Does an employee’s protection under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) stop when the employee ceases to be pregnant? The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals was confronted with this question in Stephanie Hicks v. City of...more
Does Major League Baseball’s (MLB) farm league system violate federal antitrust laws? Not according to the 9th Circuit. As written about in this previous post from July 2016 and one from July 2015, numerous minor league...more
Last week, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s injunction of the enactment of Mississippi’s “Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act” (HB 1523). As written about in a blog...more
Just how far do you have to go to accommodate an employee’s off-the-beaten-path religious belief? The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that you at least have to give the same accommodations you give to disabled...more
Just how much can you regulate a public employee’s off-duty conduct? In an interesting and rather frank opinion, the Fifth Circuit found a sheriff’s department could regulate deputies’ private conduct pretty broadly. In...more
The 7th Circuit, in a short opinion issued April 6, zapped a plaintiff’s claim that he was terminated in violation of the ADA based on his condition of being overexposed to electromagnetic voltage at his job. Mr. Hirmiz, a...more
Can fear of an aspect of your job constitute a disability under the ADA? Depends on how essential the function is. In Stevens v. Rite Aid Corp, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals looked at the case of a Rite Aid pharmacist,...more
3/24/2017
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Disability ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Essential Functions ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Pharmacies ,
Pharmacist ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Retaliation ,
Rite Aid ,
Wrongful Termination
Can a plaintiff get emotional distress damages in a wage and hour claim? In December 2016, the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion of first impression where it found that a plaintiff filing a retaliation claim as part of an...more
On December 12, 2016, the EEOC issued a guidance document discussing workplace rights for individuals diagnosed with mental health conditions under the Americans With Disabilities Act. The EEOC noted that in 2016, the agency...more
When is a “joke” so not funny that you lose your job? The Mississippi Court of Appeals gave some direction on that question, affirming the City of Meridian’s termination of a police officer for an inappropriate (arguably...more
12/9/2016
/ Code of Conduct ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Facebook ,
First Amendment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Police ,
Political Speech ,
Public Comment ,
Public Concern ,
Public Employees ,
Racial Bias ,
Social Media
Many companies have their employees execute non-compete clauses either in employment agreements or as separate documents. The justification for doing so is to protect the company from training workers who later leave and take...more
Is there such a thing as a disparate impact age claim? The Eleventh circuit last week says not for people applying for a job. On October 5, 2016, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion shutting down claims...more
Last week the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a case the EEOC filed over a job applicant’s short dreadlocks. In 2010, Chastity Jones, an African American, applied for a position with...more
9/20/2016
/ Appeals ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Discrimination ,
Dismissals ,
Disparate Treatment ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Ethnicity ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Race Discrimination ,
Title VII
Late Thursday last night, Judge Carlton Reeves, United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, entered a 60-page order striking down HB 1523, Mississippi’s controversial “Protecting Freedom of...more
Is cuteness a protected class? Most of our mothers would say it should be. However, a recent decision in New York found a woman could not bring suit against her former employer based on her allegation that she was terminated...more
Is it still retaliation if your boss fired you for something you didn’t actually do? In Heffernan v. City of Paterson, New Jersey, the U.S. Supreme Court said yes—your boss’s mistake does not get him off the hook for the...more
5/12/2016
/ Demotions ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Heffernan v City of Paterson ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Mistake of Fact ,
Political Campaigns ,
Political Expression ,
Public Employees ,
Retaliation ,
SCOTUS
In the last several weeks, North Carolina and Mississippi have passed laws about transgender rights that have garnered headlines across the country. Although both touch on issues of transgender rights, they are actually very...more
4/9/2016
/ Board of Education ,
Colleges ,
Employee Restrooms ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Hiring & Firing ,
LGBTQ ,
Local Ordinance ,
Popular ,
Preemption ,
Public Schools ,
Religious Exemption ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
State and Local Government ,
Transgender
Given Mississippi’s guns in trunks statute, can you legally terminate an employee for keeping a gun in his car at work? The Mississippi Supreme Court in Swindol v. Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation answered this question,...more
Can an employer have different physical fitness standards for men and women without running afoul of Title VII? Yes, according to the Fourth Circuit that ruled that the FBI could reject a male agent candidate who failed his...more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently filed a direct action on behalf of 34 women against Workplace Staffing Solutions, LLC alleging that the company denied the women the opportunity to become temporary...more
In Tameka Gladney v. Mississippi Department of Employment Security, the Mississippi Court of Appeals reinstated a teacher assistant’s unemployment benefits finding that the district had been less than fair to her. At the end...more