges Of Employer Arb. Appeals

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    A Pennsylvania federal court's recent ruling in Welch Foods v. General Teamsters Local Union No. 397 demonstrates the inherent difficulties employers face when seeking relief from labor arbitration decisions through appeals in court — and underscores how employers are faced with often conflicting legal priorities, says Daniel Johns at Cozen O'Connor.

  • 7 Ways To Prepare For An I-9 Audit Or Immigration Raid

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    Because immigration enforcement is likely to surge under the upcoming Trump administration, employers should take steps to ensure their staff is trained in employment eligibility verification requirements and what to do in the event of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement I-9 audit or workplace raid, say attorneys at Littler.

  • California Supreme Court's Year In Review

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    Attorneys at Horvitz & Levy highlight notable decisions on major questions from the California Supreme Court's last term, including voter initiatives, hostile work environment and the economic loss rule.

  • Disentangling Various Forms Of Workplace Discrimination

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    Pay inequity can be missed where it exists and misidentified due to incorrect statistics, leaving individuals to face multiple facets of discrimination connected by a common root cause, meaning correct identification and measurement is crucial, says Daniel Levy at Advanced Analytical.

  • Key Requirements In New Maryland Pay Transparency Laws

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    Although several jurisdictions now require pay transparency in job advertisements, Maryland's new law is among the broadest in the country, both in terms of what is required and the scope of its applicability, says Sarah Belger at Quarles & Brady.

  • Lessons From EEOC Case Of Fla. Worker Fired After Stillbirth

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    A recent federal court settlement between a Florida resort and a fired line cook shows that the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission sees stillbirth as protected under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, also providing four other important lessons, says Gordon Berger at Pierson Ferdinand.

  • Advising Employers As AI Meets DEI And Discrimination

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Though companies can use artificial intelligence tools to develop more diverse and inclusive workforces, counsel should also prepare employers for how AI can stymie these efforts, provoke discrimination claims and complicate resulting litigation, says Emily Schifter at Troutman Pepper.

  • A Look At The Hefty Demands In Calif. Employer AI Draft Regs

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    California's draft regulations on artificial intelligence use in employment decisions show that the California Privacy Protection Agency is positioning itself as a de facto AI regulator for the state, which isn't waiting around for federal legislation, says Lily Li at Metaverse Law.