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Mealey's Employment

  • January 23, 2026

    AI Discrimination Attorneys Describe Efforts At Discovery, Finding Co-Counsel

    SAN FRANCISCO — Rebutting a judge’s suggestions that they were “asleep at the wheel,” attorneys in a case alleging that an artificial intelligence hiring platform discriminated against applicants told a federal judge in California that they diligently processed discovery and sought association with counsel who can provide the needed resources.

  • January 23, 2026

    Only Employees’ Negligence Claim Over Cyberattack Remains After Dismissal

    ATLANTA — Three workers who filed a putative consolidated class complaint against their employer after a 2023 data breach have standing to sue by sufficiently alleging a concrete injury and may proceed with their negligence claim, a federal judge in Georgia ruled, partially granting the employer’s motion to dismiss as to three other claims and granting the workers 14 days to file an amended complaint.

  • January 22, 2026

    Job Seekers Accuse AI Application Screener Of Unfair Evaluations

    MARTINEZ, Calif. — Two unsuccessful job applicants filed a putative class action in California state court accusing an AI employee-screening company of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by evaluating the plaintiffs’ applications to companies that use the AI software at issue to score their applications based on “sensitive and often inaccurate information.”

  • January 22, 2026

    Mission Board Waives Response To Cert Petition In Minister Defamation Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention Inc. (NAMB) waived its right to respond to a petition for writ of certiorari filed in the U.S. Supreme Court by a former director of a general mission board of a regional cooperative missions and ministry organization seeking a ruling on church autonomy decisions after a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority upheld dismissal of his defamation lawsuit.

  • January 22, 2026

    9th Circuit Upholds Summary Judgment In Workers’ ‘Dead End’ Jobs Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a federal judge in California’s order granting summary judgment to the United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) in a case brought by three female workers who alleged that they were relegated to work in the back and “dead end” job opportunities due to their gender, age and disabilities, finding that the workers failed to “identify similarly situated male comparators who were treated more favorably” to establish a prima facie case for discrimination and holding that the lower court did not abuse its discretion in ruling on the diligence of the workers’ discovery.

  • January 21, 2026

    High Court Hears Arguments On President’s Control Of Federal Reserve Seat

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The solicitor general told the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 21 that the justices should stay a preliminary injunction that reinstated Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa D. Cook after she was purportedly removed by President Donald J. Trump in August via a social media post as the removal was proper since it was due to “deceit[ful]” or “gross[ly] negligen[t]” mortgage applications Cook submitted in 2021, prior to her being nominated to that post, and that the Federal Reserve has been given over the years what “is clearly quintessential executive power.”

  • January 21, 2026

    Fired Hotel Worker Argues Lack Of Jurisdiction In Arbitration Application Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A fired West Hollywood hotel worker who sued his employer for discrimination and retaliation contends that the U.S. Supreme Court should reverse a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judgment that confirmed a district court’s decision to award him nothing in arbitration and to grant sanctions to his employer “[b]ecause the federal courts lacked jurisdiction.”

  • January 21, 2026

    High Court Denies Fired MSU Researcher’s Discrimination Claims Dismissal Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for writ of certiorari filed by a former Michigan State University (MSU) researcher asking what constitutes commencement of a civil action under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 3 for the purpose of timeliness and whether dismissal of his complaint for failure to plead his case conflicts with Rule 8 and the high court’s decision in Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N.A.

  • January 21, 2026

    SSA To Court: Former DOGE Team’s Data Use Possibly Noncompliant With TRO

    BALTIMORE — The Social Security Administration (SSA) filed a notice in a federal court in Maryland stating that in December 2025 it made two Hatch Act referrals to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and notified the U.S. Department of Justice of instances of use of SSA data “by the then-SSA DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] Team” that were “potentially outside of SSA policy and/or noncompliant” with a temporary restraining order (TRO) entered in March 2025.

  • January 20, 2026

    Southwest Pilots Union Urges High Court To Reject Boeing’s RLA Preemption Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) contends in a Jan. 16 response to a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by the Boeing Co. that the U.S. Supreme Court should deny the petition, asserting that it is “settled precedent by the Texas Supreme Court” that the Railway Labor Act (RLA) does not block the union from arguing, on behalf of its members, that Boeing misled them about the safety and airworthiness of the 737 MAX when the company convinced the union to include references to the aircraft in a collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

  • January 20, 2026

    Respondent Cites ‘Black-Letter Law’ Classifying Drivers In FAA Arbitration Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An independent distributor of a national corporation’s bakery products says in a response brief filed in a U.S. Supreme Court case challenging classification of delivery drivers for purposes of exemption from arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act that “it was and still is black-letter law that once goods begin an interstate journey, they remain in interstate transportation until they reach their final destination”; thus, the transporters of those goods are, in fact, “engaged in interstate transportation” and “therefore exempt from the FAA.”

  • January 16, 2026

    Immigration Judges Get Extension To Respond To Speech Policy Dispute Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court gave the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ) more time to respond to a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by the director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) asking for review of a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s ruling that vacated dismissal of a complaint that challenged a federal employee speech policy.

