Discrimination

  • May 13, 2025

    Ex-Defender Can't Block Mystery Info In Sex Bias Case Appeal

    The federal government can submit additional documents from a district court case record in an appeal by a former assistant public defender in North Carolina who accused the federal judiciary of sex bias, the Fourth Circuit ruled Tuesday over the assistant public defender's objections.

  • May 13, 2025

    Democracy Forward Picks Up 4 More Ex-DOJ Attys

    The legal advocacy group Democracy Forward has brought on four former U.S. Department of Justice litigators, adding to a string of hires the organization has made from the federal government as it takes on the Trump administration in court.

  • May 13, 2025

    Venable Wants Out Of 'It Ends With Us' Subpoena

    Venable LLP asked a D.C. federal judge to toss a subpoena of the firm stemming from litigation between actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni over the movie "It Ends with Us," accusing Baldoni and his production company of embarking on an "unwarranted fishing expedition."

  • May 13, 2025

    Black Va. Cop Gets $7.25M Jury Win In Promotion Bias Suit

    The city of Alexandria, Virginia, should pay $7.25 million to a Black police officer who claimed he lost out on a promotion because white colleagues complained that he was going to get the job only to advance diversity, a federal jury found.

  • May 12, 2025

    Mass. Court Says NIH Grant Disruption Suit Is In The Right Place

    A Massachusetts federal court ruled Monday that it has jurisdiction over several states' lawsuit challenging delays and cancellations of federal grant programs linked to issues they say are "disfavored" by the Trump administration, rejecting the federal government's contention that the claims instead belonged in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

  • May 12, 2025

    Ex-Ga. Teacher Aims To Keep COVID Leave Claims Alive

    A former Fulton County, Georgia, teacher who said she was forced out of her job by her district's refusal to accommodate her disability during the COVID-19 pandemic has urged a federal judge to keep her suit alive, objecting to a magistrate judge's finding that she waited too long to act on her allegations.

  • May 12, 2025

    6th Circ. Says Worker Must Arbitrate Sex Harassment Suit

    A former retail employee must arbitrate her lawsuit claiming her male supervisor belittled her because she's a woman, the Sixth Circuit ruled Monday, saying the worker's admission that an agreement applied trumps the trial court's invocation of a federal law keeping sex harassment cases out of arbitration.

  • May 12, 2025

    New Pope's Name Signals Focus On Work Issues

    The choice of the name Leo XIV signals the new pope intends to make workers' rights a pillar of his papacy as the rise of artificial intelligence presages a workplace shake-up like that of the manufacturing revolution under the last pope to bear the moniker.

  • May 12, 2025

    Ex-Liberty VP Can Shield Health Info In Bias Suit, For Now

    A Black former Liberty Mutual vice president and senior talent adviser got a temporary sealing order Monday in her race bias suit against the insurer, with a North Carolina magistrate judge stating that certain documents including her personal health information would be protected until her permanent sealing bid is resolved.

  • May 12, 2025

    Puerto Rico Insurer Strikes Deal In EEOC Disability Bias Suit

    A Puerto Rico insurance company has agreed to pay $100,000 to shutter a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission disability bias suit claiming the company refused to immediately transfer an employee to another role to accommodate her fibromyalgia, the EEOC said Monday.

  • May 12, 2025

    Law Students Say Trump Orders Imperil Their Future Careers

    More than 1,000 law students voiced support for Jenner & Block's bid to invalidate an executive order targeting the firm, arguing Monday that the Trump administration's directive threatens to compromise the legal profession and derail their careers before they can begin.

  • May 12, 2025

    BigLaw Student Fellowship Faces Discrimination Charge

    A new legal advocacy organization alleged that a decades-old program that partners with dozens of BigLaw firms to support incoming law students is racially discriminatory.

  • May 12, 2025

    Will Justices Finally Rein In Universal Injunctions?

    The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to address for the first time Thursday the propriety of universal injunctions, a tool federal judges have increasingly used to broadly halt presidential orders and policy initiatives, and whose validity has haunted the high court's merits and emergency dockets for more than a decade.

  • May 12, 2025

    Mass. Jail Employee Says Sexist Colleagues Undermined Her

    A former program manager at a Massachusetts jail has alleged in state court she was repeatedly undermined by a group of male colleagues, then effectively demoted from her role as assistant superintendent in retaliation for complaining.

  • May 12, 2025

    Queens College Purged Jewish Adjunct Faculty, Suit Says

    Queens College unlawfully pushed out six accounting professors under the guise of budgetary concerns and low enrollment in an effort to "clean house" and rid the department of Jewish employees, a former faculty member claimed in New York federal court.

  • May 12, 2025

    BB&K Litigator Joins Jackson Lewis In San Diego

    Employment law firm Jackson Lewis PC is growing its West Coast ranks, bringing in a Best Best & Krieger LLP litigator as a principal in its San Diego office.

  • May 09, 2025

    Ga. Auto Dealer Accused Of Race Bias By Ex-Workers

    A Georgia automobile dealership operator has been sued in Georgia federal court by six Black former employees who allege they were discriminated against because of their race, then were fired for reporting the alleged mistreatment.

  • May 09, 2025

    Wells Fargo Execs Sued In Del. Over 'Sham' Diversity Efforts

    A Wells Fargo stockholder launched a derivative suit on Friday in Delaware's Court of Chancery seeking damages from 17 of the banking giant's directors and officers for potentially billions in costs tied to alleged "sham" diversity-focused recruitment and hiring initiatives.

  • May 09, 2025

    Employment Lawyers' Weekly DEI Cheat Sheet

    A D.C. federal judge appeared skeptical of the Trump administration’s claim that Susman Godfrey LLP violated anti-discrimination law, a Massachusetts federal judge ordered the government to define what it means by “diversity, equity and inclusion” and a new member was nominated to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Here, Law360 looks at notable DEI-related legal developments over the past week.

