#WorkforceWednesday®: EEOC/DOJ Joint DEI Guidance, EEOC Letters to Law Firms, OFCCP Retroactive DEI Enforcement - Employment Law This Week®
False Claims Act Insights - Can DE&I Initiatives Lead to Potential False Claims Act Liability?
How to Comply with Trump’s Executive Order, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity
2025 Outlook: The Department of Health and Human Services Under the Second Trump Administration – Diagnosing Health Care
#WorkforceWednesday®: How Will Trump’s Federal Changes Impact Employers? - Employment Law This Week®
DE Talk | If It’s Not in Writing, It Never Happened: Applicant Tracking & Recordkeeping Strategies to Ensure OFCCP Compliance
Work This Way: A Labor & Employment Law Podcast - Episode 28: Construction Compliance with Joan Moore and Mim Munzel of The Arbor Consulting Group
Webinar: Is Your DEI Policy Setting You Up for a Lawsuit?
#WorkforceWednesday: NLRB Wants Shuttered Starbucks Stores Reopened, Big Tech Retreats from DEI Programs, and Employers Scrap College Requirements - Employment Law This Week®
The Informed Board Podcast | How Will Corporate DEI Policies Be Affected by the Supreme Court Ruling in the University Affirmative Action Cases?
#WorkforceWednesday: The Ripple Effect of the Supreme Court’s SFFA Ruling for Diversity in the Workplace - Employment Law This Week®
Employment Law Now VII-134-Panel Discussion on Supreme Court's Affirmative Action Ruling and the Impact on Employer DEI Programs
DE Under 3: How to Lawfully Engage in Race-Based Employment Decisions
The Labor Law Insider: Recent U.S. Supreme Court, NLRB Decisions Highlight Labor Issues in Higher Education
Business Better Podcast Episode: Is DEI at Risk? Considerations on the US Supreme Court Ruling Against Affirmative Action Programs
DE Under 3: 4 Implications Impacting Federal Contractors & Employers Following the SCOTUS Decision in the Harvard & UNC Cases
DE Under 3: SCOTUS Finds “Race-Based” Admissions Practices At Harvard and UNC Unlawful
DE Under 3: The Harvard and UNC Case Decisions Are Coming
DE Talk | Top 5 Actions to Take After You Complete Your Affirmative Action Plan
Small Business Administration head Kelly Loeffler has announced a “full-scale” audit of its 8(a) program for socially and economically disadvantaged small business owners, directing the agency’s Office of Government...more
On June 27, 2025, Director of the US Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) Catherine Eschbach issued a letter to federal contractors asking them to volunteer information on their efforts...more
At the beginning of the second Trump administration, the President and Attorney General Pam Bondi indicated they would use the levers of government to end DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies and programs. The...more
On July 1, 2025, OFCCP published in the Federal Register a set of proposals to rescind the regulations implementing Executive Order 11246 and to modify the regulations implementing Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act and...more
Back in January, President Trump unraveled key affirmative action requirements for federal contractors and barred “illegal” DEI programs. Now federal contractors have been asked to voluntarily share how they’ve adjusted their...more
Last week, OFCCP Director Eschbach issued a letter to federal contractors inviting them to voluntarily submit information regarding their efforts to comply with Executive Order 14173, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and...more
There have been recent developments in the continually evolving legal landscape for employers utilizing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and policies. Below is a brief overview of those recent developments and...more
On June 5, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held in Ames v. Ohio Dept. of Youth Services that courts cannot apply a heightened evidentiary standard to majority-group plaintiffs when deciding discrimination claims. The...more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Labor released their 2026 Congressional Budget Justifications (CBJ) on May 30, 2025, providing valuable information related to the EEOC’s enforcement...more
On 5 June 2025, the Supreme Court ruled in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services that, in order to establish a Title VII claim, a plaintiff who is a member of a “majority group” is not required to show “background...more
Can members of a majority group be subject to a heightened pleading standard for their Title VII discrimination claims? The United States Supreme Court answered this question with a unanimous “no” in Ames v. Ohio Department...more
Key Takeaways: - The Supreme Court held that Title VII does not permit courts to impose a heightened evidentiary standard on majority-group plaintiffs alleging disparate treatment. - Some lower courts have required...more
On June 5, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that plaintiffs bringing discrimination claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) cannot be required to satisfy a heightened evidentiary...more
On May 22, the Supreme Court in Kousisis, et al., v. United States, affirmed the convictions of a painting subcontractor and its owner (defendants) under the federal wire fraud statute for conspiring to defraud the Department...more
As widely expected, the Supreme Court’s June 5, 2025 decision in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services confirmed that a plaintiff alleging employment discrimination under Title VII cannot be held to a different,...more
On June 5, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, rejecting the “background circumstances” requirement multiple circuit courts of appeals have applied to Title...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative in a Memorandum issued on May 19, 2025. According to the Memorandum, the Initiative is an enforcement effort that will use the...more
On May 19, 2025, the DOJ announced the establishment of the “Civil Rights Fraud Initiative,” which seeks to use the False Claims Act (FCA) to investigate, and possibly take civil action against, recipients of federal funds...more
There is a growing sense of confusion and unease among many federal contractors and grant recipients in these early days of the second Trump administration. In a time when some agencies face dislocation and downsizing (or, as...more
On May 19, 2025, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the formation of a Civil Rights Fraud Initiative “to investigate and, as appropriate, pursue claims against any recipient of federal funds that knowingly...more
On May 19, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the launch of a Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, which will use the False Claims Act (FCA) as a basis for investigating the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)...more
On May 19, 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memorandum titled Civil Rights Fraud Initiative announcing the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) plan to use the False Claims Act (FCA) to “aggressively” pursue...more
On May 19, 2025, the U.S. Deputy Attorney General issued a memorandum (the “Memo”) announcing a Civil Rights Fraud Initiative (the “Initiative”) and instructing the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to pursue False Claims...more
On May 19, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a novel use of the False Claims Act (FCA) to enforce Trump Administration policies against antisemitism, gender identity and expression, and diversity, equity, and...more
On May 15, 2025, the New York Times reported that the Trump Administration has opened a False Claims Act (“FCA”) investigation into Harvard University’s admissions procedures. Michael C. Bender & Michael S. Schmidt, Trump...more