Discrimination

  • June 04, 2024

    8th Circ. Erases Pharmacist's Win In Service Dog ADA Suit

    The Eighth Circuit on Tuesday upended a pharmacist's $134,000 jury trial win in her lawsuit accusing a Missouri city of unlawfully barring her from bringing her service dog to work to help her monitor her diabetes, saying she failed to show that she needed the dog to do her job.

  • June 04, 2024

    2nd Circ. Backs TD Bank's Win Over Ex-Manager's Bias Suit

    The Second Circuit refused Tuesday to revive a former TD Bank manager's suit claiming he was fired because he suffered from anxiety and had requested parental leave, finding he couldn't overcome the bank's explanation that he was let go because of forgery.

  • June 04, 2024

    Legal Tech Co. Wants Ex-Exec's $1M Stock Suit Out Of NY

    A former legal tech executive's lawsuit claiming she was sexually harassed, fired and then cut out of $1 million in stock options should be moved from New York to either Texas or arbitration, or dismissed entirely, her former colleagues said Tuesday, calling the allegations against them "vague and conclusory."

  • June 04, 2024

    Ex-Lumentum VP Traded On Merger Info, SEC Says

    The former vice president of product line management at Lumentum has been accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of using nonpublic information about a pending merger to trade stock during his time with the laser products company.

  • June 04, 2024

    Debevoise Litigation Dept. Gets Shake-Up As Co-Chair Retires

    Debevoise & Plimpton LLP announced Tuesday that it has appointed longtime New York-based partner Jyotin "Joe" Hamid as the new co-chair of its litigation department, succeeding Mary Beth Hogan next month as she prepares to retire at the end of the year.

  • June 04, 2024

    NJ Pitches Rule To Clarify Disparate Impact Bias Ban

    New Jersey's civil rights agency proposed a rule laying out the standards for the state's prohibitions on workplace policies that have a disproportionate impact on people in protected classes.

  • June 04, 2024

    Ogletree Opens 7th California Office In Fresno

    Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC has opened an office in Fresno, California, absorbing a location previously operated by Raimondo Miller ALC and its five attorneys, the firm has announced.

  • June 04, 2024

    11th Circ. Won't Revisit Class Nix In AT&T Pregnancy Bias Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit refused to rethink the denial of class certification in a suit alleging AT&T discriminated against pregnant workers by penalizing them for childbirth-related absences, saying an appeal from a worker who intervened following a settlement deal was premature.

  • June 04, 2024

    Single On-The-Job Slur Can't Sustain EEOC Suit, Judge Says

    A Wisconsin plastics company defeated a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit claiming a Black employee endured a hostile work environment, with a federal judge finding that one alleged use of a racial slur at work wasn't enough to keep the case alive.

  • June 04, 2024

    Google Settles Suit Claiming It Pushed Out Older Men

    Google reached a deal to resolve a suit from a former manager who claimed he was fired because the company wanted to oust older men in favor of young women, a filing in Texas federal court said.

  • June 03, 2024

    General Mills Facility Run By White Supremacists, Suit Says

    General Mills workers sued in Georgia federal court on Sunday alleging the food giant tolerated a racist environment at its Covington plant perpetuated by a fraternity of white male supremacists who used Confederate and Ku Klux Klan-associated imagery and who treated Black workers unfairly, including by denying them promotions.

  • June 03, 2024

    Hooters Can't Yet Ditch Ex-Workers' Sex Harassment Claims

    A California appellate court has refused to undo a lower court's decision finding that Hooters of America must continue to fight former servers' allegations that they were harassed and abused at work, ruling that Hooters hasn't met its burden of showing that it was entitled to summary adjudication.

  • June 03, 2024

    5th Circ. Mulls Acts Vs. Belief In Anti-Abortion Worker's Firing

    The Fifth Circuit on Monday seemed torn over whether it should "split hairs" between religious conduct and religious belief as it weighed whether to uphold a Southwest flight attendant's win in a wrongful termination suit over graphic anti-abortion messages she sent her union president.

