Justices Won't Review NLRB's Thryv Decision In Macy's Case

By Tim Ryan

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider Macy's challenge to a 2022 National Labor Relations Board decision that expanded the remedies the board can require employers to pay workers they unlawfully fire for union activity.

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Workday Position In AI Bias Suit May Boomerang, Judge Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge pushed back Monday against Workday's "odd" claim that the state's civil rights laws don't apply in job bias litigation over its artificial intelligence tools, saying the California-based company's apparent argument would perversely subject it to "the laws of all 50 states and countries around the world."

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4th Circ. Nixes Class In Anheuser-Busch OT Suit

By Katherine Smith

The Fourth Circuit on Monday vacated an order certifying a class of Anheuser-Busch employees in a lawsuit alleging the brewing giant failed to pay the workers for pre- and post-shift work, finding that the class is currently too broad to justify certification.

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Judge Tosses XAI Trade Secret Case Against OpenAI

By Ivan Moreno

A California federal judge on Monday dismissed xAI Corp.'s trade secret lawsuit against OpenAI without leave to amend, finding that despite updating its complaint once previously, the company still failed to plausibly allege that OpenAI knowingly obtained or used confidential information from former xAI employees.

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IRS Can't Force Removal Of Union Flyers, Union Says

By Molly Moses

An IRS directive issued last month ordering the removal of flyers and other materials promoting the National Treasury Employees Union is a "textbook example" of First Amendment violations, the NTEU told a District of Columbia federal court Monday.

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Meatpacking Cos. Can't Shake Haitian Workers' Bias Suit

By MJ Koo

Haitian meatpacking workers who say they were lured to Colorado with false promises and subjected to race-based discrimination can proceed with their proposed class action, a federal judge recommended Friday, also denying a bid to strike class allegations.

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EEOC Strikes Tentative Deal To End Suit Over Ban On Beards

By Anne Cullen

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and emergency services provider Global Medical Response told a Colorado federal court they've reached an agreement to resolve the agency's lawsuit alleging that the company's strict no-beard policy violated federal laws.

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Brief

Justices Won't Review Ex-MGM Worker's Skin Color Bias Suit

By Anne Cullen

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to revisit a former MGM resort employee's suit alleging she was fired for being a lighter-skinned African American, leaving in place last year's jury verdict in the company's favor.

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Ex-Detroit Club Worker Tells Jury Owner Made Racist Remarks

By Melanie Dorsey

A former Detroit Club contractor told a federal jury Monday that the club's owner repeatedly made racist comments about job candidates, employees and potential customers, including calling one spa manager candidate "too Black" and referring to two Black hostesses with a racial slur involving the N-word.

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Univ. Of Washington Beats Medical Prof's Bias Suit At Trial

By Ben Adlin

Jurors have cleared the University of Washington's medical school of liability in an anesthesiology professor's lawsuit alleging that she was unfairly ousted from a director role after complaining of discrimination and harassment, finding that the professor failed to sufficiently prove any of her three claims against the school.

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Ex-Apache Worker Asks For Discrimination Trial Redo

By Spencer Brewer

A former Apache Corp. employee asked a Texas federal judge to undo a prior order granting her employer judgment as a matter of law midtrial, telling the court that her claims should have gone before a jury to decide.

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Sex Bias Led To Unequal Pay, Firing, Says Ex-PNC Director

By Abigail Harrison

A former managing director at Charlotte-based PNC Bank told a North Carolina federal court that the financial services giant targeted her for reporting sex-based discrimination, and then fired her right before the vesting of hundreds of thousands of dollars in restricted stock units.

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5th Circ. Rules Oilfield Driller's Hybrid Pay Bars OT Claims

By MJ Koo

An oilfield driller who received a fixed salary alongside variable day rates was paid on a salary basis and therefore was exempt from federal overtime requirements, the Fifth Circuit held, reversing a lower court's ruling in a collective action against oilfield services giant SLB.

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Amazon Workers In Colo. Seek Cert. In COVID Screening Suit

By Gina Kim

Roughly 13,000 current and former hourly Amazon employees at its Colorado fulfillment centers who underwent mandatory pre-shift COVID-19 screenings and post-shift exit security screenings without pay asked a federal judge to certify both their classes Friday, arguing that common evidence can resolve liability and damages on a classwide basis. 

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Whirlpool Didn't Pay For PPE Donning Time, Workers Say

By Gina Kim

Whirlpool Corp.'s hourly nonexempt production and manufacturing employees weren't paid for time spent donning personal protective equipment like safety glasses and earplugs before their scheduled shift times began, alleges a proposed Fair Labor Standards Act collective and class action filed Monday in Michigan federal court.  

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Pizza Chain Worker Says Co. Shorted Breaks, Wages

By MJ Koo

A former pizza chain worker accused her employer of requiring hourly employees to keep working after clocking out, denying them meal and rest breaks and failing to pay overtime wages, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles state court.

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First Responders Say Atlantic City Fails To Pay Full OT

By Emily Brill

Cops and firefighters in Atlantic City, New Jersey, routinely work over 40 hours per week without full overtime compensation, a pair of proposed class actions in New Jersey state court allege.

