A federal judge in Texas has struck down the Federal Trade Commission's ("FTC") new rule banning non-compete agreements for workers, preventing the rule from going into effect on September 4.
In her opinion, Judge Ada Brown...more
A federal District Court in the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, has issued a limited injunction against the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) recently announced rule against employers using non-competition...more
Our Decades-Old Tradition Returns In Person!
Join us to learn about the latest updates and best practices for employers, in-house counsel, and HR professionals.
Among the topics during this year’s general session are a...more
9/29/2022
/ Best Practices ,
Continuing Legal Education ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Monitoring ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Eligibility Verification ,
Employment Litigation ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Events ,
Foreign Workers ,
Form I-9 ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
NLRB ,
Remote Working ,
State Labor Laws ,
Work Visas
Today, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that parts of the Department of Labor regulations on Emergency FMLA Expansion are contrary to statute. The ruling was part of a dispute between the State of New York and the Trump...more
The U.S. Supreme Court (“the Court”) today re-emphasized the “ministerial exception” to discrimination laws. The “ministerial exception” is a court-created doctrine that prevents the U.S. courts from becoming entangled in the...more
7/9/2020
/ Age Discrimination ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Dismissals ,
Employment Discrimination ,
First Amendment ,
Freedom of Religion ,
Ministerial Exception ,
Ministerial Function ,
Our Lady of Guadalupe School v Morrissey-Berru ,
Religious Schools ,
Religious Workers ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
St James School v Biel ,
Teachers
On March 18, 2020, the president signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. In addition to provisions addressing accessibility of testing for COVID-19 and workplace safety, the law imposed new requirements...more
The Supreme Court’s decision today on “Auer” deference leaves life in the legal trenches untouched. See Kisor v. Wilkie, No. 18-15 (S.Ct. June 26, 2019) Under Kisor, when a regulatory agency issues a rule that is really,...more
6/27/2019
/ Administrative Agencies ,
Ambiguous ,
Appeals ,
Auer Deference ,
Kisor v Wilkie ,
Reasonable Interpretations ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
Stare Decisis ,
Vacated ,
Veterans' Benefits
The news is everywhere: the DOL has issued its new proposal for the salary threshold for executive, administrative, and professional exemptions. Don’t panic – the announcement concerns a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The DOL...more
U.S. Courts of Appeals are split over whether Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and/or transgender status. A judge on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently offered his explanation for...more
We’ve seen it over and over. Employees, including top sales people, leave their job and start a competing company in the same city. But they want to take “their” clients with them. In a recent Pennsylvania case, the...more
The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has faced one of the least litigated issues under the ADA. Is a failure to accommodate the restrictions of a disabled employee, itself, an adverse employment action? Answer: no....more
Recently, the Kentucky Supreme Court considered whether the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) preempts a state law. The FAA prevents states from setting higher standards for entering into or enforcing arbitration agreements...more
The Department of Labor successfully stated a claim for record-keeping violations against a franchisor, because the franchisor failed to keep records on the hours worked by the specific individuals actually performing work...more
Montana is one of the few states where employers must have good cause to fire an employee. In this recent case, the employer fired its site manager because he had an employee return to work without a medical release and sign...more
The Second Circuit joined the Seventh Circuit and the EEOC in ruling that Title VII protects individuals from discrimination based on sexual orientation. Zarda v. Altitude Express, Inc., No. 15-3775 (2nd Cir. February 26,...more
2/28/2018
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Gender Identity ,
Hiring & Firing ,
LGBTQ ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals recently offered a refresher course on contract formation, as applied to employee bonus plans. The employer promised substantial bonuses, payable in five years, provided the eligible at-will...more
The former general counsel of the EEOC under President Obama leads a team that is giving many, many employers an early holiday nightmare. A union and a class of plaintiffs are seeking damages from a class of employers; if...more
An employer breached its fiduciary duty under ERISA by failing to inform benefit plan participants of the covered health insurance benefits in terms a reasonable person would understand. The employer was the plan...more
The NLRB holds – famously now – that sexist and racist conduct on a picket line is protected from adverse action unless the conduct is also violent and coercive. Despite a shot across its bow in Consolidated Communications,...more
An employer will face a trial on whether it negligently supervised an employee’s co-worker. The two workers had a relationship that ended when the man sexually assaulted the woman in her home. After trips to the emergency...more
A requested accommodation for a disability is not unreasonable as a matter of law just because it is illegal under federal law, says the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in a recent case. As applied there, the result is...more
7/18/2017
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Disability ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
MA Supreme Judicial Court ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Reasonable Accommodation
Even a gap of five years between protected conduct and an adverse action isn’t enough to show the two are not connected. In Baines v. Walgreen Co., No. 16-3335 (7th Cir. July 12, 2017), the plaintiff had worked for the...more
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a jury verdict in favor of the EEOC in a Title VII religious discrimination claim. At issue was the use of a biometric scanner as a time clock. EEOC v. Consol Energy, Inc....more
An employer in Mississippi will face trial on a claim of race discrimination because it has not explained the interview scores two candidates received. In Calvin v. MS Dept. Rehab. Servs., Civil No. 3:15-CV-827-HTW-LRA (S.D....more
TheBlaze, Inc. and Glenn Beck (collectively “TBI”) have squared off against Tomi Lahren over a Facebook page. As reported earlier, Lahren sued TBI, claiming among other things, that they were blocking her access to social...more