  • June 03, 2024

    3rd Circ. Says High Court Ruling Revives EEOC Age Bias Suit

    The Third Circuit said a lower court needs to take another look at a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit alleging Novo Nordisk told a worker she couldn't transfer positions because of her older age, remanding the case in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

  • June 03, 2024

    Cabinet Co. Cuts Deal To End EEOC Retaliation Suit

    A cabinetmaker reached a $165,000 deal to resolve a lawsuit from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing it of firing employees who complained that Hispanic managers were being barred from certain duties and subjected to higher scrutiny, according to a filing Monday in New Mexico federal court.

  • June 03, 2024

    EEOC, Transportation Co. Settle Demographic Data Suit

    The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a transportation company told a North Carolina federal court they've agreed to end the agency's lawsuit claiming the company failed to report demographic information about its employees for several years.

  • June 03, 2024

    2nd Circ. Revives Ex-Bloomberg Reporter's Bias Case

    The Second Circuit on Monday reopened a former Bloomberg reporter's lawsuit alleging she was denied a job in Manhattan because she's of South Asian descent, after New York state's highest court clarified that state law can protect out-of-state job applicants.

  • June 03, 2024

    EEOC Brings On Chief AI Officer From NLRB

    The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Monday that the former head of data strategy at the National Labor Relations Board has been named the EEOC's new deputy chief information officer and chief artificial intelligence officer.

  • June 03, 2024

    6th Circ. Says $10.5M Ascension Hospitals Vax Deal Too Broad

    The Sixth Circuit scrapped a settlement Monday in a class action claiming that Ascension Health Alliance illegally fired or suspended religious workers who rejected the COVID-19 vaccine, ruling the Michigan-based employees backing the suit lack standing to expand the deal nationwide.

  • June 03, 2024

    3rd Circ. Backs Bad Subpoena Sanction In Race, Sex Bias Suit

    The Third Circuit has upheld a $6,720 fee sanction against a New Jersey attorney for serving an intentionally misleading subpoena while representing a Garden State management company against federal race and sex bias claims.

  • June 03, 2024

    Grocer Strikes Deal To Exit EEOC Sex Harassment Suit

    A grocery store chain agreed to pay $75,000 to resolve a lawsuit from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing it of firing an employee after she complained that a male supervisor had sexually harassed her, a Monday filing in Pennsylvania federal court said.

  • June 03, 2024

    Ex-Conn. Dispensary Supervisor Drops Transgender Bias Suit

    A former supervisor at a Branford, Connecticut, cannabis dispensary has withdrawn her claims that her colleagues targeted her for being transgender and tried to get her in trouble at work by falsely claiming she was high on the job, targeting that allegedly led to her termination.

  • June 03, 2024

    Supreme Court Ruling Keeps Amazon Race Bias Suit Alive

    Amazon Music can't sink a Black former worker's suit alleging her responsibilities were reduced and she was placed on a performance improvement plan for complaining about her manager, a New York federal judge said, ruling her claims are viable based on a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.

  • June 01, 2024

    Blockbuster Summer: 10 Big Issues Justices Still Must Decide

    As the calendar flips over to June, the U.S. Supreme Court still has heaps of cases to decide on issues ranging from trademark registration rules to judicial deference and presidential immunity. Here, Law360 looks at 10 of the most important topics the court has yet to decide.

  • May 31, 2024

    Colo. AI Bias Law Lays 'Foundation' For New State Patchwork

    Colorado's trailblazing legislation for regulating high-risk uses of artificial intelligence is likely to inspire other states to act, although a host of "reservations" about the measure from advocates and even Colorado's governor are likely to result in a fragmented national landscape as other states' legislatures use the measure as a launching point rather than a model they'd want to fully replicate. 

Expert Analysis

  • Vaccine Accommodation Suits Show Risk Of Blanket Policies

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    A recent federal class action alleging Tyson Foods inappropriately applied a one-size-fits-all response to Arkansas employees seeking religious COVID-19 vaccine exemptions, with similar suits going back to 2022, should remind employers to individually consider every worker request for a religious accommodation, say Christopher Pardo and Elizabeth Sherwood at Hunton.

