Return to Work: Employer-Mandated COVID-19 Vaccination Policies and Accommodating Employee Disabilities and Religious Beliefs
On the final day of its term, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public schools must accommodate parents’ religious objections to certain instructional materials — in this case, LGBTQ+-inclusive storybooks used in elementary...more
In a 6-3 decision with the justices split along familiar ideological lines, the United States Supreme Court held on Friday, June 27, in Mahmoud v. Taylor, 606 U.S. ___ (2025) (Case No. 24-297)...more
Today, on the last day of the 2024-2025 term, the Supreme Court of the United States issued five decisions: Trump v. CASA, Inc., No. 24A884: This case addresses whether district courts had the authority to issue...more
The COVID-19 pandemic brought workplace vaccination policies to the forefront, raising complex questions about religious accommodations. Over four years after the initial rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, these policies remain...more
As modern workplaces grow increasingly diverse, employers must be prepared to accommodate employees’ religious practices and observations in a respectful, inclusive, and lawful manner. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of...more
On April 4, 2025, the final day of Georgia’s legislative session, Governor Brian Kemp signed into law a “religious liberty” bill that will strengthen protections for the free exercise of religion by prohibiting state and...more
The Nevada legislature is currently considering a bill, SB 201, that would restrict, with certain exceptions, an association or unit’s owner who rents or leases his or her unit from prohibiting a unit’s owner or occupant of a...more
Ramadan is coming up soon, so now is a good time to consider religious accommodations and legal protections for Muslim employees....more
After the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, on January 30 a federal district court denied dueling motions for summary judgment filed by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the U.S. Postal Service, and former Postal...more
If you followed California’s 2024 Legislative term, you know that Senate Bill 399 (“SB 399”) was passed and signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 27, 2024. For the most part, SB 399 has been described as a new...more
On January 1, 2025, Senate (SB) Bill 399, officially went into effect in California. California joined other states, including Illinois, Connecticut, Hawaii, New York, and Oregon, in enacting statutes that prohibit “captive...more
Lawsuits challenging employers' authority to require measures intended to prevent COVID-19 infections continue to wend their way through the federal judiciary. Last month, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a claim...more
Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 399, known as “The California Worker Freedom from Employer Intimidation Act,” into law. Practically speaking, SB 399 was enacted to prohibit employers from requiring employees to...more
Knowing several religious holidays are coming up soon, employers can take steps to avoid triggering religious discrimination and reasonable accommodation lawsuits. Consistently applying paid time off rules can help to prevent...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: With the myriad claims for religious accommodation that came out of mandatory COVID vaccination policies, employers have become familiar how to handle requests for religious accommodation in the workplace. ...more
On August 31, 2024, the California Legislature passed the California Worker Freedom from Employer Intimidation Act, Senate Bill (SB) No. 399. The bill heads to Governor Gavin Newsom, who has until September 30, 2024, to sign...more
Several changes impacting employers in jurisdictions across the nation are summarized in our latest blog post. California - Effective July 1, 2024- On July 1, 2024, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2288 (A.B. 2288)...more
Illinois joined a handful of other states in limiting employers’ ability to conduct “captive audience” meetings when Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law SB3649, commonly known as the Worker Freedom of Speech Act. The Act...more
A group of 15 Republican AGs, led by Tennessee AG Jonathan Skrmetti, submitted a comment letter to the U.S. Department of the Treasury in response to the Treasury’s Request for Information on Uses, Opportunities, and Risks of...more
On July 31, 2024, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed into law Illinois Senate Bill 3649, or the Worker Freedom of Speech Act (WFSA), prohibiting employers from holding mandatory meetings to discuss company views on...more
A group of 20 Republican AGs sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Treasury voicing concerns about the agency’s July 18, 2024 letter, which characterized a Florida law protecting individuals from de-banking as harmful to...more
Real World Impact: The newly enacted Illinois Freedom of Speech Act prohibits employers in Illinois from requiring employees to participate in employer-sponsored meetings if the meeting is designed to communicate an...more
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers attempting to enforce safety policies faced resistance from employees opposed to vaccination mandates. In many cases, employees claimed that taking the vaccine violated...more
As we previously blogged, a Florida law (Fla. Stat. § 655.0323, entitled “Unsafe and unsound practices”) which became effective July 1, 2024 prohibits federal and state depository institutions conducting business in the state...more
This week we focus on a new case looking at the difficulties between balancing protections of religious belief with the rights and protections of LGBTQI+ individuals....more