Discrimination

  • December 05, 2024

    Kraft Heinz, Ex-Worker Settle 'Miami Vice' Costume Firing Suit

    The Kraft Heinz Co. has settled a free speech lawsuit by a terminated white manager and school board candidate accused of jeopardizing the company's reputation by wearing blackface before his employment during a Halloween attempt to look like the character Ricardo Tubbs from the television show "Miami Vice."

  • December 05, 2024

    San Antonio Beats Former Police Officer's Bias Suit

    San Antonio defeated a former police officer's lawsuit claiming she was fired because she is an Armenian and Lebanese woman in her 40s, with a Texas federal judge finding it was an off-duty altercation with construction workers, not bias, that cost her the job.

  • December 05, 2024

    Tesla Can't 'Pretend' Dismissal Was Stay Order, 9th Circ. Says

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday doubted Tesla's arguments that a California federal court had jurisdictional authority to enforce its arbitration win against an ex-Tesla engineer's defamation claims, with one judge noting that Tesla asked to dismiss the engineer's case and it can't now "pretend" the dismissal was a stay order.

  • December 05, 2024

    Black Corrections Worker Says Bias Cost Him 5 Promotions

    A Black and Nigerian-born Ohio prison worker in his sixties accused the prison he once worked in of discriminating against him for his race, his national origin and his age Thursday, claiming in a new lawsuit that he was passed over for five separate promotions because of the purported bias.

  • December 05, 2024

    Jury Backs NYC In Worker's ADA Battle Over Surgery Leave

    A federal jury sided with New York City in an administrative hearing officer's lawsuit claiming supervisors messed with her work assignments because she requested time off for kidney-related surgery, finding she hadn't provided enough evidence to back up her retaliation allegations.

  • December 05, 2024

    UPS Settles Deaf Worker's Suit Over Denied Interpreters

    UPS has reached a deal with a deaf package handler to shutter his suit filed in Wisconsin federal court claiming the delivery company wouldn't provide interpreters for important meetings and blocked him from securing promotions, according to a court filing Thursday.

  • December 05, 2024

    Gossip, Not Pregnancy, Got Secretary Fired, Court Told In Ga.

    A Georgia county and the chief judge of its juvenile court are asking a Georgia federal court for an early dismissal of a suit alleging they fired a secretary because she became pregnant, arguing she was instead fired for spreading a false rumor after being reprimanded.

  • December 05, 2024

    11th Circ. Won't Reopen Security Worker's Pay Bias Case

    The Eleventh Circuit refused to revive a security officer's lawsuit claiming she was paid less than male colleagues and removed from her post after she complained, saying many co-workers she identified had more responsibilities than she did.

  • December 04, 2024

    EEOC Backs 11th Circ. Challenge To Hyundai Dreadlock Ban

    The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Wednesday threw its weight behind a Black former Hyundai plant worker looking to revive race bias claims at the Eleventh Circuit, saying a trial court shouldn't have tossed her allegations that policies regulating dreadlocks amounted to discrimination.

  • December 04, 2024

    Amazon, Others Settle With Calif. Over Ex-Criminal Hiring Bias

    The California Civil Rights Department has announced it has reached individual settlements with Amazon, Ikea, the Los Angeles Dodgers and other employers over allegations they unlawfully rejected otherwise qualified job applicants based on their criminal history.

  • December 04, 2024

    Sephora Should Face Worker's Retaliation Suit, Judge Advises

    Sephora shouldn't get to toss a Latina former store manager's claims that she was fired for refusing to use a hiring strategy that would have prioritized white applicants, a Georgia federal judge recommended Wednesday, finding her retaliation lawsuit is detailed enough to stay in court.

  • December 04, 2024

    Ex-Worker Says Contractor Fired Him Over Religious Needs

    An electric vehicle charging station contractor was sued in Georgia federal court by a former employee who alleged he was fired for utilizing a religious accommodation that allowed him to leave work early on Fridays to observe the Jewish Sabbath.