  • Workplace Challenges Amid Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

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    Recent tension over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has caused challenges in the employment sphere, sparking the question of whether employees can be legally disciplined for speaking out on issues related to the conflict, which depends on various circumstances, says Alok Nadig at Sanford Heisler.

  • Water Cooler Talk: Insights On Noncompetes From 'The Office'

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    Troutman Pepper’s Tracey Diamond, Evan Gibbs, Constance Brewster and Jim Earle compare scenarios from “The Office” to the complex world of noncompetes and associated tax issues, as employers are becoming increasingly hesitant to look to noncompete provisions amid a potential federal ban.

  • High Court's Job Bias Questions May Predict Title VII Ruling

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    Employers may be able to predict — and prepare for — important changes to workplace discrimination laws by examining the questions the U.S. Supreme Court asked during oral arguments for Muldrow v. St. Louis, where several justices seemed to favor a low threshold for Title VII suits, says Wendy LaManque at Pryor Cashman.

  • 2 Cases Highlight NJ Cannabis Employment Law Uncertainties

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    More than two years after its enactment, the employee protections and employer obligations in New Jersey's Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance and Marketplace Modernization Act remain unsettled, and two recent lawsuits draw attention to the law's enforceability and its intersection with federal law, say Ruth Rauls at Saul Ewing and David White at Seton Hall.

  • 3 Compliance Reminders For Calif. Employers In 2024

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    As we enter into the new year, several recent updates to California employment law — including minimum wage and sick leave requirements — necessitate immediate compliance actions for employers, says Daniel Pyne at Hopkins & Carley.

  • Sex Harassment Arbitration Exemption: Devil Is In The Date

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    A Federal Arbitration Act amendment that exempts workplace sexual harassment claims from arbitration is muddled in ongoing confusion about its chronological reach — and as many such cases begin to run up against applicable statutes of limitations, the clock is ticking for claimants to bring their actions in court, says Abe Melamed at Signature Resolution.

  • Top 10 Employer Resolutions For 2024

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    From technological leaps to sea changes in labor policy to literal sea changes, 2024 provides opportunities for employers to face big-picture questions that will shape their business for years to come, say Allegra Lawrence-Hardy and Lisa Haldar at Lawrence & Bundy.

  • Lessons Learned From 2023's Top FMLA Decisions

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    This year’s most significant Family and Medical Leave Act decisions offer lessons on the act's technical requirements, including the definition of serious health condition, compliance with notice requirements and whether it is permissible to give an employee substantial extra work upon their return from leave, says Linda Dwoskin at Dechert.

  • Artificial Intelligence Is In Need Of Regulation — But How?

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    Since most of the artificial intelligence-related laws in 2023 were part of more extensive consumer privacy law, the U.S. still has a lot of work to do to build consensus on how to oversee AI, and even who should do the regulating, before moving forward on specific and reasonable guidelines as AI's capabilities grow, say Nick Toufexis and Paul Saputo at Saputo Toufexis.

  • Lessons Learned From 2023's Top ADA Decisions

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    This year saw the courts delving into the complexities of employee accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act in the post-pandemic workplace, going beyond bright-line rules with fact-intensive inquiries that are likely to create uncertainty for employers, says Linda Dwoskin at Dechert.

  • What's Ahead For Immigrant Employee Rights Enforcement

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    The U.S. Department of Justice’s increased enforcement related to immigration-based employment discrimination is coupled with pending constitutional challenges to administrative tribunals, suggesting employers should leverage those headwinds when facing investigations or class action-style litigation, say attorneys at Jones Day.

  • Top 10 Whistleblowing And Retaliation Events Of 2023

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and federal and state courts made 2023 another groundbreaking year for whistleblower litigation and retaliation developments, including the SEC’s massive whistleblower awards, which are likely to continue into 2024 and further incentivize individuals to submit tips, say attorneys at Proskauer.