Ministry Stance In Anti-LGBTQ+ Hiring Suit Confuses 9th Circ.

By Rachel Riley

An en banc Ninth Circuit struggled Tuesday to understand a Washington-based Christian ministry's legal stance as it sought to preserve its ability to reject job applicants who are gay, with several judges suggesting it was immune from enforcement action since the state recognized the jobs as ministerial and therefore constitutionally exempt from anti-discrimination laws.

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10th Circ. Revives Early Retiree Claims In Union Pension Fight

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Tenth Circuit on Tuesday partially reversed a loss for union retirees who alleged they were wrongly denied early retirement benefits from a multiemployer pension plan after they withdrew from work that was covered by a collective bargaining agreement, with a three-judge panel siding with the retirees' interpretation of the plan.

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Aviation Co. Gets Pretrial Win In Remote Workers' Layoff Suit

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida federal judge said Tuesday that a proposed class of remote employees did not have to be noticed under the WARN Act, handing an aviation company an early win in a suit by terminated employees who claimed they were abruptly fired in violation of the federal law.

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Ga. Hospital Escapes LGBTQ+ Bias Suit Over Fertility Benefits

By Patrick Hoff

An Atlanta-area hospital and health system defeated a lesbian nurse's lawsuit alleging she wasn't given the same access to fertility benefits as heterosexual employees, with a Georgia federal judge concluding that a magistrate misapplied the U.S. Supreme Court's blockbuster Bostock ruling when he recommended keeping the case in court.

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Texas Biz Court Pares Southwest Union's Boeing Suit

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas Business Court judge pared back the scope of claims brought by the pilots union for Southwest Airlines against The Boeing Co. after regulators grounded the 737 Max aircraft, saying Monday that the pilots can recover only direct damages, not damages from secondary injuries.

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UCF Administrators Seek Immunity In Prof's Firing Suit

By Carolina Bolado

Administrators for the University of Central Florida told the Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday that they should be entitled to qualified immunity on retaliation claims brought by a psychology professor after he posted about the death of George Floyd on social media in 2020.

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EEOC Says Firing Painter After Knee Surgery Violated ADA

By Patrick Hoff

A Colorado-based heavy machinery dealer fired an employee after knee surgery rather than letting her return to work with a lifting restriction, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in a new lawsuit.

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Fired Teacher Says AI Tainted Review And Arbitration

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts kindergarten teacher is suing to redo arbitration over her firing, saying the arbitrator who affirmed the school's decision used artificial intelligence to vet her claims that the principal relied on AI to prepare her final, negative performance evaluation.

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UC Davis Women Athletes Get Less Financial Aid, Suit Says

By Gina Kim

University of California, Davis has been discriminatorily awarding less athletic financial aid to women varsity student-athletes than their male counterparts for at least the last decade, in violation of Title IX, according to a proposed class action filed Tuesday in California federal court. 

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Feds Seek To Throw Out States' Challenge To DEI Contract EO

By Ganesh Setty

The Trump administration told a Maryland federal court that it should toss a lawsuit from states challenging its implementation of an executive order targeting diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the government contracting space, arguing the order falls within well-settled law.

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Cleaning Cos. Urge Colo. Judge To Toss EEOC's Bias Suit

By Rachel Konieczny

Two commercial cleaning providers accused by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of illegally favoring Latin American applicants urged a Colorado federal judge to toss the agency's lawsuit, contending the commission failed to show the companies refused to hire non-Hispanic workers.

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Fired Black Teacher Tells 4th Circ. To Revive Race Bias Suit

By Hayley Fowler

A Black teacher is looking to reverse a summary judgment ruling in his racial bias suit favoring the charter school that fired him, telling the Fourth Circuit the school's allegedly conflicting reasons for terminating him support an inference of discrimination.

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Ex-Delta Flight Attendant Says Post-Arrest Firing Unlawful

By David Aaro

Delta Airlines Inc. violated federal law when it fired a flight attendant without conducting a full investigation after a racially charged confrontation at a Marriott hotel in Savannah landed her in jail, according to a lawsuit from the former worker.

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DTE Energy Settles Mich. Off-The-Clock Wage Claims

By Melanie Dorsey

A settlement resolving claims that DTE Energy Corporate Services LLC failed to properly pay employees for time spent starting and shutting down computer programs before and after their shifts was approved by a Michigan federal judge Tuesday.

