Discrimination

  • July 01, 2025

    EEOC Wraps Up June With A Flurry Of Suits

    The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a spate of new cases as June ended, including suits alleging that an executive asked a worker to enter a sexual contract, a company required an applicant to take an electrocardiogram, and Walmart pushed out a worker returning from COVID-19 leave. Here, Law360 takes a look at seven lawsuits the EEOC filed Monday.

  • 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.

Expert Analysis

  • Employment Verification Poses Unique Risks For Staffing Cos.

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    All employers face employee verification issues, but a survey of recent settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice's Immigrant and Employee Rights Section suggests that staffing companies' unique circumstances raise the chances they will be investigated and face substantial fines, says Eileen Scofield at Alston & Bird.

  • What To Expect As Worker Bias Suit Heads To High Court

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    The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, which concerns how courts treat discrimination claims brought by majority group plaintiffs, and its decision could eliminate the background circumstances test, but is unlikely to significantly affect employers' diversity programs, say Victoria Slade and Alysa Mo at Davis Wright.

  • Mitigating Construction Employers' Risks Of Discrimination

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    Recent heightened government scrutiny of construction industry employment practices illustrates the need for nondiscriminatory recruitment and proactive assessment of workforces and worksites, including auditing for demographic disparities and taking documented steps to address such issues, say attorneys at Seyfarth.

  • Cos. Should Focus On State AI Laws Despite New DOL Site

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    Because a new U.S. Department of Labor-sponsored website about the disability discrimination risks of AI hiring tools mostly echoes old guidance, employers should focus on complying with the state and local AI workplace laws springing up where Congress and federal regulators have yet to act, say attorneys at Littler.

  • 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.