Discrimination

  • April 01, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Revive Wash. Atty's Bias Firing Suit

    An attorney can't revive his complaint alleging the Washington State Attorney General's Office fired him based on his PTSD diagnosis linked to being a closeted gay Mormon youth, after the Ninth Circuit said the case was time-barred and was an attempt to relitigate claims already tossed.

  • April 01, 2025

    Nurse's Job Denial Dispute With Senior Home Stays In Court

    A senior living home operator must face a federal lawsuit claiming it violated the New York City Human Rights Law by retracting a nurse's job offer because she refused to consent to a credit check, a New York federal judge ruled, denying the company's bid to compel arbitration.

  • April 01, 2025

    7th Circ. Revives Officer's Back Pay Bid In ADA Row

    The Seventh Circuit reinstated Tuesday a former corrections officer's back pay request that was rejected by a lower court after a jury found the county sheriff he worked for violated disability bias law by subjecting him to an unnecessary medical exam, but didn't owe him any damages.

  • April 01, 2025

    Ex-Exec Accuses Deutsche Bank Of Audit Lies, Retaliation

    A former high-ranking official with Deutsche Bank has sued the bank for whistleblower retaliation and libel over what he said was a false human resources complaint concocted to fire him for cause after he flagged the bank's alleged lies to federal regulators about operational control issues.

  • April 01, 2025

    NBA Wants No Extra Shot At Vax Discrimination Claim For Ref

    Former NBA referee Leroy Richardson lost in a "final and binding" arbitration of his religious discrimination claim against the league, and thus should not be awarded a win in his suit over his firing for refusing a COVID-19 vaccination, the NBA has told a New York federal court.

  • April 01, 2025

    Legal Carveout For Staff Sinks DA Aide's Pregnancy Bias Suit

    A top aide to Atlanta's former district attorney who alleged she was fired for getting pregnant falls under an exception to federal anti-discrimination law as an elected official's staffer, the Eleventh Circuit said Tuesday, backing the dismissal of her bias suit.

  • April 01, 2025

    DC Circ. Ruling Bodes Ill For Potential EEOC Challenges

    A D.C. Circuit panel recently allowed President Donald Trump's dismissal of two agency officials to move ahead, a development experts said darkened the outlook for the potential legal challenges that the fired U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission members may bring over their January ousters.

  • April 01, 2025

    Mich. Justices Urged To Reject Shorter Worker Suit Deadlines

    A trial lawyers' association has advocated for the Michigan Supreme Court to end employers' ability to contractually shorten the limitations period for employee lawsuits, saying such contract terms weaken workers' civil rights protections. 

  • April 01, 2025

    Seattle Schools Must Face Teacher's Retaliation Lawsuit

    A Washington state appeals court breathed new life into a Seattle public schoolteacher's suit claiming she was punished for reporting that elementary school personnel mistreated students of color, faulting a trial court's conclusion that she hadn't done enough to satisfy presuit obligations.

  • April 01, 2025

    Chipotle To Pay $20K To Wrap Up EEOC Religious Bias Suit

    A Chipotle in Kansas will pay $20,000 to end a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit alleging a supervisor pulled part of a hijab off a Muslim employee's head after repeatedly asking to see her hair, according to a federal court filing.

  • April 01, 2025

    NYC Must Face Sanitation Workers' Discrimination Suit

    A federal judge declined to toss a group of sanitation agents' suit accusing New York City of unlawfully picking white, male garbage collectors to move into better-paying sanitation police jobs, though he shrank the time frame covered by some of the agents' claims.

  • March 31, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Stay Injunction On Transgender Troop Ban

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Monday denied the federal government's bid for an emergency stay that would have allowed the U.S. Department of Defense to move forward with the Trump administration's ban on transgender military service following a Washington federal judge's decision to block the prohibition last week.

  • March 31, 2025

    Apple Beats Suit From Actor Who Refused COVID Shot

    A California appellate court held Friday that Apple Studios had the right to pull an offer for actor Brent Sexton after he refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19, ruling that a lower court should've thrown out the actor's suit.

  • March 31, 2025

    Hegseth Wants Single Fitness Standard For Combat Roles

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered military leaders to revise their physical fitness standards for service members in combat roles, saying the standards need to be "sex-neutral," with no exceptions for current troops.

  • March 31, 2025

    US DOT Taps Quinn Emanuel To Probe FAA Diversity Hiring

    The U.S. Department of Transportation said Monday that it has hired Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP to investigate claims that the Federal Aviation Administration is continuing to prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion when hiring air traffic controllers in defiance of the Trump administration's sweeping anti-DEI policy.

  • March 31, 2025

    NY Law Allows Ex-Thompson Hine Atty's Harassment Suit

    A former Thompson Hine LLP income partner who accused the firm of allowing a "toxic boys club" to flourish at its New York office may continue to pursue the bulk of her harassment claims, a federal judge ruled Monday, finding that a New York law ending forced arbitration of sexual harassment claims invalidates an arbitration agreement.

  • March 31, 2025

    Va. Judge Halts Firings Of Intelligence Officers In DEI Posts

    A Virginia federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from following through with terminating intelligence officers assigned to diversity, equity and inclusion roles in the CIA and U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

  • March 31, 2025

    School District Argues To Toss Ex-Athletic Director's Bias Suit

    The former athletic director for a Western Pennsylvania school district failed to show the connection between her second pregnancy and her firing a month after returning from leave, the school district said in a motion to dismiss the ex-employee's federal lawsuit Monday.

