NLRB Nixes Precedent Shift On Worker Outbursts

By Braden Campbell

The National Labor Relations Board's expanded Republican majority reversed its first precedent on Wednesday, nixing a set of discipline tests that gave workers leeway to lose their cool during pickets and other actions the National Labor Relations Act protects.

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'Hanging In There' Doesn't Ax Disability Claim, 9th Circ. Says

By Lauren Berg

"Hanging in there" and working through the pain of a worsening disability is not a reason to reject the testimony of someone seeking Social Security benefits, the Ninth Circuit ruled Wednesday.

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NY Judge Dismisses States' DOGE Treasury Data Access Suit

By Rae Ann Varona

A New York federal judge Wednesday tossed several states' lawsuit that challenged Department of Government Efficiency staff access to U.S. Department of the Treasury data, saying DOGE's dissolution rendered the states' access claims moot and that they failed to allege that any federal funding due to them was ultimately canceled.

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Nepotism Allegation Can't Sustain Race Bias Suit, Judge Says

By Patrick Hoff

An automotive parts manufacturer does not have to face a Black former employee's lawsuit alleging she was fired for using her cellphone at work while a human resources manager's white daughter evaded discipline, a Michigan federal judge ruled, concluding Wednesday that the worker's nepotism accusations couldn't support race bias claims.

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Delta Anti-Moonlighting Suit Sent Back To Wash. State Court

By MJ Koo

A federal judge has sent a proposed class action accusing Delta Air Lines of barring low-wage workers from holding second jobs back to Washington state court, finding the worker who brought the suit failed to show she suffered a concrete injury that gave the federal court authority to hear the case.

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7th Circ. Skeptical Of UP's Temporal BIPA Contractor Argument

By Lauraann Wood

A Seventh Circuit panel seemed skeptical Wednesday that a government contractor exception in Illinois' biometric privacy law should be applied through a temporal test to determine whether such a contract's mere existence is enough to excuse defendants from the statute's informed consent requirements.

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Walmart Can't Nix Worker's $300K Retaliation Trial Win

By Grace Elletson

A Washington federal judge declined Wednesday to scrap a $300,000 trial win for a former Walmart employee who claimed she was fired for reporting that her manager failed to shut down sexual harassment, calling the jury's verdict fair amid evidence of her boss' unfair treatment.

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Gay JPMorgan Ex-Worker Claims Discrimination By Supervisor

By Katryna Perera

A gay former employee of JPMorgan Chase sued the bank Wednesday, claiming a supervisor discriminated against him because of his sexual orientation and in response to his work with an LGBTQ+ affinity group at the bank, and told the employee to keep his "gay job" separate from his other work.

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Mail Delivery Co. Strikes Deal In EEOC Sunday Work Suit

By Grace Elletson

A mail delivery contractor agreed to pay $60,000 to end a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit claiming the business demanded a Christian employee work on Sundays, even though he complained those shifts made him miss church.

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Google Ex-Executive Says Bias Led To Layoff

By Benjamin Morse

A former Google sales executive hit the tech giant with a lawsuit in Colorado state court claiming it pushed him out because of his age and retaliated after he complained that his manager was discriminating against him based on his age, sex and religion.

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NJ Bias Case Judge Won't Nix Hospital's NDA Rule Yet

By George Woolston

A New Jersey state judge said it was too early to strike down a hospital's nondisclosure agreement provision for internal investigations in a former director's suit alleging she was the target of a retaliatory investigation.

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Detainees Push Back On GEO's Bid To Pause Labor Suit

By MJ Koo

Detainees at a Colorado immigration detention facility have pushed back against a prison company's bid to pause their federal forced labor lawsuit before November's trial, arguing the company is treating the U.S. solicitor general's views in a related case as signaling likely Supreme Court intervention.

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Fed. Grants Bind Railways To Fed. Labor Law, NMB Argues

By Emily Brill

The Eleventh Circuit should affirm a Florida federal judge's finding that a high-speed rail operator is subject to the Railway Labor Act, the National Mediation Board argued, saying the operator can't wriggle its way out of complying because it runs an intercity rather than interstate rail line.