  • January 15, 2026

    U.S. Senator Sues Federal Officers Over Free Speech Right To Condemn Trump Orders

    WASHINGTON, D.C. —  A U.S. senator and retired Navy captain who was issued a censure letter and faces a deduction in his retirement pay for making public statements labeled as “sedition” and “treason” about servicemembers' legal obligations to disregard federal orders sued the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy and their respective secretaries in federal court in the District of Columbia alleging violations of the First Amendment and breach of other constitutional rights .

  • January 15, 2026

    Judge: Plaintiffs In ‘Important’ AI Employment Case Must Explain Discovery Delay

    SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiffs in what the court described as “an important case alleging use of biased artificial intelligence in hiring implicating potentially hundreds of millions of putative class members” must explain why discovery required for a certification motion appears incomplete, a federal judge in California held Jan. 14.

  • January 15, 2026

    High Court Denies Rehearing In Houston Adult Club Race Discrimination Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Following a majority’s denial of a petition for a writ of certiorari, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for rehearing filed by an African-American female entertainer who asked the court to determine if the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was correct in determining that her allegations of civil rights violations by two Houston clubs for refusing her entry to work on multiple occasions because of her race were barred by the statute of limitations.

  • January 15, 2026

    High Court Seeks Response On Arbitration Award Vacatur Concerning Severance

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 14 requested an employer’s response to a certiorari petition concerning a decision the petitioner says “encourages a cascade of litigation over the enforceability of arbitral awards”; the challenged 2-1 appeals court ruling affirmed vacatur of an award that resulted from pro se arbitration over severance pay and concerned an Employee Retirement Income Security Act discrimination claim that the majority concluded the claimant never raised.

  • January 15, 2026

    NFL, Teams Seek High Court Opinion On Enforcement Of Arbitration In Race Bias Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should hear an appeal concerning the enforceability of arbitration agreements entered into by National Football League coaches as the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) permits parties to select their own arbitration procedures, including arbitrators, the NFL and three teams argue in a petition for a writ of certiorari filed in a race bias putative class suit after a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that denial of arbitration was proper based on the provision designating the NFL commissioner as the default arbitrator and allowing the commissioner to develop the arbitral procedures.

  • January 14, 2026

    GEO Group Seeks U.S. High Court Review Of Immigration Detainee Class Wage Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The operator of immigration detention centers across the United States filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause permits a state, in this case Washington, to find detainees participating in a voluntary work program as employees who are owed state-mandated minimum wages.

  • January 14, 2026

    1st Circuit Agrees Ferry Authority Workers Won’t Succeed With Vaccine Claims

    BOSTON — A First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that a trial court properly denied a renewed motion for a preliminary injunction filed by employees of a Massachusetts ferry operations authority who sued the authority and its director of Human Resources after requests for religious exemptions from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate were denied, finding that the employees did not establish that they were likely to succeed on the merits.

  • January 13, 2026

    High Court Won’t Review Cases Involving Collective Action, FMLA, Retaliation, More

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 12 denied petitions for a writ of certiorari filed in cases involving collective bargaining representation, Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) retaliation, due process requirements when issuing damages, constitutional right to free speech, an untimely filed appeal and criticism of the use of McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green framework.

  • January 13, 2026

    Parties Dismiss Settled COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal Religious Discrimination Case

    DENVER — Having previously notified a Colorado federal court of their intention to settle, the parties to a lawsuit by a former employee of a nursing facility alleging religious discrimination by her employer stemming from her termination as a result of her refusal to be vaccinated for COVID-19 filed a stipulated motion of dismissal with prejudice on Jan. 12.

  • January 13, 2026

    Pa. Panel: Possible Privilege With Unlicensed Attorney Under Reasonable Belief

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania appeals panel vacated a lower court’s ruling that the plaintiff in a wrongful termination lawsuit could not rely on the attorney-client privilege to withhold items during discovery, holding that despite his attorney’s unlicensed status, the privilege could still apply if the plaintiff reasonably believed that the attorney was licensed to practice law.

  • January 13, 2026

    U.S. High Court Declines Fraud Concealment Question In Sherman Act Class Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 12 declined to decide whether an alleged unwritten no-poach agreement between companies that allegedly suppress wages for naval engineers is sufficient to constitute an affirmative act of fraudulent concealment tolling the Sherman Act’s statute of limitations in a putative class lawsuit.

  • January 13, 2026

    Disability Bias Dismissal Upheld, Disclosure Claim Revived In 11th Circuit

    ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a summary judgment order dismissing disability discrimination, retaliation and hostile work environment claims brought against the Department of Veterans Affairs by an employee after she allegedly experienced respiratory issues while working in a regional Florida office but reversed and remanded a claim that her manager unlawfully disclosed medical information pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

  • January 12, 2026

    Supreme Court Will Not Review NLRB’s Ruling In Complaint Withdrawal Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 12 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a wholesale grocery company asking for review of the National Labor Relations Board’s ruling that an acting general counsel may withdraw an unfair labor practice complaint that his predecessor issued against a union.