  • December 04, 2024

    Groundskeeper's Race Bias Suit Should Advance, Judge Says

    A Georgia chiropractic university shouldn't escape a lawsuit claiming it fired a groundskeeper because he repeatedly complained about his supervisor's mistreatment of Black workers, a federal judge recommended, saying a jury could find the school fabricated a time sheet violation to get rid of him.

  • December 04, 2024

    Pitt, UPMC Say Fired Doctor Didn't State How DEI Broke Law

    A fired University of Pittsburgh medical school program director's article criticizing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives isn't protected activity, since he did not specify in suing that Pitt or the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center used DEI initiatives to discriminate, the institutions' lawyers told a federal judge Wednesday.

  • December 04, 2024

    Retaliation Case Over Mostly Nude Trucker Gets Green Light

    A North Carolina federal judge declined to shut down a lawsuit from a trucker who said she was unlawfully fired for complaining about a co-worker walking around in his underwear, saying she was terminated suspiciously soon after she accused him of sexual harassment. 

  • December 04, 2024

    Foley & Lardner Gets Pro-Palestinian Atty's Suit Pared Down

    A former Foley & Lardner LLP summer associate who says the firm rescinded an employment offer over her public support for Palestinians saw part of her suit dismissed this week, with an Illinois federal judge finding that the firm never promised to hire her regardless of what kinds of activism she took part in.

  • December 04, 2024

    No 6th Circ. Rehearing For Ohio City In Cop's Age Bias Suit

    The Sixth Circuit has declined a Cincinnati suburb's request for it to reconsider its precedential panel decision reviving a former police officer's discrimination suit claiming he was given low-level tasks and overly scrutinized because he was in his 50s.

  • December 04, 2024

    Black Ex-Coach Says Raising Bias Concerns Got Her Fired

    The University of Arkansas paid a Black female assistant softball coach less than her white colleagues and fired her after she flagged concerns about the discrepancies, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court.

  • December 04, 2024

    Md. State Hospital, EEOC Strike $270K Deal In Equal Pay Suit

    A Maryland Department of Health psychiatric hospital will pay $270,000 to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit alleging it paid four female workers lower salaries than it paid a less experienced male employee, the agency announced Wednesday.

  • December 04, 2024

    NJ Atty Denies Harassment, Accuses Ex-Secretary Of Theft

    A New Jersey lawyer who is facing a state court lawsuit brought by a former secretary accusing him of sexual harassment has denied the claims and alleged in a counterclaim that the ex-employee had converted property belonging to him and the law firm.

  • December 04, 2024

    Timothy Hutton, Production Co. Settle Over Firing From Show

    Academy Award-winning actor Timothy Hutton has settled a $3 million dispute over his ouster from the Amazon crime drama reboot "Leverage: Redemption" amid sexual assault allegations, two months before he and the show's production company had been set to square off at trial in California state court.

  • December 04, 2024

    Justices Seem To Back Ban On Transgender Youth Care

    The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority on Wednesday seemed poised to greenlight a Tennessee ban on minors receiving gender-affirming care, despite arguments from the court's liberal block that finding the law constitutional would fly in the face of the court's equal-protection precedents.

  • December 04, 2024

    11th Circ. Revives University Worker's Equal Pay Claims

    A former Alabama State University associate athletic director's Equal Pay Act claims will head back to the district court, an Eleventh Circuit panel ruled, instructing the court to follow a two-step analytical framework the appeals court laid out in a recent sex discrimination decision.

  • December 04, 2024

    Worker Not Rehired After Surgery Loses 6th Circ. ADA Fight

    The Sixth Circuit upheld a Michigan glass company's win in a suit claiming it unlawfully refused to rehire a worker following hip replacement surgery, finding the worker asked to be let go and never provided a doctor's note clearing him to return after the operation.

  • December 04, 2024

    LexShares Must Face Claims In Ex-CEO's Race Bias Suit

    Racial discrimination claims by a Black former CEO of litigation financier LexShares Inc. are not time-barred, a Massachusetts federal judge has ruled, though she dismissed claims against the chairman of the company's board and another board member.

