Discrimination

  • July 01, 2025

    The Sharpest Dissents From The Supreme Court Term

    The term's sharpest dissents often looked beyond perceived flaws in majority reasoning to raise existential concerns about the role and future of the court, with the justices accusing one another of rewarding executive branch lawlessness, harming faith in the judiciary and threatening democracy, sometimes on an emergency basis with little briefing or explanation.

  • July 01, 2025

    Lighting Co. Can't Escape 401(k) Forfeiture, Health Fee Suit

    An Illinois federal judge narrowed a proposed federal benefits class action against an automotive lighting company from an ex-worker, but allowed allegations to proceed to discovery alleging the company misspent 401(k) forfeitures and failed to properly notify workers about a health plan tobacco surcharge.

  • July 01, 2025

    Defamation Litigation Roundup: Newsom, Lively, MyPillow

    In this month's defamation litigation roundup, Law360 looks back on a decision in the high-profile fight between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, as well as at a jury verdict in a voting machine company executive's case against MyPillow's CEO.

  • July 01, 2025

    Justices Face Busy Summer After Nixing Universal Injunctions

    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to limit nationwide injunctions was one of its biggest rulings of the term — a finding the court is likely going to be dealing with all summer. Here, Law360 takes a look at the decision, how it and other cases on the emergency docket overshadowed much of the court's other work, and what it all means for the months to come.

  • July 01, 2025

    4 Takeaways As Tennessee Dissolves Civil Rights Agency

    Tennessee lawmakers have eliminated the state's independent human rights agency and handed the attorney general its responsibility to enforce workplace anti-discrimination laws, a move that experts said other Republican-led states may follow. Here are four things to know about the transition.

  • July 01, 2025

    What Justices' Injunctions Ruling Means For Employment Law

    Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has limited universal injunctions, employers, workers and their advocates could have to turn to motions to vacate, associational standing and other pathways to relief in employment law litigation, attorneys said. Here, Law360 explores the potential impact.

  • July 01, 2025

    Unvaccinated Ex-Staffer Can Pursue Leaked Health Info Claims

    A Missouri appeals court on Tuesday revived a former hospital staffer's claims that her former employer failed to protect her medical records while she was a patient, leading to her coworkers finding out she was unvaccinated against the COVID-19 virus and them harassing her until she resigned.

  • July 01, 2025

    Amazon Escapes Worker's Military Leave Suit

    A former Amazon employee cannot show that she was fired because she requested to take military leave or because she needed to care for her son, a New York federal judge ruled, saying she can't rebut the company's argument that she was fired for violating security protocol.

  • July 01, 2025

    Legal Aid Attys Can't Sever Union Ties Over Its Mideast Views

    A New York federal judge tossed two New York City public defenders' lawsuit against their union, saying the attorneys can't leverage the U.S. Supreme Court's Janus ruling to stop paying the union because they disagree with its stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

  • June 30, 2025

    Feds Say Title VII Doesn't Protect EEOC Member From Firing

    Former EEOC Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels doesn't have standing to challenge her January firing from the agency, the federal government told a D.C. federal court Monday, arguing federal civil rights law doesn't protect members of the commission from removal.

  • June 30, 2025

    Meta, Shutterstock Can Arbitrate Ex-Worker's Pay Bias Suit

    A former Giphy engineer must arbitrate her lawsuit accusing Meta, and later Shutterstock, of paying her $2 million less than male colleagues when they took over the online GIF database, a New York federal judge ruled Monday.

  • June 30, 2025

    Ex-Defender Tells 4th Circ. Bias Hearing Would've Been Futile

    A former assistant public defender looking to revive her bias suit fought Monday to convince the Fourth Circuit that it would have been futile to wait for a final hearing on her sexual harassment claim through the judiciary's internal complaint process before quitting, citing in part her boss's alleged favoritism of the accused party.

  • June 30, 2025

    Muldrow No Help In United Age Bias Case, 7th Circ. Says

    The Seventh Circuit backed United Airlines' win over a suit from a former communications worker who alleged she was placed on a performance improvement plan because she complained about age bias, rejecting her argument that the U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 Muldrow decision put her case on solid ground.

  • June 30, 2025

    Calif. Civil Rights Agency Gets Workplace AI Rules Approved

    California's civil rights agency announced Monday that it has secured final approval for employment regulations governing the use of artificial intelligence tools, saying the rules will help protect against potential employment discrimination.

  • June 30, 2025

    4th Circ. Won't Rethink Tossed Pregnancy Bias Suit

    The Fourth Circuit has said it would not reconsider the dismissal of a lawsuit in which a former medical center worker claimed she was denied fair accommodation and fired due to pregnancy bias.

  • June 30, 2025

    Trump Admin Appeals Perkins Coie Case To DC Circ.

    The Trump administration announced in D.C. federal court on Monday that it's not giving up on its effort to punish Perkins Coie LLP through an executive order, even after losing four court rulings that found its actions in this and three similar cases are unconstitutional.

  • June 30, 2025

    Justices Decline To Hear Ex-Tesla Worker's Whistleblower Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a petition filed by a former Tesla employee who claimed he was retaliated against for reporting various forms of alleged misconduct at a Nevada factory to both company management and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

  • July 07, 2025

    CORRECTED: 3 Bias Arguments Sessions To Watch In July

    The Third and Sixth Circuits are scheduled to hear a trio of oral arguments in July as a fired professor, human resources executive and school dean each plan to argue that their terminations violated federal anti-bias law. Here, Law360 looks at those cases. 

  • June 30, 2025

    Tennessee Shutters Civil Rights Agency After 62 Years

    Tennessee has closed its 62-year-old agency tasked with enforcing antidiscrimination laws, nullifying any charges pending before it and transferring its civil rights duties to a newly created division within the state attorney general's office.

