Labor & Employment Law: Vermont and Federal Legislative Update
#WorkforceWednesday: SCOTUS Decision on LGBTQ Employees, EEOC on Older Workers Returning to Work - Employment Law This Week®
Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming recently passed laws aligning with recent executive orders issued by President Donald Trump defining sex as binary and immutable....more
On his first day in office, Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order (EO), "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government," that is reshaping...more
On February 28, 2025, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed legislation making the state the first to remove antidiscrimination protections for gender identity from its civil rights code....more
President Trump's orders targeting "woke gender ideology" do not change existing employment protections for LGBTQ employees, though threats to federal funding remain ambiguous. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and many...more
As we have noted in recent days, upon returning to the Oval Office, the Trump Administration swiftly: Sent the message that it will pursue an agenda of aggressive enforcement related to immigration and preventing...more
Inauguration week yielded a flurry of presidential executive orders, including 26 on Monday, January 20, 2025, alone. Many of those orders seem to be creating buzz, if not serious and understandable confusion, about possible...more
Within hours of taking office for a second term, President Trump issued a flurry of executive orders and actions on topics ranging from immigration and climate change to revoking DEI mandates. While many of these actions are...more
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
On Monday, January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order entitled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government” (the “Order”). The Order...more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued its long-awaited final guidance on harassment claims, which went into immediate effect....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
We are pleased to present our annual End of Year Plan Sponsor “To Do” Lists. This year, we present our “To Do” Lists in four separate SW Benefits Updates. This Part 1 covers year-end health and welfare plan issues. Parts 2,...more
Last week, the Supreme Court accepted review of Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services. The court will address a circuit split regarding the standard courts apply in discrimination claims brought by majority group...more
In its 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits covered employers from discriminating against employees based on their...more
On July 17, 2024, the U.S. District for the Northern District of Texas rejected the State of Texas’s request that it vacate recent guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on harassment and...more
As the temperatures continue to rise, regulations and litigation related to employer-sponsored group health plans have followed suit. As these new rules continue to evolve, we are often asked whether a self-insured group...more
On April 29, 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued its new Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace (the Guidance), the first update to its Guidance in over 20 years. Among the many...more
A federal judge in the Eastern District of Kentucky has enjoined the United States Department of Education from implementing or enforcing the 2024 Title IX regulations. The injunction is limited to the states of Tennessee,...more
In the past week, two U.S. District Court judges have issued preliminary injunctions halting implementation of the recently-released 2024 Title IX final rule....more
held that a governmental employer’s health plan violated Title VII by applying an exclusion for services and supplies associated with gender reassignment surgery. The Court relied on the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v....more
Federal employment protections for LGBTQ+ individuals have greatly expanded over the past four years. While the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) remains committed to preventing workplace discrimination...more
On April 29, 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued the final version of its Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace (the “Guidance”) by a 3-2 vote. The Guidance updates prior EEOC...more
At the end of April 2024, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published its final guidance on harassment in the workplace, “Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace” (“Guidance”). The Guidance...more
EEOC Title VII Guidance Challenged - On May 21, the Texas attorney general sought a permanent injunction to block the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (“EEOC”) enforcement guidance over gender identity and...more