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NLRB Dings A-B Arbitration Enforcement After Court Remand

By Braden Campbell

Anheuser-Busch violated federal labor law by trying to make a fired worker arbitrate his race bias claim in conflict with his collective bargaining agreement, the National Labor Relations Board said in a reversal following an Eleventh Circuit remand.

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Supreme Court Skips Challenge To $168M Trade Secret Award

By Ivan Moreno

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.'s challenge to a $168 million trade secret judgment for Computer Sciences Corp.

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Cognizant, Infosys Can't Shield Execs From Depositions

By Elliot Weld

Infosys Ltd. and Cognizant TriZetto Software Group Inc. will each have to produce executives to speak on certain topics for depositions in a Texas federal lawsuit over claims that Infosys stole Cognizant's trade secrets to build a competing healthcare software, a special master ruled Monday.

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Ex-Google Worker Can't Get AI Secrets Retrial Over Jury Picks

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge has denied one of two motions from former Google engineer Linwei Ding seeking to overturn a jury decision that convicted him of trade secret theft and economic espionage, rejecting his claim that prosecutors improperly excluded jurors of Chinese descent.

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Chancery Cuts Claim Over FNF Chair's $50M Equity Award

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court has narrowed a stockholder derivative lawsuit challenging compensation decisions at Fidelity National Financial Inc., dismissing claims tied to a $50 million equity award for Chairman William P. Foley while allowing claims over directors' self-approved compensation packages to move forward.

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Mich. Panel Upholds Stock Redemption Order

By Susan Smiley

A Michigan state appeals court has affirmed a trial court decision that resolved a decades-long shareholder dispute between a real estate development firm and its ex-CEO by ordering the company to buy out the former executive's original $25,000 investment plus 7% interest.

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4 Emerging Limits Of Employer Mental Health Notice Defense

A California appeals court's recent decision in Husband v. Target, addressing when an employer knows about an employee's undisclosed disability, leaves open questions about how changes in mental health awareness and workforce monitoring tools may raise the bar for what employers can claim not to know, says Benjamin Heller at RFZ Law.

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Reel Justice: 'Tuner' And Modern Juror Sympathy

In “Tuner,” the main character’s criminal behavior is framed as an extension of his vulnerability, talent and loyalty, demonstrating how narratives of sympathy shape perceptions of culpability, and why jurors may reinterpret wrongdoing through story and emotion rather than evidence and doctrine, says Veronica Finkelstein at WilmU Law.

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3 Things To Know About Trump's Pick To Lead SDNY

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

President Donald Trump has announced that he plans to appoint Sullivan & Cromwell LLP partner James M. McDonald to lead the Southern District of New York. Here are three things to know about him.

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Trump Personal Atty In Carroll Cases Confirmed To 8th Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 48-43 on Monday evening to confirm Justin Smith, who represented the president in the defamation and sexual abuse cases brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

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Hagens Berman Must Cover Fees After Misconduct Findings

By Adrian Cruz

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP must cover the fees and costs of a special master who alleged the firm committed misconduct in product liability litigation over the morning sickness drug thalidomide, a Pennsylvania federal judge has said.

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Analysis

Newman's Appeal Loss Shows Limits On Suspension Reviews

By Ryan Davis

The U.S. Supreme Court's rejection on Monday of Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's appeal in the long-running dispute over her suspension made clear that the available routes to challenge such orders are narrow, and spurred critics to contemplate ways to revise the system.

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Justices Turn Down Judge Newman's Suspension Case

By Ryan Davis

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's effort to revive her lawsuit against her colleagues for suspending her, leaving intact a D.C. Circuit decision that her challenges to the order are not subject to judicial review.

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Attys Want Up To $33M In Long-Running UBH Benefits Fight

By Kellie Mejdrich

Attorneys for employee benefit plan participants who sued to change how United Behavioral Health processed claims for mental health and substance use disorder treatment asked a California federal court for up to $33 million in fees and expenses for their work on the "groundbreaking" case.

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Ex-SEC Atty Reprimanded Over Misstatements In Crypto Case

By Julie Manganis

A former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission attorney has received a public reprimand for misleading a judge in a cryptocurrency fraud case that led to sanctions against the agency.

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Barnes & Thornburg Profit-Share Admin Wants Legal Bills Paid

By James Boyle

A company that oversaw recordkeeping duties of Barnes & Thornburg LLP's profit-sharing plan says in a complaint in Pennsylvania state court it is owed legal fees over a previous suit filed by a former firm partner.

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FBI Misplaced Nadine Menendez's Jewelry, Judge Told

By Parker Quinlan

An attorney for Nadine Menendez on Monday told a Manhattan federal judge that the FBI is still unable to locate pieces of her jewelry seized as part of the investigation that led to Menendez and her husband, former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, being convicted of participating in a bribery scheme.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week handled disputes involving shareholder voting rights, take-private transactions, merger disclosures, board control battles and investor litigation, while the Delaware Supreme Court heard arguments over the wind-down of an oil-and-gas investment fund.

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