  • March 31, 2025

    Levi Strauss 'Sandbagged' By Bias Case Witness, Court Told

    Levi Strauss urged the California federal judge overseeing a former marketing director's sex-discrimination suit to exclude the woman's therapist from testifying at trial about the alleged emotional distress she suffered while employed by the denim manufacturer, saying Monday that the company was "sandbagged" at the last minute with the witness.

  • March 31, 2025

    Ex-Starbucks Barista Can't Reopen Age, Disability Bias Suit

    A trial court didn't misstep when it asked jurors to fix an inconsistent verdict in a lawsuit claiming Starbucks fired a barista because he was in his 50s and had a neck injury, the Ninth Circuit ruled Monday, refusing the worker's bid to upend the coffee giant's jury win.

  • March 31, 2025

    Car Auction Co. Pays $175K To End EEOC Race Bias Suit

    A car auction company has agreed to pay a Black former worker $175,000 to close a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit claiming leadership failed to step in when he complained that colleagues regularly called him racial slurs, sometimes more than a dozen times a day.

  • March 31, 2025

    Ex-Bridgewater Execs Forced To Arbitrate Discrimination Suit

    A Connecticut federal judge on Monday agreed to force arbitration of a dispute from two former Bridgewater Associates LP executives alleging discrimination against the multibillion-dollar asset management firm.

  • March 31, 2025

    US Steel Beats Fired Medical Pot Patient's Fed. ADA Fight

    A Pennsylvania federal judge on Friday granted U.S. Steel summary judgment on a medical cannabis patient's Americans with Disabilities Act claims in a lawsuit alleging the steel giant wrongfully fired him for his medical marijuana license and off-the-job marijuana use.

  • March 31, 2025

    10th Circ. Hands Server New Trial In Sexual Harassment Case

    The Tenth Circuit granted a former server a new trial Monday on her sexual harassment and retaliation claims against a golf club restaurant, citing "puzzling" jury findings that cleared the restaurant of wrongdoing but awarded the server $125,000 in damages.

  • March 31, 2025

    Judge Says Ga. School's Bias Defenses 'Odd' And 'Odder'

    A Georgia chiropractic school must face a former groundskeeper's claims that he was fired on bogus grounds because he reported his boss for helping his girlfriend steal company time, after a federal judge dinged the school Monday for the "weakness" of its defenses and suggested it may have falsified records to justify the worker's ouster.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • Mich. Whistleblower Ruling Expands Retaliation Remedies

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    The Michigan Supreme Court's recent Occupational Health and Safety Act decision in Stegall v. Resource Technology is important because it increases the potential exposure for defendants in public policy retaliation cases, providing plaintiffs with additional claims, say Aaron Burrell and Timothy Howlett at Dickinson Wright.

  • How States Are Approaching AI Workplace Discrimination

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    As legislators across the U.S. have begun addressing algorithmic discrimination in the workplace, attorneys at Reed Smith provide an overview of the status, applicability and provisions of 13 state and local bills.

  • The Risks Of Employee Political Discourse On Social Media

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    As election season enters its final stretch and employees increasingly engage in political speech on social media, employers should beware the liability risks and consider policies that negotiate the line between employees' rights and the limits on those rights, say Bradford Kelley and James McGehee at Littler.

  • 7th Circ. Rulings Offer Employee Vaccine Exemption Guidance

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    Dawn Solowey and Samantha Brooks at Seyfarth explain how two recent Seventh Circuit rulings in Passarella v. Aspirus and Bube v. Aspirus could affect litigation involving employee vaccine exemptions, and discuss employer best practices for handling accommodation requests that include both religious and secular concerns.

  • Employers Should Not Neglect Paid Military Leave Compliance

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    An August decision from the Ninth Circuit and the settlement of a long-running class action, both examining paid leave requirements under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, are part of a nationwide trend that should prompt employers to review their military leave policies to avoid potential litigation and reputational damage, says Bradford Kelley at Littler.

  • Old Employment Law Principles Can Answer New AI Concerns

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    Despite growing legal and regulatory concerns about how artificial intelligence tools may affect employment decisions and worker rights, companies should take comfort in knowing that familiar principles of employment law and established compliance regimes can still largely address these new twists on old questions, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

  • NYC Wage Info Bill Highlights Rise In Pay Transparency Laws

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    With New York City the latest to mull requiring companies to annually report employee wage data, national employers should consider adapting their compliance practices to comply with increasingly common pay transparency and disclosure obligations at state and local levels, says Kelly Cardin at Littler Mendelson.

  • Workday AI Bias Suit Suggests Hiring Lessons For Employers

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    As state laws and a federal agency increasingly focus on employment bias introduced by artificial intelligence systems, a California federal court's recent decision to allow a discrimination suit to proceed against Workday's AI-driven recruitment software, shows companies should promptly assess these tools' risks, say attorneys at Williams & Connolly.

  • How Anti-DEI Bill Could Affect Employers' Diversity Efforts

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    Sen. J.D. Vance's recently introduced Dismantle DEI Act would substantially limit employers’ ability to implement and promote workplace diversity, equity and inclusion, but there are still steps employers can take to support a diverse workforce, says Peter Ennis at Cozen O’Connor.