On May 15, 2025, a federal court vacated portions of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) workplace harassment guidance, specifically, guidance on harassment based on sexual orientation and gender...more
5/19/2025
/ Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Enforcement Guidance ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Gender Identity ,
Harassment ,
Judicial Authority ,
LGBTQ ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration ,
Vacated
On April 23, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order (EO) calling for an end to disparate impact liability for discrimination and ordering federal enforcement agencies to stop enforcement of antidiscrimination...more
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released two technical assistance documents to explain what constitutes illegal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the workplace. ...more
3/20/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Discrimination ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
New Guidance ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration
While the Trump administration appeals a recent federal court ruling that blocked enforcement of key parts of two executive orders (EO) to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and initiatives, the...more
On January 28, 2025, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Acting Chair Andrea R. Lucas rolled back much of the EEOC’s Biden-era guidance related to issues of gender identity discrimination and harassment...more
President Donald Trump removed Democratic U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC) commissioners Charlotte A. Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels, upending the Democratic voting majority on the EEOC. ...more
On July 17, 2024, the U.S. District for the Northern District of Texas rejected the State of Texas’s request that it vacate recent guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on harassment and...more
7/26/2024
/ Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Enforcement Guidance ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Identity ,
Harassment ,
LGBTQ ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII
On July 17, 2024, the U.S. District for the Northern District of Texas rejected the State of Texas’s request that it vacate recent guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on harassment and...more
7/26/2024
/ Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Enforcement Guidance ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Identity ,
Harassment ,
LGBTQ ,
New Guidance ,
Pending Litigation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII
Recent guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) offers best practices for employers in the construction industry to prevent and address harassment in the workplace....more
On April 29, 2024, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued the final version of new workplace harassment guidance for employers, formally updating the EEOC’s position on the legal standards and employer...more
5/1/2024
/ Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Identity ,
New Guidance ,
Pregnancy ,
Protected Class ,
Race Relations ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Workplace Harassment Guidance
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released lengthy proposed guidance for employers regarding their compliance with federal antidiscrimination laws that prohibit workplace harassment based on...more
10/16/2023
/ Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Comment Period ,
Complaint Procedures ,
Employee Training ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Identity ,
Harassment ,
Proposed Guidance ,
Protected Class ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Training Requirements
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released proposed guidance seeking to clarify that harassment and discrimination based on LGBTQ+ status—including intentional misgendering, repeated use of...more
10/11/2023
/ Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Biden Administration ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Comment Period ,
Enforcement ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Gender Identity ,
Harassment ,
Proposed Guidance ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Title VII ,
Workplace Harassment Guidance
On July 31, 2023, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals revived a Christian teacher’s religious discrimination lawsuit over his refusal to refer to transgender students by their names and pronouns with which they identified. ...more
8/11/2023
/ Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Education ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Identity ,
Groff v DeJoy ,
Public Schools ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title IX ,
Title VII ,
Transgender ,
Undue Hardship
The White House recently launched an effort to revise and update the statistical standards for race and ethnicity data collection across federal agencies with a stated goal of better reflecting the growing diversity of people...more
2/15/2023
/ Affirmative Action ,
Biden Administration ,
Comment Period ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
OMB ,
Public Agencies ,
Public Employees ,
Statistical Analysis
On November 7. 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States declined to review a case by a Georgia fire chief alleging she was discharged for being transgender in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the...more
12/6/2022
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Dismissals ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fort Bend County Texas v Davis ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Title VII ,
Transgender ,
Verification Requirements
In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, inconsistent reports claimed everything from children being immune to COVID-19 to children being more vulnerable to the virus to children acting as asymptomatic carriers. More...more
As government officials at all levels continue issuing guidance on best practices for employers to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19, some jurisdictions are taking the first steps to “reopen” their local economies. Before...more
What’s old is new again at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as numerous district offices have recently expanded their use of fact-finding conferences. Fact-finding conferences are part of the EEOC’s...more
Employment litigation settlement agreements often include a mutually negotiated “no-rehire” provision by which the departing employee agrees not to seek employment with the company in the future. A recently enacted California...more
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Equality Act, a bill that would amend federal law (including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and...more
5/23/2019
/ Best Practices ,
Chamber of Commerce ,
Civil Rights Act ,
EEOC v RG & GR Harris Funeral Homes ,
Employment Discrimination ,
ENDA ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equality Act ,
Gender Identity ,
LGBTQ ,
Pending Legislation ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
An estimated 9 million adults in the United States are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Eighty-seven percent of U.S. residents report knowing someone who is lesbian or gay, and half report having a close lesbian or gay...more
10/11/2018
/ Appeals ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Discrimination ,
LGBTQ ,
Obergefell v. Hodges ,
OSHA ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Sexual Stereotyping ,
Split of Authority ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
On April 4, 2017, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued its highly anticipated en banc decision in Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, making the Seventh Circuit the first federal appellate court to find...more
On November 7, 2013, the U.S. Senate passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) by a vote of 64-32, with the support of 10 Senate Republicans. ENDA essentially extends workplace protections based on race, religion,...more