  • May 09, 2025

    4th Circ. Won't Loosen Charge Requirement In Race Bias Case

    The Fourth Circuit backed Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. on Friday in a Black billing contractor's lawsuit claiming he was fired for complaining he was let go for complaining about race bias, saying he hadn't properly named the utility company in his pre-suit discrimination charge.

  • May 09, 2025

    NY Forecast: X Arbitration Fees Dispute At 2nd Circ.

    This week, the Second Circuit will consider social media platform X's attempt to reverse a lower court order requiring it to pay fees for arbitration proceedings with employees who claim they were not paid the full amount of severance they were owed. Here, Law360 looks at this and other cases on the docket in New York.

  • May 09, 2025

    Disney Nears Prelim Approval On $43M Gender Pay Bias Deal

    A California judge said Friday he intends to grant preliminary approval of a $43.25 million class action settlement in a suit alleging Disney paid thousands of women in middle management less than their male colleagues.

  • May 09, 2025

    8th Circ. Won't Reopen IRS Employee's Promotion Bias Suit

    The Eighth Circuit refused Friday to revive an IRS special agent's lawsuit claiming she was denied a promotion because she's a Black woman in her 50s, saying she hadn't demonstrated the agency's decision not to move her up in its ranks was tainted by bias.

  • May 09, 2025

    NY Lawmakers Seek To Close Salary History Loophole

    A New York proposal to bar employers from asking job candidates about their salary expectations shows how states must keep refining and innovating pay disclosure laws as they learn lessons from real-world compliance.

  • May 09, 2025

    Souter's Clerks Remember Him As Humble, Kind And Caring

    Former clerks of retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter are heartbroken over the death of a man many of them remember more for his conscientiousness, humility, kindness and disdain for the spotlight than for his undeniable brilliance as a jurist.

Expert Analysis

  • EEOC Wearable Tech Guidance Highlights Monitoring Scrutiny

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    The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's recent fact sheet on wearable technologies cautions against potential issues with federal anti-discrimination laws and demonstrates growing concern from regulators and legislators about intrusive technologies in the workplace, say attorneys at Littler.

  • 4 Employment Law Areas Set To Change Under Trump

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    President Donald Trump's second term is expected to bring significant changes to the U.S. employment law landscape, including the potential for updated worker classification regulations, and challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion that are already taking shape, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • What Employment Bias Litigation Looks Like After Muldrow

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    Nine months after the U.S. Supreme Court created an undemanding standard for discrimination claims in Muldrow v. St. Louis, Eric Schnapper at the University of Washington discusses how the Title VII litigation landscape has changed and what to expect moving forward.

  • 10 Key Worker-Friendly California Employment Law Updates

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    New employment laws in California expand employee rights, transparency and enforcement mechanisms, and failing to educate department managers on these changes could put employers at risk, says Melanie Ronen at Stradley Ronon.

  • How PAGA Reform Can Inform Employer Strategies In 2025

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    While recent changes to California's Private Attorneys General Act will not significantly reduce PAGA claims, employers can use the new law to potentially limit their future exposure, by taking advantage of penalty reduction opportunities and more, say attorneys at Thompson Coburn.

  • How Deregulation Could Undermine Trump's Anti-DEI Agenda

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    While rolling back federal agency power benefited conservative policies during the Biden administration, it will likely undermine President Donald Trump's ability to wield agencies like the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives beyond the federal workforce and into the private sector, says Ally Coll at the Purple Method.

  • Trump Should Pass On Project 2025's Disparate Impact Plan

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    The Trump administration should reject Project 2025's call to eliminate the disparate impact doctrine because, as its pro-business Republican creators intended, a focus on dismantling unnecessary barriers to qualified job candidates serves companies' best interests more successfully than the alternatives, says Susan Carle at American University.

  • Expect A Big Shake Up At The EEOC Under 2nd Trump Admin

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    During President-elect Donald Trump’s second term, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is likely to significantly shift its focus and priorities, especially where workplace DEI initiatives, immigration enforcement, LGBTQ+ rights and pregnancy protections are concerned, say attorneys at Stoel Rives.

  • 4 Novel Issues From The Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni Suits

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    A series of lawsuits arising from actress Blake Lively's sexual harassment and retaliation complaint against her "It Ends With Us" co-star, Justin Baldoni, present novel legal issues that employment and defamation practitioners alike should follow as the litigation progresses, say attorneys at Dorsey & Whitney.

  • Religious Accommodation Lessons From $12.7M Vax Verdict

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    A Michigan federal jury’s recent $12.7 million verdict against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan starkly reminds employers of the risks they face when assessing employees’ religious accommodation requests, highlighting pitfalls to avoid and raising the opportunity to consider best practices to follow, say attorneys at Williams & Connolly.

  • Lessons From United's Axed Win In Firing Over Online Pics

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    In Wawrzenski v. United Airlines, a California state appeals court revived a flight attendant’s suit over her termination for linking photos of herself in uniform to her OnlyFans account, providing a cautionary tale for employers navigating the complexities of workplace policy enforcement in the digital age, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • How Trump Admin May Approach AI In The Workplace

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    Key indicators suggest that the incoming Trump administration will adopt a deregulatory approach to artificial intelligence, allowing states to fill the void, so it is critical that employers pay close attention to developing legal authority concerning AI tools, say attorneys at Littler.

  • Lessons Learned From 2024's Top FMLA Decisions

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    Last year's major litigation related to the Family and Medical Leave Act underscores why it is critical for employers to understand the basics of when leave and accommodations are required, say attorneys at Dechert.