A federal district court in Texas on May 15, 2025, vacated the gender identity parts of the 2024 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace (the EEOC Guidance). The...more
5/30/2025
/ Constitutional Challenges ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Gender Identity ,
Harassment ,
Sex Discrimination ,
State Labor Laws ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Texas ,
Title VII
The Iowa Legislature passed a bill (Senate File 418) removing “gender identity” as a protected characteristic under the Iowa Civil Rights Act. The Act prohibits discrimination in employment, education, housing, credit, and...more
3/10/2025
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Identity ,
LGBTQ ,
State Labor Laws ,
Title VII
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia denied Liberty University’s motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit brought by a former employee who alleges that Liberty violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act...more
2/28/2025
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Discrimination ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Identity ,
LGBTQ ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump acted swiftly to ensure federal agencies recognize only two sexes, male and female, and to reject the concept of “gender ideology.” Among the slew of his Day 1 executive...more
Employers must proceed carefully when responding to complaints around pronoun use where federal and state mandates appear to conflict. For instance, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidance states that...more
Two cases show that courts consider alleged harassment or discrimination based on transgender or cisgender status to be colorable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Vacating summary judgment for the employer, a federal...more
On Transgender Day of Visibility 2022, March 31, the Biden Administration published a Fact Sheet outlining its dedication to equality and visibility for transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming Americans....more
Same-sex harassment in the workplace under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act is not strictly limited to the three scenarios in the U.S. Supreme Court’s seminal 1998 opinion in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, a...more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has approved revisions to its Compliance Manual Section on Religious Discrimination (Guidance). The revised Guidance, approved on January 15, 2021, draws upon several U.S....more
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced that it is seeking public input on its updated Compliance Manual on Religious Discrimination.
The compliance manual has not been revised since July...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that LGTBQ+ employees are protected from workplace discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Court issued its decision in three consolidated cases: Bostock v....more
6/16/2020
/ Altitude Express Inc v Zarda ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
EEOC v RG & GR Harris Funeral Homes ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gender Identity ,
LGBTQ ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral argument on October 8, 2019, in three high-stakes cases that will decide whether LGTBQ+ employees are protected from workplace discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act...more
10/8/2019
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Gender Identity ,
LGBTQ ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Sexual Stereotyping ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
The U.S. Supreme Court term that ended in June 2019 included decisions on many topics important to workplace law, including class actions, arbitration, and administrative exhaustion and Title VII claims.
...more
7/10/2019
/ Age Discrimination ,
Arbitration ,
Auer Deference ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Class Arbitration ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Fort Bend County Texas v Davis ,
Kisor v Wilkie ,
Lamps Plus Inc v Varela ,
Mount Lemmon Fire District v Guido ,
Parker Drilling Management Services Ltd v Newton ,
SCOTUS ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour
Whether LGTBQ employees are protected from employment discrimination by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court next term.
The Court has agreed to hear three cases to...more
4/23/2019
/ Altitude Express Inc v Zarda ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
EEOC v RG & GR Harris Funeral Homes ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gender Identity ,
Hiring & Firing ,
LGBTQ ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
Gender identity, transgender status, gender non-conformance, and workplace gender transitions are timely topics, both societally and within workplaces. March 31 is International Transgender Day of Visibility, which aims to...more
Election Day may result in significant changes in our country’s labor and employment landscape. This article discusses some issues employers should watch closely....more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission may pursue claims that an employee was discriminated against on the basis of transgender status in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the federal appeals court in...more
In a much-anticipated decision, the federal appeals court in New York has held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation. Zarda v. Altitude Express,...more
On October 4, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed the Department of Justice’s position that gender identity is protected as part of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act’s prohibition against sex discrimination — taking...more
Observing that it would require “considerable calisthenics” to remove “sex” from “sexual orientation,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Chicago, has ruled that “discrimination on the basis of sexual...more
The prohibition against sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act extends to sexual orientation, Judge Cathy Bissoon of the Western District of Pennsylvania has ruled. EEOC v. Scott Medical Health Ctr., No....more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Chicago, has vacated the July 28, 2016, decision of a Seventh Circuit three-judge panel holding that sexual orientation discrimination is not sex discrimination under...more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has stated definitively that it interprets, and will enforce accordingly, the Civil Right Act’s Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination as encompassing employment...more
The anti-discrimination protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act do not encompass workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Chicago, has...more
North Carolina’s law restricting access to restrooms based on an individual’s sex assigned at birth and not based on an individual’s consistent gender identity violates both Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and Title IX of...more