Earlier this year in its Abercrombie decision, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that an employee suing for religious discrimination did not have to demonstrate actual knowledge of an employee’s religious practices to trigger...more
In a 5-4 decision announced last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Obergefell v. Hodges that all states are required to recognize same-sex marriages. This ruling follows the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in U.S. v....more
7/6/2015
/ Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
DOMA ,
Health Insurance ,
IRS ,
Marriage Equality ,
Obergefell v. Hodges ,
Same-Sex Marriage ,
SCOTUS ,
Spouses ,
US v Windsor
On June 25, 2015, the United States Supreme Court issued the much anticipated decision in King v. Burwell and concluded that the tax credits allowed to eligible taxpayers for premiums paid under a Marketplace health insurance...more
The U.S. Supreme Court rejects the overwhelming majority of requests for review of lower court decisions. For some reason, the Court appears to have a soft spot for so-called “donning and doffing” cases. These cases involve...more
Last year, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a controversial opinion absolving a clothing retailer from failing to hire a Muslim applicant for employment who did not tell the company that the headscarf worn at her job...more
The Supreme Court’s decision will undermine a plan fiduciary’s ability to assert a statute of limitations defense based on when an investment option was added; rather, the six year statute of limitations will be measured from...more
5/29/2015
/ 401k ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Duty of Prudence ,
Duty to Monitor ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
SCOTUS ,
Southern California Edison ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Tibble v Edison Int
Over the past several years, employers defending wage and other class action lawsuits have increasingly used a procedural move intended to defeat the class claim. In these cases, the employer offers complete financial and...more
Green v. Donahoe involves a Postal Service worker who alleges that he was forced to choose between retirement and a demotion and transfer to another position. The plaintiff quit several months after being given this choice,...more
5/8/2015
/ Constructive Discharge ,
Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Limitation Periods ,
Race Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Termination ,
Title VII ,
USPS ,
Wrongful Termination
On Wednesday, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court agreed that federal courts have authority to review the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s attempts to conciliate discrimination charges when the agency concludes that the...more
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision reversing the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ position on employers’ obligations to accommodate employees’ pregnancy-related work restrictions. However, the court...more
Companies subject to federal agency regulations sometimes face situations where measures taken to comply with such rules work one day, and then result in violations of those rules the next. Federal administrative agencies...more
3/14/2015
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Mortgage Brokers ,
Notice and Comment ,
Over-Time ,
Perez v Mortage Bankers Assoc ,
Rulemaking Process ,
SCOTUS ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Wage and Hour
On Tuesday, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court concluded that federal wage and hour laws do not require employers to pay employees for time spent going through security checks after they complete their job tasks. In Integrity...more
In its Noel Canning decision earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated numerous decisions made by the National Labor Relations Board based on lack of a required quorum. The Court decided that President Obama’s recess...more
Under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1993 Hazen Paper decision, employers that select employees for layoff using the date of vesting of their pensions based on years of service are not discriminating on the basis of age, even if...more
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear appeals from five states seeking to uphold same-sex marriage bans. At issue was the constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and...more
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Dudenhoeffer decision demonstrated that benefit plan fiduciaries are definitely in the litigation spotlight, and that they should exercise caution to avoid fiduciary liability in garden-variety...more