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Analysis

Circuit Rift On Pension Credit May Catch Supreme Court's Eye

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Seventh Circuit recently established how to credit employers for a previous partial withdrawal from a multiemployer pension fund when calculating liability for a complete exit, resulting in a split with the Ninth and Eleventh circuits and raising the likelihood the issue could eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court, attorneys said.

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Navigating Employer Obligations Under NY Personnel File Law

In light of a New York law that will soon give private sector employees the right to review and comment on their personnel files, employers should understand where their exposure lies and be mindful of where records are stored, and for how long, among other things, says attorney Jason Tenenbaum.

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Tracking Trends In State-Level Regulatory Enforcement

State-level enforcement now increasingly involves antitrust, artificial intelligence and data privacy issues, and the key for organizations to reducing risk is having the ability to respond across governance, public affairs, discovery and remediation in multiple states simultaneously, say consultants at FTI Consulting.

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Opinion

Calif. Bill Goes Too Far In Trying To Regulate Attorney AI Use

California’s first-in-the-nation act regulating how attorneys and arbitrators use generative artificial intelligence will likely soon become law, but read broadly, the provisions may dissuade lawyers from employing AI at all, thereby depriving them of key work tools, says Joshua Wurtzel at Schlam Stone.

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Litigation Spending To Keep Climbing While Biz Risks Mount

By Ryan Boysen

Big companies will increase their litigation budgets yet again next year, as navigating legal risk is now an essential element of achieving strategic business goals, according to a new report.

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Seyfarth Failed To Guard Client Data From Hack, Suit Alleges

By Lauren Berg

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on Thursday was hit with a proposed class action in Illinois federal court accusing it of failing to protect its current and former clients' personal information after the Chicago-based law firm this month disclosed a recent data breach.

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PACER Experiences Outages Of Some Court Dockets

By Matt Perez

PACER, the online public repository of federal court documents, experienced technical errors on Wednesday and Thursday preventing some users from accessing certain court dockets.

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New Eastern La. Judge's 5th Circ. Bid Goes To Full Senate

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge Anna St. John of the Eastern District of Louisiana, who was confirmed to her current post in March, is one step closer to being elevated to the federal appeals bench.

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Fla. Judge To Get Reprimand For Remark On Shooting Attys

By Madison Arnold

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a public reprimand of a state district court judge for "intemperate and caustic" comments about shooting attorneys during a hearing.

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Congressional Probes Raise Legal, 'Reputational' Risks

By Phillip Bantz

An array of companies and executives may face investigations over their dealings with the Trump administration if Democrats take control of Congress, raising the possibility that some may refuse to comply. But experts say holding out hope for a mass pardon or expecting the Justice Department not to pursue contempt charges is a risky bet.

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Analysis

5 Circuit Splits To Watch At The High Court

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court has been deciding fewer and fewer cases over the past three decades, with its caseload reaching a historic low just last term. While attorneys believe several factors have contributed to that trend, they say one of the most consequential is the court's apparent declining interest in resolving circuit splits. 

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Trump's Antitrust Pick Advances Amid Independence Worries

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump's pick to lead the antitrust division at the U.S. Department of Justice advanced to the Senate floor on Thursday, despite Democratic concerns about agency independence.

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Sen. Hyde-Smith's Opponent Seeks Blue-Slip Transparency

By Courtney Bublé

Four years ago, Scott Colom — the son of the first African American elected to the chancery bench in her region of Mississippi — was nominated for a federal judgeship. Now he's running for Senate against the senator who blocked his confirmation.

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Ed. Dept. Committee Sidesteps ABA Accreditation Issue

By Ryan Boysen

A key U.S. Department of Education committee on Thursday declined to weigh in on whether an American Bar Association council should remain a federally recognized accreditor of law schools, a day after the panel deadlocked on different proposals over the hot-button issue.

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