Expert Analysis

  • Justices Mull Sex-Based Classification In Trans Law Case

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in U.S. v. Skrmetti this week, it appears that the fate of the Tennessee law at the center of the case — a law banning gender-affirming healthcare for transgender adolescents — will hinge on whether the majority read the statute as imposing a sex-based classification, says Alexandra Crandall at Dickinson Wright.

  • Pa. Ruling Highlights Challenges Of Employer Arb. Appeals

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    A Pennsylvania federal court's recent ruling in Welch Foods v. General Teamsters Local Union No. 397 demonstrates the inherent difficulties employers face when seeking relief from labor arbitration decisions through appeals in court — and underscores how employers are faced with often conflicting legal priorities, says Daniel Johns at Cozen O'Connor.

  • 7 Ways To Prepare For An I-9 Audit Or Immigration Raid

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    Because immigration enforcement is likely to surge under the upcoming Trump administration, employers should take steps to ensure their staff is trained in employment eligibility verification requirements and what to do in the event of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement I-9 audit or workplace raid, say attorneys at Littler.

  • California Supreme Court's Year In Review

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    Attorneys at Horvitz & Levy highlight notable decisions on major questions from the California Supreme Court's last term, including voter initiatives, hostile work environment and the economic loss rule.

  • Disentangling Various Forms Of Workplace Discrimination

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    Pay inequity can be missed where it exists and misidentified due to incorrect statistics, leaving individuals to face multiple facets of discrimination connected by a common root cause, meaning correct identification and measurement is crucial, says Daniel Levy at Advanced Analytical.

  • Key Requirements In New Maryland Pay Transparency Laws

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    Although several jurisdictions now require pay transparency in job advertisements, Maryland's new law is among the broadest in the country, both in terms of what is required and the scope of its applicability, says Sarah Belger at Quarles & Brady.

  • Lessons From EEOC Case Of Fla. Worker Fired After Stillbirth

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    A recent federal court settlement between a Florida resort and a fired line cook shows that the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission sees stillbirth as protected under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, also providing four other important lessons, says Gordon Berger at Pierson Ferdinand.

  • Advising Employers As AI Meets DEI And Discrimination

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Though companies can use artificial intelligence tools to develop more diverse and inclusive workforces, counsel should also prepare employers for how AI can stymie these efforts, provoke discrimination claims and complicate resulting litigation, says Emily Schifter at Troutman Pepper.

  • A Look At The Hefty Demands In Calif. Employer AI Draft Regs

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    California's draft regulations on artificial intelligence use in employment decisions show that the California Privacy Protection Agency is positioning itself as a de facto AI regulator for the state, which isn't waiting around for federal legislation, says Lily Li at Metaverse Law.

  • Federal Salary History Ban's Reach Is Limited

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    Though a newly effective Office of Personnel Management rule takes important steps by banning federal employers from considering job applicants' nonfederal salary histories, the rule's narrow applicability and overconfidence in the existing system's fairness will likely not end persistent pay inequities, says Margaret House at Kalijarvi Chuzi.

  • 2nd Circ. Hostile Workplace Ruling Widens Arbitration Pitfalls

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    The Second Circuit’s recent decision, affirming the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act applies to a worker whose workplace hostility claims arose before the law’s 2022 enactment, widens the scope of the law — and the risks of unenforceable arbitration agreements for employers, say attorneys at Hinshaw.

  • Title VII Compliance Lessons From Raytheon Age Bias Suit

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    A Texas federal court’s recent refusal to dismiss age discrimination claims from a former Raytheon employee, terminated after he admitted to acts that Raytheon says violated its harassment policy, nonetheless illustrates strategies employers can use to protect themselves when facing competing Title VII workplace obligations, say attorneys at Segal McCambridge.

  • How The Presidential Election Will Affect Workplace AI Regs

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    The U.S. has so far adopted a light-handed approach to regulating artificial intelligence in the labor and employment area, but the presidential election is unlikely to have as dramatic of an effect on AI regulations as it may on other labor and employment matters, say attorneys at Littler.