Is the media buzz accurate?
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump issued a new executive order, "Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy." The buzz is that the President has wiped out disparate impact...more
At least one court says yes.
True confession: When I was a little future lawyer, I was sometimes a pain. (So, Robin, you’re saying your personality hasn't changed in all these years?) When I was being especially “high...more
4/17/2025
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employees ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Performance Reviews ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Tenure ,
Title VII ,
Universities
Then again, you might.
Jocelyn Samuels was initially appointed to be a Commissioner on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by President Trump, and then she was reappointed by President Biden. Not long after...more
Interesting decision this week from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. A high school math teacher (we’ll call her “Ms. Plantagenet”) had post-traumatic stress disorder. Years earlier, her...more
3/28/2025
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Litigation ,
Failure to Accommodate ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Teachers ,
Undue Hardship
From the feds. This week, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Justice issued technical assistance materials on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, including one document titled...more
3/21/2025
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Harassment ,
Race Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Reverse Discrimination ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Title VII
Try wrapping your head around this one. All of you experts on the Family and Medical Leave Act, gather 'round!
The following is from a real lawsuit that was filed Wednesday in federal court in Indianapolis. The plaintiff...more
The Board has a quorum again . . . for now.
In one of his first acts after taking office, President Trump fired Gwynne Wilcox, a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board and former Chairman....more
And you thought they’d be asleep the next four years. This week, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a press release indicating that the EEOC would be cracking down on antisemitism in the workplace, with...more
I reported a few weeks ago that President Trump fired two Democratic Commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (former Chair Charlotte Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels). He appointed Commissioner Andrea Lucas...more
2/21/2025
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Discrimination ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
LGBTQ ,
Pregnancy ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Title VII ,
Transgender ,
Trump Administration
Everything's enjoined! Almost.
It's been a tough week for President Trump, but he doesn't seem to be letting the bad news get him down.
To avoid ruining the Valentine's Day mood, I'll keep this week's update...more
2/14/2025
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Policies ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Employees ,
Final Rules ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor Reform ,
Nominations ,
Presidential Nominations ,
TRO ,
Trump Administration ,
Unions
Resistance is building. In his third week in office, President Trump is beginning to meet with resistance to some of his initiatives. Here is the latest.
Court blocks voluntary separation program -- at least, until Monday....more
2/7/2025
/ Citizenship ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Employees ,
Hiring & Firing ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour
I've been asking this a lot lately.
President Trump’s first week of his second term in office was action-packed, as I posted last week. If you thought things would slow down for Week 2, you were mistaken.
You may remember...more
1/31/2025
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Employees ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Military Service Members ,
NLRA ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Reinstatement ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration ,
Vaccinations ,
Wage and Hour
Whoa, Nelly! It's a stampede!
After President Trump took office on Monday, he lost no time in undoing as much as he could from not only the Biden Administration, but also going all the way back to the days of President...more
1/24/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Citizenship ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Donald Trump ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Immigration Reform ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Reverse Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration
Employer going to trial in age discrimination case. We had a blizzard last Friday (in North Carolina, 2 inches is a blizzard), and we still have ice and snow on the ground a week later.
Anyway, I've had enough of winter now...more
1/22/2025
/ Age Discrimination ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Discrimination ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Documentation ,
Employee Rights ,
Employee Training ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Performance Reviews ,
Summary Judgment ,
Termination ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wrongful Termination
What's the difference? There are three main ways for a defendant to bring a lawsuit to an end. Each involves a different level of proof – and of expense and hassle. It's better to get a lawsuit “disposed of” as early as...more
1/17/2025
/ Appeals ,
Burden of Proof ,
Discovery ,
Evidence ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
Jurisdiction ,
Jury Trial ,
Jury Verdicts ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Summary Judgment
As we welcome 2025, here are 10 must-read Constangy bulletins and blog posts from 2024, highlighting insights that guided our readers through important legal developments, workplace issues, and the challenges in cybersecurity...more
1/9/2025
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Bias ,
Breach Notification Rule ,
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Gramm-Leach-Blilely Act ,
Green Cards ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Minimum Salary ,
NFL ,
NLRB ,
O-1 Aliens of Extraordinary Ability ,
Race Discrimination ,
Racial Bias ,
Retaliation ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
SolarWinds ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
A (not so) perfect cluster. Happy new year, everybody. During the holidays, a federal judge in Wisconsin ruled that an employee’s pregnancy discrimination claim will go to a jury. The plaintiff (we’ll call her “Katy”) was...more
Mayday! Mayday! Lately I’ve written about some court decisions that were good for employers. (See here and here.) The reason the outcomes were good is that the employers did the right things before their cases even got to...more
Santa knows best. Dear Kids: You know that Santa loves you, right? And he would never want to see anything bad happen to you? Good. Then please take Santa’s advice, now that you’re in the working world. Your employer may...more
You can't make this stuff up.
I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving.
A federal judge just down the road from me ruled this week that a woman’s retaliation case should go to a jury, even though her sexual harassment...more
The bathroom battle (among others) continues. The State of Texas and the Heritage Foundation, on behalf of employers, have challenged the EEOC's recent Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace. The lawsuit alleges...more
11/22/2024
/ AFL-CIO ,
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Identity ,
SCOTUS ,
Texas ,
Title VII ,
Transgender ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Harassment Guidance
The times, they are a'changin'. Wasn't it nice of me to give you a week and a half off to recover from the election? I hope everyone is safe and strong again, and ready to talk about what employers can expect from President...more
Here are the four things the employer did right. I hope everyone had a fun Halloween last night.
And before Halloween gets too far into the distant past, check out this scary HR story: A full-time adjunct instructor at the...more
11/1/2024
/ Adjunct Faculty ,
Documentation ,
Employment Contract ,
Ethics ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Investigations ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Termination ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour
Based on a real lawsuit. Names have been changed to protect the innocent. Facts may not be 100 percent accurate. PART ONE: Imagine you're the boss. You run a fast-food franchise, Flippin' Burgers. You hire Gwendolyn to...more
10/25/2024
/ Absenteeism ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Employment Policies ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Honest Belief Defense ,
Interference Claims ,
Notification Requirements ,
Professional Disciplinary Actions ,
Retaliation ,
Serious Health Conditions ,
Summary Judgment ,
Wage and Hour ,
Written Communications
Stuff's getting real. As many of you know, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is starting to sue employers who it claims are not complying with the reasonable accommodation requirements of the Pregnant Workers...more