News & Analysis as of

Constitutional Challenges Employment Discrimination Employment Litigation

Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP

SCOTUS wraps it up: Four lessons for employers

"Reverse discrimination," ADA, religion, and nationwide injunctions. The 2024-25 term of the U.S. Supreme Court is over. Two decisions at the end of the term directly addressed employment law issues, and two others will have...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

Reverse Discrimination Lawsuits Are So Back

Ballard Spahr LLP on

On June 5, 2025, a unanimous Supreme Court eliminated the requirement for a higher evidentiary standard for majority plaintiffs (white, male, heterosexual, etc.) who claim discrimination under Title VII (also known as reverse...more

Littler

Littler Lightbulb – May Employment Appellate Roundup

Littler on

Fourth Circuit Dismisses White Employee’s Race, Gender, and Retaliation Claims - Barnhill v. Pamela Bondi, __ F.4th __ (4th Cir. May 15, 2025) involved claims by a white Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration...more

Keating Muething & Klekamp PLL

Federal Court Strikes Down Part of EEOC Rule Requiring Accommodations for Elective Abortion Under the PWFA

As we previously reported, in April 2024 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued its final regulations implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA). Among other things, the rule stated that...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Federal Court Vacated Gender Identity Portions of EEOC Harassment Guidance: Employer Uncertainty Remains

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

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

ArentFox Schiff

Federal Court Strikes Down Key Portions of EEOC Harassment Guidance

ArentFox Schiff on

On May 15, a Texas federal court vacated portions of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace, concluding that the agency’s expanded interpretation of “sex”...more

Akerman LLP - HR Defense

The Trump Administration Targets Disparate Impact Discrimination Liability: What Employers Need to Know

As we have previously reported, an early focus of the second Trump administration has been to oppose and dismantle Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, both in the federal government and in the private sector,...more

Perkins Coie

Employers See Wins in Title VII Suits Over DEI Trainings

Perkins Coie on

Key Takeaways - - Employers have recently prevailed in several cases across the country in which plaintiffs attacked diversity training and other DEI-related initiatives in the workplace. Decisions have indicated that many...more

Keating Muething & Klekamp PLL

More on Equal Opportunity: Executive Order Seeks to End Disparate Impact Liability to promote Equal Opportunity

On April 23, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order entitled “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy,” directing federal agencies to effectively end the use of “disparate impact” liability in enforcing...more

Epstein Becker & Green

Disparate Impact Liability Under Fire

Epstein Becker & Green on

On Wednesday, April 23, 2025, President Trump signed EO 14281, titled Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy (EO), stating a new Trump Administration policy “to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in...more

Hinshaw & Culbertson - Employment Law...

Second Circuit Reinstates New York Reproductive Health Bias Law's Notice Requirement in Employee Handbooks

On January 2, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated a permanent injunction that barred the enforcement of a requirement under the New York Labor Law Section 203-e (the "Act") that New York State...more

Lippes Mathias LLP

Executive Order Limits Use of Disparate Impact Theory Under Civil Rights Act

Lippes Mathias LLP on

On April 23, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order that is intended to limit employees' and applicants' abilities to use the disparate impact theory of liability to establish violations of the Civil Rights...more

Frantz Ward LLP

Trump Attempts to Eliminate Disparate Impact Theory via Recent Executive Order

Frantz Ward LLP on

The disparate impact theory has long been used to argue that an employer’s facially neutral policy has a detrimental effect on a protected class of individuals. An often cited example is the use of an arrest to reject an...more

Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti,...

Losing My Religion? 8th Circuit Finds that Freedom of Religion is Not a Justification for Employee Conduct

The past few decades have seen a Supreme Court receptive to claims brought on the basis of freedom of religion. For example, in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (June 2014), the Supreme Court ruled that the Affordable Care...more

Kelley Drye & Warren LLP

Trump Targets a Major Legal Theory of Discrimination

We all know what ​“intentional” discrimination means. But what about facially non-discriminatory policies or practices that have a discriminatory effect? The U.S. Supreme Court invented a then-novel, and still somewhat...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

New Executive Order Aims to End Disparate Impact Liability for Discrimination

On April 23, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order titled “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy” (the “Executive Order”) seeking to “eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all...more

Morgan, Brown & Joy, LLP

White House Issues Executive Order to Eliminate Disparate Impact Theory in the Enforcement of Discrimination Laws

On April 23, 2025, The Trump administration issued Executive Order (“EO”) 14821, entitled, “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy,” aimed at eliminating disparate impact liability in all contexts, including...more

Epstein Becker & Green

New Executive Order Addresses Disparate Impact Liability: Key Implications for Employers

Epstein Becker & Green on

On April 23, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14281, Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy (the “EO”). This EO states its purpose as a solution to claims of employment discrimination based on...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Does Employer Disparate Impact Liability Still Exist? The Latest EO Pushes to Eliminate It

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

President Donald Trump issued the “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy” executive order (EO) on April 23, 2025. The stated purpose of the EO is “to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts...more

Pierce Atwood LLP

Disappearing Act: Latest Executive Order Takes Aim at Disparate Impact Liability

Pierce Atwood LLP on

On April 23, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at eliminating enforcement of “disparate impact” discrimination claims, asserting that the disparate impact liability theory—used by courts for over five...more

Fisher Phillips

New Executive Order Takes On Disparate Impact Discrimination: 7 Major Takeaways for Employers

Fisher Phillips on

In another major shift for workplaces, President Trump issued an executive order Wednesday with huge implications for employment discrimination claims. For decades, employers could face liability for policies and practices...more

Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP

Trump fired an EEOC Commissioner. You won't BELIEVE what happened next!

Then again, you might. Jocelyn Samuels was initially appointed to be a Commissioner on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by President Trump, and then she was reappointed by President Biden. Not long after...more

Littler

Littler Lightbulb – March 2025 Employment Appellate Roundup

Littler on

Fourth Circuit Stays Injunction Barring Enforcement of DEI Executive Orders On March 14, 2025, the Fourth Circuit issued an order in National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education v. Donald Trump, No. 25-1189...more

Troutman Pepper Locke

Navigating DEI in a Shifting Legal Landscape

Troutman Pepper Locke on

Workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs face more scrutiny than ever in light of President Trump’s recent executive orders regarding DEI policies and programs across the public and private sectors, recent...more

Ice Miller

The Evolving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Landscape: What to Do Now?

Ice Miller on

In January 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed several Executive Orders immediately after being sworn into office. Executive Order 14151 “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Program and Preferencing” and Executive...more

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