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Ex-Worker Urges 4th Circ. To Revive Wage, Retaliation Claims

By Benjamin Morse

A former worker at a sports bar in North Carolina urged the Fourth Circuit to revive her wage, retaliation and emotional distress claims, saying that a lower court improperly kept surviving claims from a jury and dismissed another on a ground that she did not have a chance to address.

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Target Accused Of Shorting Colo. Workers On Pay And Breaks

By Zach Dupont

A former Target employee in Arapahoe County, Colorado, claimed in state court Monday that the company is violating state wage laws by not compensating employees for all hours worked or repaying them for business-related expenses.

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Brief

Davis-Bacon Rule Fight Resumes In Texas

By Benjamin Morse

A Texas federal court will rule on dueling bids for early wins between construction groups and the U.S. Department of Labor over a challenge to 2023 Davis-Bacon Act regulations, according to an order lifting a stay in the case.

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Providence Tells Wash. Justices $230M Loss Upends CBAs

By Ben Adlin

Counsel for Providence Health & Services, Washington state's largest healthcare provider, urged the state's highest court on Tuesday to overturn workers' $230 million trial win over missed meal breaks, arguing that the judgment could put large employers at risk for complying with collective bargaining agreements.

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A's Player Sues Tigers Over Exposed Fence Injury

By Susan Smiley

A third baseman ​​​​​​for Major League Baseball's Athletics is suing the Detroit Tigers, its parent company and the Detroit-Wayne County Stadium Authority in Michigan state court, claiming they are responsible for an injury he suffered in July after sliding to catch a ball and banging his knee against a metal fence.

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Greenberg Traurig Adds Employment Atty In West Palm Beach

By Katherine Smith

Greenberg Traurig has hired a former Carlton Fields attorney in West Palm Beach to help lead the continued growth of the Florida office's labor and employment practice, the firm announced on Tuesday.

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How Employers Can Navigate NLRB Rulings Ripe For Reversal

Given a recent National Labor Relations Board memo seeking to reverse several precedents — including on severance agreements and workplace policies — employers should prepare now to restore broader protections when the board acts, while following the law as it exists today, says Howard Lavin at Thompson Coburn.

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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: September Lessons

In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses six recent rulings involving pecuniary loss in false price comparison advertising, privity in an insurance fee class, antitrust standing, immigration class representatives, retirement beneficiary class commonality, and Rule 23(f) appeals in Fair Labor Standards Act claims.

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3rd Circ. Affirms Thomson Reuters' Westlaw AI Copyright Win

By Ivan Moreno

The Third Circuit on Tuesday upheld Thomson Reuters' victory against Ross Intelligence Inc. in the first U.S. appellate ruling to address whether artificial intelligence training can be fair use of copyrighted material, upholding a Delaware federal court's decision that the startup infringed Westlaw headnotes by using material derived from them to develop an AI-powered legal search tool.

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11th Circ. Won't Pause Sanctions Against Trump In IRS Case

By Jack McLoone

An Eleventh Circuit panel refused Tuesday to pause a district court's sanctions order barring President Donald Trump and others from citing the agreement he made to settle his $10 billion suit against the Internal Revenue Service while they appeal the order.

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DC Circ. Weighs Limits On Boasberg's Contempt Inquiry

By Jared Foretek

A top Justice Department official told an en banc D.C. Circuit panel that a district judge should refer former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for contempt over the 2025 deportation flights to El Salvador and move on, saying the judge had no authority to wrap others into his inquiry.

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Jack Smith Says He Won't Be Intimidated By Trump Threats

By Courtney Bublé

Former special counsel Jack Smith testified on Tuesday he "will not be silenced" by threats of prosecution by the president or others.

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Baker Botts Atty Disputes Inventor's Claim Of Defamation Deal

By Madison Arnold

A Baker Botts LLP patent attorney is pushing back on an inventor's claim that they reached a settlement agreement in the inventor's defamation suit in Florida federal court.

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Richards Layton Atty's Chancery Nomination Advanced

By Rose Krebs

A Delaware senate committee Tuesday advanced the nomination for a Richards Layton & Finger PA director to serve as a vice chancellor on the nationally important Chancery Court, with him vowing to continue the court's esteemed legacy for corporate law jurisprudence.

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