Employment Law Blog
Supreme Court Considers Religious Exemptions to Nondiscrimination Laws
November 17, 2020
On November 4, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, the most recent case to address how the First Amendment’s Religious Free Exercise Clause interacts with antidiscrimination laws as applied to religious entities. The case centers on foster care and certification of couples to be foster...
Why Employees at Religious Organizations May Not Be Protected Against Discrimination
November 2, 2020
Update: On July 9, 2021, the full Seventh Circuit, sitting en banc, ruled that all of Demkovich’s claims are barred by the ministerial exemption. The district court had held that Demkovich could pursue his claim of hostile environment under the ADA, but not his Title VII hostile environment claim, and the panel...
What Legal Protections Exist for Employees who Use Medical Marijuana?
October 21, 2020
California became the first state to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes in 1996. Today, medical marijuana use is legal in thirty-three states, the District of Columbia, and three U.S. territories, with another thirteen states allowing the use of CBD products that have low THC content. Over four million Americans...
District Court Strikes Down DOL Regulation Exempting Non-Healthcare Workers from Paid Leave
September 3, 2020
On August 3, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York struck down part of a Department of Labor (“DOL”) regulation that would have prevented huge swaths of employees from taking paid leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”). The court’s holding has important consequences for...
COVID-19 Litigation Tests the Limits of Employment Discrimination Law
August 21, 2020
As COVID-19 has spread throughout the country, it has created severe disruptions for most American workplaces. Information about the nature of the virus threat, official guidance on how individuals should protect themselves, and local rules regulating businesses have all shifted rapidly. This left many workers afraid to go to...
Former JUUL Employee Seeks Injunction Against Pre-Employment NDA
July 9, 2020
On June 4, 2020, a former employee of electronic cigarette maker JUUL Labs, Inc., filed a complaint in California District Court seeking to enjoin JUUL’s enforcement of a non-disclosure agreement (“NDA”) she was required to sign as a condition of her employment. The former employee, Marcie Hamilton, alleges in her complaint...
Supreme Court Ruling Protects LGBTQ and Transgender Employees against Discrimination
June 25, 2020
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against any individual “because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e–2(a). Last week, the Court decided three consolidated cases—Bostock v. Clayton County, Altitude Express v. Zarda,...
Lessons from Amazon’s Termination of a Warehouse Worker who Protested about Unsafe Conditions
April 13, 2020
Amazon’s recent stunning and outrageous decision to fire an employee who protested unsafe conditions at a Staten Island warehouse highlights many facets of the risks to workers who step up to try and force their employers to protect them during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s actions also demonstrate the dangers to...
Sex Discrimination and Employment Law in the #MeToo Era
March 30, 2020
©2020 Published in GPSolo, Vol. 37,No. 2, March/April 2020, by the American Bar Association.Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system withoutthe express...
DC Circuit Highlights Potential Conflict Between Union Protections and Antidiscrimination Law
March 24, 2020
On December 31, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit remanded a decision to the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) in which the Board had held that Constellium Rolled Products Ravenswood, LLC violated the National Labor Relations Act when it terminated an employee for engaging in protected union activity....
