Last week a trial court in Alameda County entered an order permitting Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. to recover nearly $125,000 in costs from the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA). Hobby Lobby incurred these...more
Arts and Crafts Retailer Refused to Allow Service Dog as Reasonable Accommodation, Federal Agency Charges - ST. LOUIS – Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., a national arts and crafts retailer, will pay $50,000 to resolve a...more
Company Refused to Allow Service Dog as Reasonable Accommodation, Federal Agency Charges - ST. LOUIS – Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., a national arts-and-crafts retailer, violated federal law when it refused to reasonably...more
The Illinois Appellate Court (Second District) recently issued an opinion deciding an issue of first impression here in Illinois: whether an employer violates the Illinois Human Rights Act (Act) by denying a transgender woman...more
On August 13, 2021, the Illinois Second District Appellate Court upheld the Illinois Human Rights Commission’s determination that Hobby Lobby violated the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA) by refusing to allow a transgender...more
Affirming the largest emotional distress award ever made by the Illinois Human Rights Commission, the Illinois Appellate Court for the Second District has handed down the first Illinois state court decision affirming a...more
Over the past several years, there has been a rise in class action lawsuits against retailers for allegedly deceptive price comparison advertising. Many of these lawsuits have alleged that retailers advertised “phantom”...more
Green vs. U.S., No. 16-6371 (10th Cir., Jan. 12, 2018) - Practitioners and donors often forget a pesky donation limitation that applies only to irrevocable trusts: the deduction for a real property donation is limited to the...more
2017 was a busy year for retailers and businesses with an online presence, as they faced a wave of demand letters and lawsuits alleging that their websites are inaccessible to the visually impaired and/or hearing impaired in...more
ANTICORRUPTION DEVELOPMENTS - U.K. Opens Corruption Investigation of Rio Tinto over Guinea Operations - On July 24, 2017, the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced that it had opened an investigation into...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Two New York federal judges recently said that the ADA covers websites (even those not connected to a physical place) and one held that working on improving the accessibility of one’s website does not make...more
Retailers and other businesses that have been waiting for the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to promulgate regulations concerning website accessibility under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (the “ADA”) will...more
The US government's settlement with Hobby Lobby on July 5, 2017 is part of its broader effort to combat trafficking in looted antiquities from the war-torn Middle East and to reduce market demand for such objects by punishing...more
Another website accessibility decision against a retailer, this time involving Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. in the Central District of California, highlights the uncertainty of the law and of litigating such cases while courts...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A federal judge in the Central District of California has allowed a blind plaintiff to continue his lawsuit about the accessibility of a public accommodation’s website under Title III of the ADA, despite...more
Yesterday, the Virginia Attorney General announced that it reached a settlement with Hobby Lobby over the retailer’s price comparisons. According to the press release, Hobby Lobby advertised discounts compared to “other...more
Hobby Lobby took on the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that it must provide female employees certain contraceptives on religious grounds and won. March for Life, a pro-life organization, is trying to reach the same result but...more
The Obama administration continues to use its executive authority to expand societal inclusion of transgender individuals. On September 3, the Department of Health and Human Services issued proposed rules under Section 1557...more
A federal court in Illinois, in Church of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ v. City of Markham, Illinois (N.D. Ill. 2015), dismissed some of the Church’s religious land use claims while allowing others to proceed. The case is...more
The U.S. Departments of Treasury, Labor (DOL) and Health and Human Services (HHS) have issued interim final regulations and Frequently Asked Questions and Answers on the cost-free coverage of preventive services under the...more
Last week the Agencies (DOL, HHS and IRS) issued final regulations concerning ACA’s preventive services mandate. This mandate requires non-grandfathered plans to cover specific preventive services, such as immunizations,...more
In its recent landmark Obergefell decision, the United States Supreme Court held that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry in all states. Many employers will have to decide whether to continue benefits for...more
Plaintiff, New Life Evangelistic Center, Inc., (“New Life”), an interdenominational Christian Church formed in 1972 by Reverend Larry Rice, recently sued the City of St. Louis, Missouri (the “City”) in the Eastern District of...more