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
On June 17, 2024, a federal court in Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement in Louisiana and Mississippi of the portion of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) final rule...more
7/1/2024
/ Abortion ,
Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Final Rules ,
Pregnancy ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Reproductive Healthcare Issues ,
Standing ,
Statutory Authority ,
Title VII
On April 17, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States held that an employee challenging a job transfer in an unlawful employment discrimination claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 must show that the...more
On August 18, 2023, in Hamilton v. Dallas County, the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upended a longstanding precedent, significantly broadening the types of adverse employment actions that could give rise to an...more
8/23/2023
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Appeals ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Commission on Human Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
En Banc Review ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Precedential Opinion ,
Public Employees ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules
On May 13, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed summary judgment in favor of an employer, finding that a fired employee had failed to create a genuine dispute of material fact as to pretext. In Owens...more
6/15/2022
/ Appeals ,
Employee Evaluations ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Internal Investigations ,
National Origin Discrimination ,
Performance Improvement Plans ,
Race Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Termination ,
Title VII
In Tarrant County College District v. Sims, No. 05-20-00351 (March 10, 2021), the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas held that “claim[s] of discrimination based on sexual orientation may be brought under the...more
On August 6, 2019, in State of Texas v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) overstepped its limited rulemaking...more
8/9/2019
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Adverse Impact ,
Appeals ,
Business Necessity ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Criminal Background Checks ,
Criminal Records ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Guidance ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Lack of Authority ,
National Origin Discrimination ,
Notice and Comment ,
Race Discrimination ,
Title VII
In Delaronde v. Legend Classic Homes, Ltd., No. 17-20027 (January 18, 2018), the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s denial of an employer’s post-verdict motion for judgment as a matter of law, finding...more
Maintaining a company anti-harassment policy on a bulletin board and website is not enough to avoid liability for sexual discrimination according to a recent decision. On July 20, 2016, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals...more
7/29/2016
/ Affirmative Defenses ,
Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Appeals ,
Complaint Procedures ,
Employee Training ,
Faragher/Ellerth defense ,
Posting Requirements ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Summary Judgment ,
Title VII
Names play an important role for an employee who, in filing a charge of discrimination, must satisfy Title VII’s naming requirement. This is because an employee who fails to properly name defendants in a charge of...more