  • June 30, 2025

    High Court Turns Away Fired Christian Workers' Vax Bias Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a Third Circuit ruling that shuttered Christian workers' suits claiming a healthcare system illegally fired them for opposing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, despite the workers' assertions that the opinion improperly constricted their religious rights.

  • June 30, 2025

    Trump Administration Says Harvard Violated Civil Rights Law

    The Trump administration on Monday informed Harvard University that it had run afoul of federal civil rights law by failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students on campus from harassment, and threatened to cut all funding from the nation's oldest university.

  • June 30, 2025

    Justices Undo Patients' Win In Gender-Affirming Care Fight

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down a Fourth Circuit decision that preserved access to gender-affirming care under two state-run health plans, telling the lower court to consider a recent decision by the justices that upheld a Tennessee law limiting treatments for young transgender people.

  • June 30, 2025

    Justices Turn Away Fired Teacher's Prehire Speech Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to review a Massachusetts high school teacher's claim that individuals' speech rights should extend to things they say before being hired to a public job, though Justice Clarence Thomas wrote to express dismay with the First Circuit's approach toward controversial political commentary.

  • June 27, 2025

    Trump's Susman Godfrey 'Sword Of Damocles' Order Tossed

    A Washington, D.C., federal judge Friday struck down as unconstitutional President Donald Trump's executive order targeting Susman Godfrey LLP, saying it was issued in retaliation for the firm's representation of clients and causes with which the president disagrees, while hanging "like the sword of Damocles" over the BigLaw firm.

  • June 27, 2025

    DOD's Pot Questions Violate 5th Amendment, Contractor Says

    A former defense contractor who was denied security clearance because he refused to say if he had consumed marijuana during a specific time period is suing the U.S. Department of Defense, alleging it violated his constitutional right against self-incrimination.

Expert Analysis

  • What Employers Should Consider When Drafting AI Policies

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    As generative artificial intelligence continues to evolve and transform the workplace, employers should examine six issues when creating their corporate AI policies in order to balance AI's efficiencies with the oversight needed to prevent potential biases and legal pitfalls, say attorneys at Jackson Lewis.

  • Eye On Compliance: When Calif. Jobs Require Driver Licenses

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    With a California law banning unnecessarily requiring job applicants to have driver's licenses rolling out Jan. 1, employers should take to heart the law's goal of preventing discriminatory barriers while they assess and revise their employment materials for compliance, says Ani Khachatryan at Wilson Elser.

  • Ring In The New Year With An Updated Employee Handbook

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    One of the best New Year's resolutions employers can make is to update their employee handbooks, given that a handbook can mitigate, or even prevent, costly litigation as long as it accounts for recent changes in laws, court rulings and agency decisions, say attorneys at Kutak Rock.

  • 5 Employer Defenses To Military Status Discrimination Claims

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    A Colorado federal court's recent ruling, finding a Navy reservist wasn't denied promotion at his civilian job due to antimilitary bias, highlights several defenses employers can use to counter claims of violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, say attorneys at Littler Mendelson.

  • Justices Mull Sex-Based Classification In Trans Law Case

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in U.S. v. Skrmetti this week, it appears that the fate of the Tennessee law at the center of the case — a law banning gender-affirming healthcare for transgender adolescents — will hinge on whether the majority read the statute as imposing a sex-based classification, says Alexandra Crandall at Dickinson Wright.

  • Pa. Ruling Highlights Challenges Of Employer Arb. Appeals

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    A Pennsylvania federal court's recent ruling in Welch Foods v. General Teamsters Local Union No. 397 demonstrates the inherent difficulties employers face when seeking relief from labor arbitration decisions through appeals in court — and underscores how employers are faced with often conflicting legal priorities, says Daniel Johns at Cozen O'Connor.

  • 7 Ways To Prepare For An I-9 Audit Or Immigration Raid

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    Because immigration enforcement is likely to surge under the upcoming Trump administration, employers should take steps to ensure their staff is trained in employment eligibility verification requirements and what to do in the event of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement I-9 audit or workplace raid, say attorneys at Littler.

  • California Supreme Court's Year In Review

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    Attorneys at Horvitz & Levy highlight notable decisions on major questions from the California Supreme Court's last term, including voter initiatives, hostile work environment and the economic loss rule.

  • Disentangling Various Forms Of Workplace Discrimination

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    Pay inequity can be missed where it exists and misidentified due to incorrect statistics, leaving individuals to face multiple facets of discrimination connected by a common root cause, meaning correct identification and measurement is crucial, says Daniel Levy at Advanced Analytical.

  • Key Requirements In New Maryland Pay Transparency Laws

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    Although several jurisdictions now require pay transparency in job advertisements, Maryland's new law is among the broadest in the country, both in terms of what is required and the scope of its applicability, says Sarah Belger at Quarles & Brady.

  • Lessons From EEOC Case Of Fla. Worker Fired After Stillbirth

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    A recent federal court settlement between a Florida resort and a fired line cook shows that the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission sees stillbirth as protected under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, also providing four other important lessons, says Gordon Berger at Pierson Ferdinand.

  • Advising Employers As AI Meets DEI And Discrimination

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Though companies can use artificial intelligence tools to develop more diverse and inclusive workforces, counsel should also prepare employers for how AI can stymie these efforts, provoke discrimination claims and complicate resulting litigation, says Emily Schifter at Troutman Pepper.

  • A Look At The Hefty Demands In Calif. Employer AI Draft Regs

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    California's draft regulations on artificial intelligence use in employment decisions show that the California Privacy Protection Agency is positioning itself as a de facto AI regulator for the state, which isn't waiting around for federal legislation, says Lily Li at Metaverse Law.